LED tails

[sathiele]

Has anyone looked into doing an LED mod for the tail lights? A couple guys on acurazine are giving it a shot for their TSXs. One of the guys did this for his bike...

 

http://www.sca40.com/led/

 

Just curious; it's certainly something I would look into if I owned the car.

[meier motor sports]

although that is awsome. i think u would have to destroy the oem tail light to do this. give me a housing and ill try it

[IwannaSportSedan]

I would love to be good enough at composite casting to make something like an OEM high-end result...

 

I'd do something like the JDM sedan tail lights, with the upper red section being indirect LED reflectors, like the black sections in the Toyota Prius' new tail lights. Rising intensity for brake force indication.

 

I'd go with a halogen or a high-intensity white LED, with a diffusion lens, like some LED flashlights, in the JDM location, and next to it have another dark-chrome section (where the JDM amber signal bulb is) with direct mounted amber LEDs for the indicators.

 

For the bottom red section, I would go with lit horizontal acrylic rods, like the later E39 5-series BMW, where an acrylic rod is lit from both ends, and is placed right inside the lens. I'd wrap them all the way around to the sides, and dual-intensity as the normal tail lights, and bright for brake lights, in concert with the upper red section. I'd perhaps leave a small red area under the reverse light as just some rear-aimed high-intensity red LEDs, for rear fogs.

 

But that would require a complete re-design of the tail light reflector pan, although it could perhaps be done in such a way to retain the red lenses and the clear cover. Perhaps the upper section could be black, like the Prius, and just the lower bits be chrome and red.

 

I'd also go with a long LED array, or a red cathode tube across the top inside of the rear glass, like a new VW-Bentley or Olds Aurora... That might actually be less difficult...

 

All these ideas, and no method for prototyping or manufacturing...

[Aczwild]

.... AutoCad Master reporting in who has direct access to a machine shop at our Injection Molding Plant (plastics for all of you who might be clueless)...

 

Hmmm, looking at the way it was done for the bike and looking at the spare set of tails I have from my car ('97 GT with a JDM swap), I think it could be a fun little project to try and IWSS you def have a sweet idea there...

[TSiWRX]

I'm tempted to wire up a Gladius to my CHMSL.

[sathiele]

Hmmm, looking at the way it was done for the bike and looking at the spare set of tails I have from my car ('97 GT with a JDM swap), I think it could be a fun little project to try and IWSS you def have a sweet idea there...

 

yeah i would think you could have a ton of fun experimenting on a spare set, even if it is different than the current lights. then you could see how hard it is to convert a stock light in general.