LED Bulbs...

[creekman]

I bit the bullet and bought new tail light assemblies from Suncoast Porsche, they were very prompt in their response and had the best price. Has anyone changed out their standard tail light bulbs for LED's. Which ones did you replace, and with what P/N's?

Do you think it's worth the money to make the change?

Thanks,

Edited October 11, 2013 by creekman

[BAD124]

Due to the different resistance of the bulbs, I believe this could have an effect on the cruise control. I think the solution would be to add a resistor, but maybe someone can verify

[Ronnie38]

I tried this on my Z3M roadie, and no cruise control, adding a resistor across the brake light took a very high wattage low resistance part, normal resistors burned out, one regular bulb and one led worked but looked weird, one brighter then the other.

[creekman]

Thanks Ronnie and Bad124... Sounds like a lot of trouble for little gain. Maybe one idea is to leave the tail lights stock, but see about installing bulbs on the brake light strip below the rear window. My greatest concern was for better brake light recognition. I'll do some more research on the brake light strip and report back.

Hey, is the bad124 a Fiat 124?

[Y2K911]

Creekman: You might want to try these guys: http://www.maxspeed-motorsports.com/996parts.html

A friend of mine has bought their LED tail lights and they look really sharp. No need of resistance whatsoever. Works off the box.

So far, I only purchased their 3rd breaklight. It comes in white outside appearance but lights up a beautiful red when you apply the brakes.

[creekman]

Y2K, great information, it always surprises me what's out there, you just need to know where to find it.

Thanks,

[BAD124]

Hey, is the bad124 a Fiat 124?

Close, but actually a Mercedes 124 (E Class from 86-94) :drive:

[creekman]

Sorry...close, but no cigar... You know what they say, "let an Italian design it, but let a German build it".

[Y2K911]

Y2K, great information, it always surprises me what's out there, you just need to know where to find it.

Thanks,

Pleasure but should point out, I believe there only available for narrow bodies at that site. Not for C4S yet.

[creekman]

Y2K, great information, it always surprises me what's out there, you just need to know where to find it.

Thanks,

Pleasure but should point out, I believe there only available for narrow bodies at that site. Not for C4S yet.

Y2K, Thanks for the follow up... Yes, I realize that so far no one has made our wide body tail lights. Anyway at this time I'm only interested in the 3rd brake light. What I'm going to do is to install a red LED strip in my 3rd tail light and see how that goes.

I gutted the light bulb receptacle and then took a die grinder to the light strip to make one continuous opening. Then cut and fitted a piece of .030" aluminum and attached it with JB Weld.The LED strip has an adhesive back.

Edited October 13, 2013 by creekman

[Y2K911]

Good luck with that, Creekman!

[GOB]

Creekman: any update on this for us wide bodied versions that wish others will actually see us clearly on a rainy day? I just had a Lexus LX470 "tap" my front bumper due to the fact that my car is gray, parked behind it, gray day due to rain, gray concrete street surface, and she didn't even see me on her rear view camera! The other day, a semi truck nearly rear ended me and claimed I was "too low on the road" to see me.... I need something as close as a 20' banner that would say "brake dumb a$$!"

Edited October 30, 2013 by GOB

[creekman]

GOB. you're having a tough time... I just had a lady back into my daily driver in a parking lot, now I'm afraid to even drive through one anymore.

To answer your question, I think the widebody tail light project is on the back burner.

What I did do is to gut the brake light housing, see above and installed a red LED strip. Just today I got it wired up, LED's are polarity sensitive, the red LED really pops. I think it's a cheap way to tell the guy behind you that your stopping. I'll get a pix with the brake lights on in the

dark and post ASAP.

[BAD124]

I like that idea. Where did you get the LED strip from ?

[Wausau 911]

Why not just replace the OEM bulbs with LED ones in the 3rd brake light?

[creekman]

Why not just replace the OEM bulbs with LED ones in the 3rd brake light?

I guess that would work as well, I liked the strips. The costs are about the same, the bulbs run about $3.00 - $4.00 apiece, my strip which would do 2 brake lights cost $15.95 from "superbrightleds.com"

The red LED strip P/N is NFLS-X3 - NFLS-R30X3-WHT RED. They are nice people to deal with, I had bought a part that I didn't
need and they took it back with no hassle.

Here's a pix showing the 3rd LED brake light, it's a lot brighter than the tail light brake light. Just remember that the LED is polarity sensitive.

[BAD124]

Why not just replace the OEM bulbs with LED ones in the 3rd brake light?

That was my first thought too, but to do both strips (wing light, top light) its about $85.

Creekman - did you use the available adapter or just solder to strip directly?

[Wausau 911]

Did you check out Superbrights web site?

[BAD124]

Yes, and to do both lights (14 Bulbs) is about $85.

Which is about the same price as an entire interior set. Think I might try the LED strip route

[creekman]

Yes, and to do both lights (14 Bulbs) is about $85.

Which is about the same price as an entire interior set. Think I might try the LED strip route

I think you'll be happy with the results... Keep us posted, if you have any questions on what I did just shout. Oh, to answer your

question, the strip comes with a + and - lead attached, then on the strip it has a scissor icon on where to cut the LED strip. For

the second strip you'll have to solder new leads. The strip is clearly marked with + and -. I cut off the Porsche connector and

used a 2 pin Molex connector.

Edited October 31, 2013 by creekman