Replace tail lights with LEDs

[Guest gksullivan]

You guys have helped me a lot, time for me to offer something up, for what its worth.

I had noticed that cars behind me couldn’t see my brake lights or turn signals on my ’56 Buick in daylight conditions. My car is a daily driver and I don’t care if it is a little out of stock if it helps for safety reasons. So I decided to make the stop light and turn signal functions really bright so people can see me. To do this I replaced the stock 1157 bulb with one that has 34 leds but also added a 48 led panel. The led bulb acts like a normal 1157, with a tail light, stop light and turn signal. The led panel is wired to go on only as a brake light or a turn signal. Adding the led panel gives the most increase in brightness. Just replacing the 1157 is not enough.

Both of these have “5050” type leds which are the brightest on the market today. Cost was less than $15 for both tail lights.

Here they are on Ebay (prices are as of late 2013):

Ebay Search: led 1157 5050 34

(Click on images to enlarge)

Ebay Search: led panel 5050 48

To replace the standard 1157 bulb with the new one simply open the trunk, pull back the side panel to reveal the backside of the tail light. Squirt wd40 on the plastic connector if it won’t come out with a simple twist. Take the tail light lens off. 4 screws, need a long shaft screwdriver. Squirt wd40 behind the bulb if it doesn’t come out with a simple twist. Insert the new led bulb from the outside, and then replace the plastic connector on the inside.

To add the led panel you'll need to connect the black wire to body ground and the red wire to the stop/turn signal wire (green?) that goes into the same plastic connector you removed and replaced above. To create a ground point I simply drilled a small hole in the face of the tail light fixture right next to the 1157 bulb and inserted a self tapping screw. I extended the red (hot, 12v) wire by soldering on a long piece of thin red wire and put some shrink tubing over the connection. I then drilled a hole all the way through the tail light fixture and ran the wire through. I hooked it to the (green ?) wire using a clamp-on tap and a spade connector.

The led panel comes with an adhesive foam backing. Simply peel and stick it right below the 1157 led bulb. It needs to be high enough to clear the bottom of the lens when you put that back on. Try the turn signals and stop lights before installing the tail light lens.

The result will be a tail light that is VERY bright in daytime situations. People notice my turn signals and stop lights now.

Gael

[buick man]

Great concept and delivery. I might add that a simple rubber grommet inserted in the hole you drilled to put your hot wire through will safe guard any future possibility of wear from vibrations thereby causing shorts or worse.

If you were to place the led panel above the socket area does that matter or even place one panel on top and one on the bottom, could that be done and make it even brighter?

[bhambulldog]

Thanks for that !!

Great improvement for safety.

I worry about my brake lights. Especially , with all the distractions these days

[Guest gksullivan]

Hey! Yeah, the grommet would work best, I'll go put one on. The lights are really bright but you could easily add others above the 1157. I also toyed with putting some led's on the outside edge of the outside rearview mirrors but that would have meant a lot of drilling and getting the wire from the door into the body was difficult. Bhambulldog, I was feeling the same way before doing this, I was actually resorting to old fashioned arm signals when it was obvious that people weren't seeing my turn signals when merging lanes. Gael

[bhambulldog]

Does it flash OK with the LED lights?

I've read that some flashers don't get enough resistance from LED lights to make them flash..

[Guest NikeAjax]

Excellent! I was wondering about this, actually yesterday!

I remember when I had a 1959, when I'd drive it at night the generator didn't put out enough current, and I had a cheap battery: if I drove the car at night and stopped for too long, say, waiting to turn, the juice needed to run the flasher and bulb would cause all of the lights to dim in time with the flasher--pretty ooky feeling!

Jaybird

[buick man]

Yeah been there too. Turned out the grounding wires had corrosion as well as the main harness plug going into the firewall. If everything is clean and properly grounded the lights should not dim at a prolonged stop light encounter. I have also had that problem when it was the voltage regulator that was not either doing it's job or was not setup right.