Led taillights

[Guest]

I was at a light behind a ne Nissan Altima(atleast thats what i think it was) they have led tail/brake lights and I was thinking that perhaps I could do something like that for my Reatta, has anyone done this or something similar before? It would propably give a real modern look through our expansive rear taillight. I am going to go over it with my Father he is real good with Led's, as a O gauge model railroader. Also has anyone ever looked into stationary headlights?

[Shelby]

I think you can just buy some replacement LED bulbs.

[2seater]

I think that would be a nice addition, although it would be really time consuming. With a 6ft wide tailight, there is so much room, you could get really creative. Maybe spell out Reatta, or Buick, or both. Way better than that poorly lighted thing on the rear of Pontiac Sunfires. Maybe you could do a scrolling message board <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> I do wonder how those LED replacement bulbs can possibly work, since an LED has almost no light to the sides, making the common reflector type of tailight useless.

[K Howie]

What a cool idea! (The scrolling message) Mine would say "Back Off!!" What's with these tailgaters??? ;-)

[Rawja]

Ledtronics sells LED conversion lamps.

https://www.netdisty.net/ds/aut1157/default.asp

I bought a couple to try out and see how I liked them, besides they are very expensive (like $35 a piece). They work well enough, but I found that the light output is much less diffused than the standard incandecent lamps, and as a result, you end up with "hot-spots" in light output of the taillight. One of the things I always liked about the Reatta was the continuous band of light the tail lights give off, and the LEDs ruined the effect. I'm planning on installing the two LED lamps in the third brake light and leaving the taillight assembly with incandescent.

[2seater]

They haven't figured out how to diffuse the light from LED's yet, but they do make good flashlights, very directional. In the business I am in, we use lots of LED's for emergency lighting, and some makers have resorted to pointing the individual LED's in various directions to get the light coverage required. While LED's have an almost limitless life, the $0.02 resistors needed to make them work on 12 volts, can and do fail. This is still a great idea for a winter project.

[Reatta Fan]

RawjaNYC,

I've wanted to install the LED assemblies in the Reatta and was investigating Ledtronic's offerings. They do charge the big buck and granted, the Reatta tail light cavities are huge but I would thought that with the extra LED's in each (bulb) assembly, the light output would have been diffused more evenly than what you indicated in your experience. Were you using the clear or red LED's?

[Rawja]

I used the red LED units. I'm a little wacky when it comes to things Reatta, so you might like the LEDs where I did not. The tailight still glowed continously, but had noticeable "hot spots" at the lamp locations. Pick up two like I did and you can see for yourself. If you don't like them, use them in the third brake light.