LED 3rd Brake Light
by cklinh » Sat May 26, 2007 11:34 pm
This is fairly simple once you get the rear deck out... well the idea behind it is simple, but it's a bitch to do correctly. This is not a full blown writeup, just some basic steps that you can follow should you want to do this. I'm sure you can do a much better job than I did.
Firstly, some final pics:
The LED's are slightly off, but you don't really notice it from more than 5 feet away...
Now parts needed:
-Red 10 mm LED's (I got them pre-wired with resistors, but you can source your own)
-10 mm LED Holders (they serve as a base so that your LED's all point in the relatively same direction, if you're good with LED's, you probably won't need these)
-1/2" drill bit
Optional:
-Acrylic, red spray paint, 194 Empty LED Base
The optional items are for my original intended method of doing this... to replace the red lens in the third brake light with a similarly shaped piece of acrylic... it ended up being really hard to get the holes drilled correctly, so I abandoned it and just drilled the red lens.
Step 1, remove the rear deck.
-You'd need to pop the connectors in the rear-interior-upper-quarter panels and slide the piece toward teh front of the car. There are three plastic connectors to be popped, and the sliding part will take care of the metal connector. The actual deck itself has two plastic connector, lift up, and when you hear it pop, yank towards the front of the car. Be sure to remvoe the harness on the driver side. PS, I don't recall exactly, but you might need to remove part of the felt liner behind the seats.
Step 2, remove third brake light.
-Just any way you can. I kinda lifted up the part away from the lens, and it popped right out. Separate red lens, either for drilling, or for making a copy with acrylic/plexiglass.
Step 3, DRILL!
-I made six holes, 1/2" diameter, spaced 1" apart. You have to do this CAREFULLY! I had crappy equipment, so my holes were a bit off... if you have a drill press, this would be perfect.
Step 4, Install LEDs
-Pretty straightforward, place hodlers through hole, insert LED's, wire them up as you see fit (I had them all in parallel since they had resistors).
Step 5, Reinsert 3rd Brake Light
-This part was tricky, as the led holders stuck out far enough to block directly slipping the entire component in. I had to put in the lens first, and then the back part separately. This took me half an hour.
Step 6, Connect to power
-My original idea was to wire the LED's up to an empty 194 LED base, but I decided against it when it didn't come in time. I just hooked directly to the two wires leading to the bulb. White/Black is ground, Green is power.
Step 7, Reinstall everything!
I HATE those damn plastic connectors, I lost two inside the car wehre I can't reach... I KNOW they're gonna rattle like crazy.
Firstly, some final pics:
The LED's are slightly off, but you don't really notice it from more than 5 feet away...
Now parts needed:
-Red 10 mm LED's (I got them pre-wired with resistors, but you can source your own)
-10 mm LED Holders (they serve as a base so that your LED's all point in the relatively same direction, if you're good with LED's, you probably won't need these)
-1/2" drill bit
Optional:
-Acrylic, red spray paint, 194 Empty LED Base
The optional items are for my original intended method of doing this... to replace the red lens in the third brake light with a similarly shaped piece of acrylic... it ended up being really hard to get the holes drilled correctly, so I abandoned it and just drilled the red lens.
Step 1, remove the rear deck.
-You'd need to pop the connectors in the rear-interior-upper-quarter panels and slide the piece toward teh front of the car. There are three plastic connectors to be popped, and the sliding part will take care of the metal connector. The actual deck itself has two plastic connector, lift up, and when you hear it pop, yank towards the front of the car. Be sure to remvoe the harness on the driver side. PS, I don't recall exactly, but you might need to remove part of the felt liner behind the seats.
Step 2, remove third brake light.
-Just any way you can. I kinda lifted up the part away from the lens, and it popped right out. Separate red lens, either for drilling, or for making a copy with acrylic/plexiglass.
Step 3, DRILL!
-I made six holes, 1/2" diameter, spaced 1" apart. You have to do this CAREFULLY! I had crappy equipment, so my holes were a bit off... if you have a drill press, this would be perfect.
Step 4, Install LEDs
-Pretty straightforward, place hodlers through hole, insert LED's, wire them up as you see fit (I had them all in parallel since they had resistors).
Step 5, Reinsert 3rd Brake Light
-This part was tricky, as the led holders stuck out far enough to block directly slipping the entire component in. I had to put in the lens first, and then the back part separately. This took me half an hour.
Step 6, Connect to power
-My original idea was to wire the LED's up to an empty 194 LED base, but I decided against it when it didn't come in time. I just hooked directly to the two wires leading to the bulb. White/Black is ground, Green is power.
Step 7, Reinstall everything!
I HATE those damn plastic connectors, I lost two inside the car wehre I can't reach... I KNOW they're gonna rattle like crazy.
2004 Solara SLE V6 - Cosmic Blue Metallic
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cklinh - SolaraGuy Supporter
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