LED Tail lights and Blinker questions
 

Alrighty. So i want to get LED for my Blinkers and tail lights. There are red ones available but im not sure if i should just get all white ones. The reason for second guessing is because the lenses of the car itself are red (for brakes) and orange (for turn signals). So im not sure if regular ones will do it for the turning or braking. Any guidance is appreciated.

I haven't gone outside and removed my lamps in a while, but I'm pretty sure they are all regular clear bulbs. So you should be able to use the same for LED's.

If you get LED bulbs, make sure they have a resistor built in (or you wire one in). Otherwise your turn signals will flash rapidly, and I'm pretty sure the brake lamp failure light on the dash will always be on once you hit the brakes.

ok thank you

Yes, you'll need to add resistors to the turn signal circuit to maintain a normal duty cycle... or convert to a digital flasher control instead of the stock flasher relay.

The tail lamp failure module will complain. You have three options here: Add a resistor and hope you can get the load just right to please it; Take the module apart and retune it for the much smaller load values (I've posted info on this here or on SM); Delete the module altogether.

You may fine the LEDs are dimmer. Omni directional LED clusters don't reall project a whole lot of light in any one given direction and they don't point it all where you want it. My suggestion fore the best possible visibility and best looking lighting is to buy some of the rectangular LED lights used in commercial vehicles (delivery trucks, semi's, ambulances). They come large enough to fill up each section of the MKIII's tail lamp housing, are very bright, really are DOT approved and some even come with a pulse circuit. Just remove the housing they come in and put the circuit in your housing... secure with hot glue or whatever and wire it up.

I'm pretty sure that the LEDs are supposed to be the same color as the lens.
This is from superbrightleds.com
http://www.superbrightleds.com/image...comparison.jpg

If you do this I would like to see what the lights look like with LEDs in them.
Good Luck

That's not entirely accurate regarding visual filters... there's a significant level of attenuation but how much depends on the construction of the lens and the effectiveness of the dyes used. Think about it, the incandescent lamps you're using presently emit an even broader range of color yet your lamps still look nice and red. Looking at their example I'd say they were running some very blue white LEDs in there. White LEDs do not emit all colors and as such their performance will vary. Running red LEDs you do still face a real concern of attenuation and a resulting dim appearance.

I dont know if I'm going to run LEDs then. I might just leave it as is. Unless someone makes a brighter bulb for things like this?

I changed all my lights to LEDs. I had red for the taillights, amber for rear turns and amber for fronts because I have the clear front turns, white for the front corner parking lights and my back up lights. Here is a video of my taillights and turn signals but they r not red nomore went to amber.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JnWP...e_gdata_player

MOST after market LED solutions are actually a significant amount dimmer than the original incandescant bulbs. They're only reasonably bright if you're looking at them from within a very narrow viewing angle. Omni directionals help with this but still have really bad hot spots (as you'll see in Sonyps307's video). The only way I'd run LEDs is if I were to take an existing DOT registered LED fixture and move the internals into the desired housing.... that or build my own array out of 5-watt LEDs but the heat sink requirements would probably confine me to the former solution.

Sonyps307, do you fellow motorists a favor and buy some real headlight enclosures which actually place the light where it should be... you'll get more light on the road where it should be and you'll be less likely to get hit in a head on accident (people tend to steer INTO bright objects... we're like moths that way).

I would like to get real headlight housing. but I forgot the company that made them and where to get them. I know u already said the company on another headlight post but I can't find that also.

The best housing would be the Cibie ECE (E-code) compliant housings, then Hella's e-code, then either company's DOT compliant housings. The E-code housings are EU specs and have a far superior light pattern. I'm not sure who all carries them but if you Google Daniel Stern Lighting he can get them. Naturally, price follows function...

What is a DOT approved lighting fixture exactly cre? And would i have to ad a resister to that also? and what sizing should be used? Just need some ideas

We're talking specifically about headlight enclosures for H4 bulbs, not what you're doing. DOT it the US Department of Transportation they're the ones who regulate the lighting standards and specify what is required for conformity for use on street. I Europe there are different standards (their newer headlight standards are better than DOT; known as E-Code or ECE).

New bulbs often makes a big difference in brightness just by itself.

I kinda just want to do something to my car to make it stand out more. I would like to do a new paint job but i dont have the money for that right now. I just wanted to do something relatively cheap so i replaced my interior lights with while LED. I would still like to do something to the outside as well. Any ideas?

The only LEDs you could put on the outside that'll make it stand out are:

1) The cheap LED bulbs in place of incandescents which every kid does to their car right away.
2) Under lighting which every 10th kid does.
3) OR converting to LED lighting and doing it well (I can think of about 5 people total who've done it on a MKIII and it's never easy... expense varies depending on resourcefulness).

Personally, I recommend you not wasting time on any mods until everything else is in excellent shape. Spend that time and energy flushing the coolant system thoroughly, replace transmission and differential fluids, replace shifter seat and bushing (if manual). Convert to fluidic windshield washers (the ones you find mounted to the wiper arm on Buicks and Cadillacs are nice, then you can delete the hood nipples. Replace the tiny driver's side footwell light bulb with LED light bars in both footwells. Do the same for the trunk light. Replace all vacuum hoses and test all VSVs. Get every little piece of maintenance done.

The easiest way to make sure you stand out with a MKIII is to make sure it's not always just standing there (broken down).

Their looks aren't so exotic that they aren't always confused for half a dozen other (lesser) vehicles... so forget about making a big splash with just some different bulbs which no one is going to notice anyway (unless you hang out in dark parking garages).

Of course there's always spray paint or roller paintjobs. :P

In supramania a saw some guy do LED's on his mkIII but he did everything in led's he did it himself but it took him he said a whole winter but it was really worth it. THAT SH...WRITE..THR? THAT SH...I'L MAKE u DEFF!:love:

Yea, it's not complicated hardware, just tedious work... I can't believe he didn't get PCBs printed. His project did turn out amazingly well!

I've got some fairly flexible PCB stock which would be ideal for that kind of project.. I just think the are decent solutions available that are easily modified to fit to keep me from bothering with a full custom setup.... I'll have to do custom turn signals though as those require a curved PCB for the best fit in my car.

The best looking ones that ive seen r these on YouTube. Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvVjf...e_gdata_player

I like them, but I think he should have filled the empty space when the brakes come on. Also everytime I see those anywhere they just look too dim in both modes. My favorite for outside/exterior MKIII Supra lighting is SupraDupra's work on his black MKIII:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dTeU...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v85ml...eature=related

You can't see it in those videos but he's even got a scanning LED (like Night Rider) hidden between the hood and the upward extension of the '89+ bumper... it's just a silly thing that amuses me.

I do not like what he did to his interior. My MKIII had lit foot wells, and the cups to door handles were lit along with extra lighting in the trunk and all LEDs/lamps replaced for blue and white LEDs (red LEDs for the defroster setting selection LEDs though... not the icon light just the one that lights when either of those buttons is pressed).


Here's the LED scanner:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw4iN1MY6yA&NR=1

His website is at www.supradupra.com if you want to see what all else he's been up to.. Not my thing really, but unforgettable.

The black mk3 is sick. Ive change the lights in my gauges to blue LEDs and the climate control lights to blue LEDs And the dome light to led. I also would like to light up my foot wells, the fog and defroster switches with blue LEDs as well.

The accessory switches use tiny 12v incandescent bulbs... it's a pain in the butt to fit a resistor in there with a LED but it can be done. The rear window defroster uses a LED for the on/off indicator and I think the cruise control indicator does as well. With the climate control the worst part is the numeric display. There are also LEDs in the driver's side master window switches but not one in the passenger side switch (although with a tiny piece of 1/8" acrylic rod it's easy to add one that looks stock ;) ).

I will get around to them some day. I checked out Supradupra's web site he has some cool stuff on there. Also his rebuild on that 1jz supra was awesome he redid everything on that car. He has LEDs every where in that car.