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How To: OEM replacement LED bulb write up

8K views 25 replies 10 participants last post by  etonic 
#1 ·
Hey guys, so here's my little write up on replacing my Incandescent bulbs.

ok... so i got the special tail light LED bulbs from V-led's

V-LEDS RED SPECIAL TAIL/BRAKE LIGHT BULBS 3157-SRCK
I got Lipschitz to make me a little wiring harness for the 6-OHM resistor. I didnt want to cut wires, so he made me a nice little plug-N-play setup. Awesome stuff!!


ok so i popped the tail lights off and drilled small holes in the sheet metal. (minimal modification to the jeep) and placed them up high where there is wide open space, so the resistor doesnt touch anything. (it gets really hot)



Besides some faulty bulbs, which i replaced. It is 100% plug and play... i LOVE them.



LED on the Driver's side, regular on the right.

They are def a little brighter, but they are more... direct. Which i love. They are also so much more.... "Chrisp" ? i guess thats the way to describe it. They incandescent bulbs take a second to cool off and go completely dark. So when they blink, they are slow. These are so nice, and so much better looking... here are some vids.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v247/dougmangi/New Jeep/?action=view&current=MOV00390.flv

Blinking

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v247/dougmangi/New Jeep/?action=view&current=MOV00390.flv

Blinking with head ligths on.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v247/dougmangi/New Jeep/?action=view&current=MOV00392.flv

Lock/unlock

The tails are Daniel's Medium/medium dark

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
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#5 ·
Re: OEM replacement LED bulb write up

I'll let Jason answer the cost of the harness question. I feel like i'd rather let him come up with his own price point.

As for the wiring question. I'm pretty sure its the black wire. right Jason? just be sure to attach the resistor with a good 6 inches of extra wire so you can run it good and far from the rest of the wiring.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Re: OEM replacement LED bulb write up

Congrats Relwarc!

Resistor goes across the outside two wires. That is - ground and the brakes/turns wire. NOT the parking light wire. But you already knew that, didn't you, Rob? Not doubting yourself, are you? You knew that from the old Ekaz thread at the Red site. WTF, man? WHAT IS YOUR MOTIVE??? LOL.

@TMan: Cost is the same as my rear fog harness - $130 shipped. It uses the same number of connectors, etc, so the cost is roughly the same. Plus, it actually costs a bit more because I have to by the ungodly expensive resistors for it from V-LED's. I'll try to source them elsewhere.

BTW, I can build a "combo harness" of sorts. Basically, it would be one of my rear fog harness with the resistors added. That way, you'd be able to run LED bulbs in your taillights and you'd get your rear fogs activated. I'll only charge you for the added cost of the resistors, which is $10. SO, you are looking at $140 shipped for said "combo harness".

And relwarc, if the above "combo harness" holds some appeal to you, you can "trade in" your harness. And since you were such a good sport, I'll do it for free. I'll even cover the cost of shipping. If you're interested, PM me.
 
#9 ·
Re: OEM replacement LED bulb write up

What are the rear fogs?
Thank you for reminding me that sometimes I'm an idiot! Neither you or Relwarc have rear fogs on your jeep. Just remembered that. They are only on SRT8 models (or vehicles that have the SRT8 rear bumper) or export models.

Look up at Scottina's signature picture above. The two little red lights in his rear bumper are the rear fog lights. His is not an SRT8, but he put the SRT8 body pieces on his jeep.

As hard as it may be to believe, those two lights do not function on the SRT8. I make a plug-n-play harness that activates them and makes them function like another set of taillights. My bad, forgot that not everyone here drives an SRT8.
 
#10 ·
Re: OEM replacement LED bulb write up

Thanks for updating the thread, Jason! Thanks for the offer! maybe if i get an SRT bumper i will take ya up on it! haha
 
#11 ·
Re: OEM replacement LED bulb write up

Thanks for updating the thread, Jason! Thanks for the offer! maybe if i get an SRT bumper i will take ya up on it! haha

Yeah after I posted that I realized that you didn't have an SRT8. I decided against deleting it tho, so everyone could see what a stand up guy I was! Lol, j/k. Offers always there if you do spoil yourself with the SRT body kit.
 
#12 ·
Re: OEM replacement LED bulb write up

UPDATE:
ok.... now for the "custom" ness.. my tinted tails and my "lipywarc" mod. I hope you're ok with that name there Lips. I will explain the reason.

I asked Lips to make me a harness to hold an LED bulb in the stock housing so i could have them be brighter. I love the darkness, but not the ... dimness..

So i started looking at 3157 (STANDARD) bulbs and i liked the "V-star" from V-led's.

only problem is that the plugs don't match. so i cut them!

The 3157 standard plug


the plug with one of the 4 tabs cut off, makes it fit the housing.


I will not get into the details of the wiring because i figure maybe Lipy would want to make a harness for people... but here is the outcome.

way more rear facing LED's for more visibility.
 
#24 ·
Re: OEM replacement LED bulb write up

Would you mind posting or pm-ing me how you spliced the regular 3157 socket in? I'd like to do that to. It sure beats having to get CK bulbs. I'd like to know which wire goes where 3157-CK vs 3157 (3 wires).
What I'd like to do is be able to splice a standard 3157 socket along side the factory and be able to use either one depending on what bulb I plug in.
I'd appreciate your response.

Thanks bud. :thumbsup:


UPDATE:
ok.... now for the "custom" ness.. my tinted tails and my "lipywarc" mod. I hope you're ok with that name there Lips. I will explain the reason.

I asked Lips to make me a harness to hold an LED bulb in the stock housing so i could have them be brighter. I love the darkness, but not the ... dimness..

So i started looking at 3157 (STANDARD) bulbs and i liked the "V-star" from V-led's.

only problem is that the plugs don't match. so i cut them!

The 3157 standard plug


the plug with one of the 4 tabs cut off, makes it fit the housing.


I will not get into the details of the wiring because i figure maybe Lipy would want to make a harness for people... but here is the outcome.

way more rear facing LED's for more visibility.
 
#14 ·
Re: OEM replacement LED bulb write up

the V-star .... flexes.... they can be bent to fit in.. but... GOOD LUCK getting them out! it was SO hard to get them out.
 
#15 ·
Re: OEM replacement LED bulb write up

DUDE, that is INTENSE!!! It's awesome that you got it to work. By the way, I found the bulb sockets that are on the Jeep, so it may be possible to find one that has the correct pin out (no mods). They are made by Sylvania...

I like the LippyWarc name...
 
#16 ·
Re: OEM replacement LED bulb write up

sweet! honestly it was easy to sit there with a tester and the plugs to find out which wire did what...

then all i did was splice and boom
 
#22 ·
that wire harness is need for both sides or only 1 for leds in the stock tails?

i also have another harness in there for my hitch that i added. will this matter?
Harness is optional. I made it for him because he didn't want to cut any wires at all when adding the resistors, which are needed to run the LED bulbs. If you don't mind installing the resistors yourself, you can just add them without the harness.

The other half of this is that the OP wanted to use more exotic bulbs such as that V-Star deal, which is NOT available with the CK bulb pinout. Thus, he probed his existing sockets and then cut and rewired them to match the standard 3157 pinout to allow the use of ANY 3157 bulb.

Make sense?
 
#25 ·
Do you mean how I spliced them into the stock wiring? I just spliced right into the wires. It was relatively easy.

Do you mean to say that you want to have both of the plug types available? I guess you could splice the new plug in without cutting the old one off.
 
#26 ·
Yeah, what I really want is to splice the standard 3157 into the factory wiring without cutting the stock socket off.
I guess I didn't ask the right question. What I wanted to know was how to know which wire to splice into which wire. Do I go by the color and just try to match them? I would like to be able to do that without having to mess with a voltmeter if possible.
On top of everything, I noticed the stock wires don't even have consistent colors between the right and left tails.

Any info would be extremely helpful, and I thank you and everyone else ahead of time for all the input. :D
 
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