LED taillights

[Garageaholic]

Why haven't they made LED taillights for E30 yet? Don't you think that they're gonna sell like crazy, if styled elegantly?

They have smoked, all red, clear, but not LED yet. what's taking them so long?

[erik325i]

what's taking them so long?

Who is "them"? If you think you have a good idea, you should design a set of your own, and start selling them.

Personally, I don't think it would look right. The lights would look too new on an old car...

-Erik

[Garageaholic]

haha, i kinda figured someone would ask that lol...


I guess "them" is the people that come up with the ideas like that.

Yeah, i have ideas, but i dont have the know-how to start a product like that, nor the time unfortunately, but i do have ideas.
Maybe house the LED's in the stock taillight lenses. I dunno

since each LED takes about 2volts, make like 5 on a strand, no need for resistors at all, make it a little cheaper for fabrication and design. Just my 2 cents


But i do know what you're saying about the new look on an older car

[M42Technik]

There is an E30 on www.e30.de SOMEWHERE who made custom LED taillights for his E30 based on the stock ones. It looked really cool, but it will be ages before I find it again...

But I'll post it here if I do.

[Garageaholic]

There is an E30 on www.e30.de SOMEWHERE who made custom LED taillights for his E30 based on the stock ones. It looked really cool, but it will be ages before I find it again...

But I'll post it here if I do.

You are right, I remember seeing it too. On a Grayish E30. I won't be able to find it again. I'll look though and see what I can come up with....

[M42Technik]

OH SHNAP:

http://www.behindmatrix.com/e30/fotost/f00513/f00513.htm

[89isluv]

I always thought it would be cool to use the tird brakelight from a cadilac as a 3rd brake light for an E30. Mount it flush in the trunklid. Those LED's dont look to bad on that car.

[asubimmer]

odd...I kinda like it...How did he make it or how much are they sold for?

[M42Technik]

odd...I kinda like it...How did he make it or how much are they sold for?

Almost positive that they are custom. His page explains (in German) how he did it, I think.

After checking with a translator, he only states that he did it, not how. I would love to do this to my car, especially with smoked taillights. I think that would look much better, not to mention safer. It also seems to retain the stock look when not in use. Fantastic.

[Garageaholic]

Yeah, he used a whole lot of LED's too.... I think that the cars nowadays with LED taillights use like 10 LED's for a brakelight and make a special reflective material to make the LED look bigger and brighter.

But yeah, those pics look good. That was what i was hoping they would come out with sometime in the future, but as with any business venture, you need money to put down first and if it doesn't fly, then you're in the shitter for alot of money. So there maybe a big risk in starting something like that.

I just don't want to ruin a pair of nice taillights for the project. Maybe i'll look more into it and see what happens....

[AndrewBird]

It wouldn't be that hard. You would have to put 6 in series and them run those series in parallel. Get some project boards from radio shack and solder them up. Them mount them on standoffs inside the original housings. You wouldn't need any kind of reflector as the LED's don't output light backward.

The only problem you would have is how to make them light brighter when the brake is depressed. You could supply only say, 1/2 the voltage when the headlights are one and then full voltage when the brake are applied, but then it might be too dim with just headlights.

You would have to get some pretty wide angle LED's though. Most have a very shallow viewing angle, meaning that you would not be able to see that they are lit unless you are almost directly behind them. This is why you haven't seen LED's in tail lights much except in the last few years. THe technology just wasn't there to make it work properly.

[Axxe]

You could just buy LED's designed for heavy truck applications and modify them for the stock housings. They are designed for 12V, high impact, high stress applications.

[Garageaholic]

The only problem you would have is how to make them light brighter when the brake is depressed. You could supply only say, 1/2 the voltage when the headlights are one and then full voltage when the brake are applied, but then it might be too dim with just headlights.

Well you could do 6 a strand. but for brake lights, you would need them to be tied to the brake light circuit (different circuit) and to make them brighter, use different spec LED's or use less LED's per strand, say 4, but they will run hotter, and probably not last as long. But then again, their brake lights, not constantly on taillights.....

That's another thing.. what if they are too dim in real life... in the basement when you're putting it together, you think that they look bright enough, but when you install them on the car, either they are not bright enough, or the taillights look like brakelights. It's a complicated thing. The factory goes by specs of "lumens" or intensity of light. I dont know how to get a hold of those specs though.....

You're right though, it can be done...

[T.Dot E30]

Oh sick, front LED signals too.



hmmm.....

[AndrewBird]

Oh sick, front LED signals too.



hmmm.....

That would solve the problem of seeing yellow bulbs behind clear lenses, if you have them.