LED Tails Rev 2 (Video)

[AlarmedBread]

Very nice.

[dj2xrated]

so.. how do u make these?.. how much would u sell it for?

[SamE30e]

Looks awesome!

[e30polak]

Wow great work!

Those are some bright ass tails!

Talk about brake check mutha fucka!! :twisted:

[BDSax]

more info please. how are they mounted wired. ive wanted to do this for awhile

[bmwm3n528]

Very cool. I'd be interested to see how everything turned out...(From the inside/back of the tail light, that is).

How much of a pain is it to replace these bulbs once they burn out?

[LovableSheep]

I'd be interested in some more detail too. It's one of the things that I'd like to attempt some day (although I probably won't get around to it for a while).

[george graves]

How much of a pain is it to replace these bulbs once they burn out?

LEDs have a MTBF (mean time between failures) usually in the range of 100000 to over 1000000 hours.

100,000 Hours at 30 MPH = They burn out when your car rolls past 3 MILLION miles on the odometer.

Or if you drive 15,000 miles a year, you are looking at replacing them in the year 2208.

[LovableSheep]

LEDs have a MTBF (mean time between failures) usually in the range of 100000 to over 1000000 hours.

100,000 Hours at 30 MPH = They burn out when your car rolls past 3 MILLION miles on the odometer.

Or if you drive 15,000 miles a year, you are looking at replacing them in the year 2208.

Yep, LEDs are awesome like that. One of the reasons to do the mod.

[Schnitzer318is]

Holy crap! Much better. How much in total do you think you spent for the whole setup? Any chance of getting a tutorial on this?

Because this was my first time soldering large arrays and experimenting with different bulb types/sizes I spent $200+ easy. If I were to do it again I could do it for about $120 in materials I'm guessing.

id DEFF buy a set up of you ever started producing them :D

I doubt anyone in the e30 community would be interested. I crunched some numbers and I would have to charge $500 to make $16/hr if it only took me 25 hours. Not great but I enjoy it so if anyone DID want it I'd do it. I just don't anticipate much demand at that price :)

damn that is really cool. so when are you going to start producing/selling these setups?

LOL see above. If anyone wants to pony up the dough I'll do it for them.

so.. how do u make these?.. how much would u sell it for?

Far too complex and time consuming to have a full writeup. But if you know how to solder it's not that difficult. As for price, see above :)

Wow great work!

Those are some bright ass tails!

Talk about brake check mutha fucka!! :twisted:

That is correct ;) If I ever get rear ended I don't want anyone to say it's because they didn't see me braking. It better be, I was blinded by your tails and couldn't see. :) LOL in person they are perfect... a little bright at night, but no brighter than the QX45 LED tails.

more info please. how are they mounted wired. ive wanted to do this for awhile

You have to cut open the back of your tails. Some say you can bake the lenses apart, but I guess mine were so old they were really brittle I actually took a nice chip out of the side and had to repair it. After you have access to the interior you just install your LED board that you soldered. You can use epoxies to mount the boards in the lenses. Hot glue works well too provided your car is never going to be in direct sunlight in 100 degree weather for extended periods of time. As for wiring that gets a bit more complex. I used a trailer harness so that I could still remove my tail light easily anytime I wanted, just like factory. The flasher unit is a Sho-Me ambulance LED brake/tail/signal/stobe controller.

LEDs have a MTBF (mean time between failures) usually in the range of 100000 to over 1000000 hours.

100,000 Hours at 30 MPH = They burn out when your car rolls past 3 MILLION miles on the odometer.

Or if you drive 15,000 miles a year, you are looking at replacing them in the year 2208.

LOL George you're my hero... will you be my daddy? Just kidding around... but he is definitely right. Plus I am running them at 60% of max handling (20mA each) so I don't anticipate them burning out for well past the usable life of the vehicle.

Very cool. I'd be interested to see how everything turned out...(From the inside/back of the tail light, that is).

How much of a pain is it to replace these bulbs once they burn out?

Pics are below.

And to everyone who complimented. Big thanks for that... it makes the hard work/time/and effort worth it. I get all kinds of crazy looks on the road from ppl. Not from the strobes, but just the fact that an old ass 91 318is has LED tails. ;)

[Schnitzer318is]

Pictars!

[jimsill]

... lol I drive from the back seat almost.

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/E...v-2_164188.htm

just pictured mahoney trying to give hightower driving lessons

[Hairos E30]

hose are pretty sick..nice work..im loving the nigh vid...if i was driving behind u and u started making the lights flicker i would forget im driving then if a turn came up most likely crash..

[bimmer_E30]

Gb ???

[george graves]

Gb ???

Yea man - really great work. I (of course) would like to the the led's larger. To fill the whole area.

Maybe think of two different sets? A standard set and a pimp set?