Gen2 Taillights Melting?

Andrizzle

Andrizzle

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Okay this is a weird problem...

So just today I realized that my taillights have both a kind of 'caved in' area where the bulb is located in the housing.

I thought someone had maybe dented in the lights, but they are both the exact same and it is way too coincidental... Anyways the tint/paint has actually peeled off now... This wasn't like this just a week ago, and I have been sporting the tails for many months now.

I have two sets of taillights so I compared the current tinted ones to my non-tinted, and indeed the tinted ones are caved in slightly which I am guessing helped to ruin the paint.

Okay so I am trying to kind of piece this together for myself, but why have they not melted before? I wash my car once a week and I would have noticed this. It has actually been cooler this week (80s) instead of 100s in the past weeks, so it is cooler out when this happened. I took a 20 minute drive with the lights on and got out to feel the cover and see if it was warm, it was indeed warm - but not terribly hot!

I am running the stock bulbs, so there is nothing out of the ordinary, I am not sure if this is related, i doubt it, but I installed LED turn signal bulbs about a month ago... But they are not nearly as warm as an incandescent bulb.

I am working on uploading some photos.
 
Wild guess: Maybe your brake light switch stuck on. I had this happen on a T-bird once. It completely melted the third brake light, and ran the battery down. I don't think that I ever replaced the switch because I don't think it ever did it again.
 
I think they are like that. They were like that when I bought them. I thought the guy who I boght them from heated them up for some reason and layed them fac down, causing them to cave in but then I looked at my stock ones and they were the same way, you just couldn't see it that much because they weren't tinted. There was a guy who posted the same thing, thinking his lights were melting and I told him the same, others have said they lights have that sae indentation. Maybe the bulbs do cause them to indent in a bit, or maybe they come like that.
 
Yea I thought maybe they were like that originally, but my stock red ones don't have nearly as much indentation as these. I remember they had a little bit of one, but not like it is now.

I am surprised how easily the paint chipped... I have driven for 6 hours + with my lights on before, this is freaking me out.




melt1.jpg




melt2.jpg
 
Yeah, those were indented a little more than my stock ones. I can't tell if they are more indented now than before from the pictures though. The paint coming off is weird, that guy jon I think it was siad he used top noch stuff to tint them, not some spray can tint. Did you email him about the tint coming off?
 
Yea these are definitely more dented than my stocks, i run my finger along my stock ones and I can barely feel the dip, if at all.


I am going to email Jon and ask him if he has ever had his tint come off like this before... This sucks!
 
No it is a high quality paint job. That's why i am so surprised to see it chipped. I guess the paint they use has little to no flex properties.

I really would love to get led bulbs to work in the tails, but the way our socket is wired, it is not possible to get them to work properly. At least from what ive tried (alot).
 
ayy andrizzle... hope i can point you in the right direction... i was looking into tinting the tail lights on my gf's '10 jeep grand Cherokee when i came across a srt8 forum that covered the topic pretty in-depth. basically what a lot of the members had said was that once they tinted the taillights and left the stock halogen bulbs in they experienced an excess build up of heat during summer months and the tail-light would effectively begin to "melt". no one could say exactly when this would being to happen - some ppl said they had the taillights tinted for 2 years before they saw any problem, others only had 'em in for a few months. Anyway, long story short, i came to the conclusion that because the black tint attracts more heat than the OEM finish and probably is less effective at releasing the heat, any prolonged use of the brakes can contribute to an excess build up of heat in the housing and begin to melt the plastic from the inside. the solution to this is to convert to led bulbs [or after market led taillights - like the ones they have for the jeeps - none available for the LS of course] because of the significantly less heat given off from the bulb. ill see if i can find the thread on the SRT8 forum, and like i said this is hypothetical on my part, but it seems to make sense - especially since the jeep owners were having the exact same problem you are with the tinted tails.

i hope this helps, again i love the way your taillights look with the black color of the car...hope you can make it work. ill look to see if i can find that thread....
 
Wow awesome info there... I agree that this is my problem.

The black does absorb more heat, and it probably holds in the heat as well.


In addition to me braking normally, I usually run my parking lamps in the daytime which I am sure only increases heat and sinking...


I have a set of LED bulbs for the LS, but I cannot for the life of me get them to work with our funky socket!


Dam this really bites, I guess I am going to have to drive around with retarded tinted lights until I can figure out how to get the LEDs to work, then I have to get my lights redone.

Again thanks for the information, if you have any ideas on the LED bulb let me know! I will be trying some more to get them to work properly now. I am going to draw a little diagram and show how the socket is setup, then the LED bulb and see if anyone has a clue on what to do.
 
Andrizzle said:
I am going to draw a little diagram and show how the socket is setup, then the LED bulb and see if anyone has a clue on what to do.
Click to expand...

That would help since most of us haven't tried putting LED's in there yet
 
Alax7 said:
That would help since most of us haven't tried putting LED's in there yet
Click to expand...

+1 ...yeamann post a pic of the problem or draw a diagram or something... im not too familiar with what the socket looks like for the taillights.

I just looked on sylvania's website and it says the bulb is a 3157, so i would think it should be as simple as finding an 3157 led wedge bulb with a stubby overall length and swapping 'em out. However, i wont be surprised if its not that simple in this case :shifty: ...i converted my license plate lights to leds with no problem...but this car never ceases to amaze me with unique problems :D
 
Okay I hope this isn't too confusing.


Basically to sum this diagram up, the bulb will illuminate always on 'brake' setting no matter what because the bulb has common ground. Whereas the socket is designed to activate the 'brake ground' when the brake is pressed.

Wiring.jpg
 
okayyy...um i dont exactly see where the problem is :confused: i might be missing something... but a bulb like the one pictured below should fit perfectly into the socket...right?

3157-x25_mm.jpg


...it at least looks like the grounds are on the right [as in correct] side... so worse come to worse you could delicately reverse bend the pins on the led bulb for the 'running lights n brakes' if thats were the problem is...idk tell me what im missing here lol :rolleyes:
 
The bulb's two ground pins are both shared, which basically means it doesn't matter which ground in the socket is being touched. Both will light the pins touching the powers in the socket... And if you have a High and a Low, the High will always overtake the Low.

Therefore, when you turn on the 'running lights', the bulb will be lit in the 'brake' setting.


I just do not see how to get a LED bulb to work in a socket designed based on the ground being activated for 'brake'. The bulb is designed for the 'High' setting to be powered when the brake is pressed, not one of the grounds (which are shared in the bulb).
 
That just blows man. I liked your tail lights a lot. Good luck finding the right fix for it.
 
Andrizzle said:
The bulb's two ground pins are both shared, which basically means it doesn't matter which ground in the socket is being touched. Both will light the pins touching the powers in the socket... And if you have a High and a Low, the High will always overtake the Low.

Therefore, when you turn on the 'running lights', the bulb will be lit in the 'brake' setting.


I just do not see how to get a LED bulb to work in a socket designed based on the ground being activated for 'brake'. The bulb is designed for the 'High' setting to be powered when the brake is pressed, not one of the grounds (which are shared in the bulb).
Click to expand...

So we just have to find a bulb that has 2 ground wires or open the bulb up to rig something up in there?
 
Yes if the bulb is wired with each ground being separate from each other and operates the low and high individually, then it would work..

It is an internal thing on the circuit board, not a matter of moving a pin to a diff location... So this sucks!
 
I almost think it would be easier to edit the socket setup/brake relay, rather than a bulb... But I am not sure how to go about something like that
 
You will need a LED bulb that is for brake or turn signal as well as parking lights. I also noticed that my taillights have the same indentation. But I drive with the lights on all the time. Did you also notice that the sockets are kinda black/dark colored where the bulb go in.
 
The bulbs I have are for that application. This is what I have: http://www.v-leds.com/Exterior-LED/...D/V-LEDS-RED-92-M-SMT-TAILBRAKE-p7470633.html

Does such a bulb exist that meets the requirements of the socket I posted above?


Also yes there is heat damage to the plastic on the socket, it is kind of a dark tan/brown. I think the combination of driving during the day with lights on + the ambient temperature both help cave in the lights, I would not have noticed had they not been tinted and it peeled off.

I am not getting them redone until I find an LED bulb that works.

Anyone have ideas????
 
I have seen some on ebay that are SMD style and state they are for turn signal/brake and parking light. But at 39.99, I am not confident enough to buy them.
 
Yea I got these when they were $59.99... I was very hesitant, but I took the risk and it didn't pay off obviously... lol

And on VLEDS they have specialty bulbs for cars with different socket setups, but none of them match ours.
 
That sucks! Have you tried contacting any of the LED light company/sellers about the type of bulb needed for the LS?
 
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