New Mark VII LED Tail light design.

Awesund

Awesund

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This has been 7 months in design and construction ... finally complete. :Beer

The first pic is parking/running lights.
Second is brake/turn signal lights. Only Brake is shown.

LED's give a more brillaint, instant signal and catch the eye's attention faster than incandecent bulbs.
I had this idea for LED car signals about 15 years ago, but i did nothing about patenting the idea... :Bang
Now, you'll see more and more auto manufacturers are using them... :Bang again. Ouch!

This is what I came up with for my custom Mark VII design.
The Brake/turn signal LED's are not plug-in LED's, but specially mounted square PC board assemblies mounted in the housing. T'was a bitch to implement, but worth it, I think.
Hopefully this will minimize the chance of getting rear-ended. :wrench

SVO Tails - Parking.jpg


SVO Tails - Brake.jpg
 
I got my LED's at autozone... They're easy enough to find. Just take your bulb out of the housing, and there should be a # somewhere on it. Then, just get the equivalent in an LED. Mine made the car a lot cleaner looking, especially at night. LED's rock!!!
 
Black87LSC said:
I got my LED's at autozone... They're easy enough to find. Just take your bulb out of the housing, and there should be a # somewhere on it. Then, just get the equivalent in an LED. Mine made the car a lot cleaner looking, especially at night. LED's rock!!!
Click to expand...

ooo-Rah!. .

Semper-Fi!

:Beer
 
the night pics look good, how are they during the day and can they be made to be like a sequential type brake light. now that would be cool.
 
Thanks guys, glad you like em.

Daytime they look great. Still more eye-catching than a regular bulb in daylight.

Yeah, I had an option for sequential but I wanted something more rugged and functional. Tastefully custom but not too crazy. Like something you might see from the factory.
The sequential thing was cool, but just "too queer" if that makes any sense. I'll leave that stuff to the kiddies in thier rice burners. heheh
 
Black87LSC said:
Lookin good! I had LED's in my Mark, but they were just the 1157 LED screw in type
Click to expand...

Did you have to make any mods? I bought these yesterday and installed them with the hazards blinking to make sure they were working. After putting all 4 of them in and getting back in the car, I had a rear tail light out warning indicator. Now when I put on the left or right turn signal, the lights on that side of the car just light up (front and rear) and don't blink. I took all of them out and put the standard bulbs back in except for one. I made sure that I was installing it correctly and that it was tight. After messing with it for another 10 minutes, I could not get the turn signals to work on the side that I installed the, now one bulb. My flashers seem a bit slow, could it be a worn out flasher that is causing this? Just wanted to know if there was anything else you had to do besides just screw in the LEDs, thanks.
 
I installed the screw in LEDs lights (reverse, tail/stop, front running lights, seperate indicator circuit (UK)).

The Rear Lamp out warning comes on when I hit the brakes because the LEDs use less current then normal lamps so car 'thinks' 1 or more bulbs are blown - I just ignore it because not as likely to blow an LED.

The indicator flasher unit wants a certain amp rating also, which again the LEDs aren't giving so you either have to have a ballast resistor in the circuit or a different flasher unit that doesn't rely on current.

Say you have a 21w/21w/5w flasher - thats around 4amps
replace those 3 filament bulbs with 3 LED bulbs and that power requirement drops to around 0.2amps.

Thats the main reason I installed LED.
 
They make a special flasher for LEDs. The post about why the lamp out light coming on is correct. Due to the lower resistance of LEDs, the circuit interprets it as a blown bulb. You could take the bulbs out from the warning lights. I did this for my headlamp out warning when I rewired my front lights and added relays.
 
Thanks Gents, I didn't want to return them. So, I guess I will pick up the LED flasher and put some electrical tape over the rear lamp out indicator and I should be all set. This flasher will still work if my front indicator lights are standard and just the rear stop/signal lamps are LED? Or should I pick up the front LEDs as well? Anyone know the part number for the flasher in case the kid at autozone doesn't know what I am talking about?

Cheers
 
My LEDs didn't have complete info on the package, so I looked around on the other LED packages. My '88 apparently had a type 552 2-prong flasher. You want to replace it with a "variable load" 552 replacement. The one that I purchased is a Tridon Stant model EL12 12 Volt 2 terminal. I will try the LEDs again shortly and let you know how they work. At least my directional signals are much faster after the swap...
 
As I mentioned Black87, my flasher was going anyway so, maybe if I replaced it with the exact part it would have worked anyway. Mine is an 88, who knows if there was any change from the 87 in this area. All I can say is that it's working now, and I don't want to throw 7 more bucks on the original part to see if I am correct.
 
Sorry guys.. . was away for a while.

I recomend a heavy duty flasher with a built-in relay. One that "clacks" on and off. They're about $7-10 at the local auto store.

Yes, it's about resistance. If you have regular bulbs up front for park and turn signals and the plug-in LEDs for the rear, all should work fine.
My rears are not plug-in LED's for brake and Turns. They're 4 PC boards with high intesity ultra bright LED's mounted in the housing. Much brighter than the store-bought plug-ins. My front parks and turns are also Amber LED lights. But I had to either splice in an LED flasher balast or splice in the original rear bulb plug with bulbs to simulate the resistance for the flasher.

They do make a special LED flasher, but it makes no noise...I like to hear it, so I don't forget like some old man driving down the road with turn signals on. ;)

Let me know if you need a web address for the resistor or LED flasher... I have it stored somewhere.
 
Thanks Awesund, the variable load flasher that I mentioned does click. They even made another one that stated "loud" on the label, but I went for the original which is plenty loud for me.
 
LED Taillights

Dude, those lights are too cool. I have a long way to go for my '7 to be like new again but I am determined.

Paul
 
Hey Awesund..LOL..I resemble that remark about the old man..LOL..I have been guilty of that..but now I know the cure,,get and extra loud flasher.
Like the LEDs also
I am over in Titusville on the east coast of FL.

Wildman
 
wildmanofmesa said:
Hey Awesund..LOL..I resemble that remark about the old man..LOL..I have been guilty of that..but now I know the cure,,get and extra loud flasher.
Like the LEDs also
I am over in Titusville on the east coast of FL.

Wildman
Click to expand...
hehe...I'm only 40, but I've done it.
But I'll tell ya...no flasher is loud enough to be heard over a "Blood Sweat & Tears" CD. :rolleyes:
 
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