Roundtable

Hello,

I was having some issues with the bulbs inmy Wagon not lighting at the same time...some would be slower to light than others. realizing I neeed new bulbs, I decided to get LED bulbs to fit the tail-lights since LED's reaction to current is pretty much instant so, I replaced all the tail/brake light bulbs with LED bulbs and now I have no issues.

Here is how I did this.

DISCLAIMER - Do this at your own risk, I am not responsible for any issues that may come up with your vehicles as a result of this conversion. I have been driving around with this conversion for over a year, with absolutely no issues. If you do have issues, I am willing to trouble-shoot with you.


I did this in steps ( no time to do it all at the same time with kids running around)

First step were the rear corner lights. This process will be illustrated here.

First off, I went to the local LORDCO and bought Four (4) LED bulbs to fit the 1156 plugs in the Leggy.



Here is a comparison of the filament and LED bulbs



Once I had the bulbs, all I had to do was to take off the covers on either side. The covers in the illustrations ar off the passenger's side only. Copy the procedure for the driver's side.



These are the covers on their own, off the car.



These are the holes left ater the covers were taken off. Bottom, then top.





Using an 8mm deepsocket and rachet wrench, remove the nuts off the corner light housing bolts. You might also need an extension. Becareful, if you drop the nuts, they will fall into the crevice in the body and you'll never have them back.

After removing the nuts and placing them somewhere safe, gently pry the corner light off the car. do not pull too hard as the bulbs and wiring are still attached to the light.



Once you pull the light back, you will see two bulbs, one (upper) is for the turn signal, the other (lower)for the tail-light. Remove the bulb for for the tail/brake light by twisting 1/4 turn and pulling off the taillight housing. Since you've pried the housing off the body, this is a good time to clean off the gunk that has build up over the years and check the seals around the bolts holding the housing to the body.




Once you've pulled the bulb out of the housing, pull the bulb out of its socket and replace with the LED bulb. Test by turning on the lights and pressing the brake. If it does not work, change the orientation of the bulb in its socket by turning 180 degrees. Test again.

Regular bulb

LED Bulb

Once you are sure it works, return bulb into housing by twisting the opposite way, return housing to its rightful place, tighten the nuts on the bolts (not too tight. Make sure they are snug +1/4 turn. Remember you are pulling plastic into metal; if you tighten too much, you will break the housing.



Enjoy your new LED bulbs.

Juan

 

traumadog

Nice write-up. One problem I've always had with LED bulbs is that their low current draw relative to regular bulbs sometimes causes problems.

In some cars, the turn-signal function refuses to work, as the "clicker" doesn't draw enough current to function. On others, there's a brake-light indicator that pops up because the system thinks the bulb is dead. Heck, I've even heard stories of ABS faults on the Camaro I have just because of a blown CHMSL bulb.

SUBIESKI

There are resister circuits you can buy that help solve those issues

Like these
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...2Fflashers.htm

or these (look at the last item, load resister kits)
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...rn.html#Table5

__________________
You just got beat by a wagon!

Roundtable

The same company that makes the LED bulbs makes load resistor kits.

To this date, I have not had issues (knocking on wood) with the bulbs. I do know that if one uses them on the turn signals, one could get a faster flash or inoperable signal functions, this is why I have resisted using them on my turn signals.

I hope no one experiences issues but thank you for the warning, I agree that the better informed one is, the better.

Juan