Skyline LED Tail light DIY

[foreverblue]

This will be mine first DIY. First thanks to Kg810 and Stylist07 for the info. this is base on the thread http://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/in...c,16607.0.html and some pic reuse from that also.

Item list:
5mm Clear Red LED 40 pcs
100 ohm resistor 1/4 watt 10 pcs
18 gauge wire
One pair Valeo LED inner tail light

Tools list:
Hot glue gun
soldering iron
flat head screw driver
wire cutters
nose pliers
Drill and 13/64 drill bit and a smaller drill bit.
dremel
a glove
VAG-COM

Before you start the mod make sure this is you want to do because you might kill $400 tail light sets

Here we goes....

Use flat head screwdriver, SLOWLY pry open between the lens cover and the back housing. Start with one area, gently pry the lens cover until you hear the soft cracking then work on the next. if you start to see the crack start go toward the surface STOP, work from the reverse side.


Once you take out the lens cover. turn it over. you will see the 8 points you will need to use the nose pliers to remove the melted plastic that holds the inner housing. In the picture, the circle in green are what it looks like before remove the plastic and in blue is what will look like once you remove the plastic


After you remove the 8 the melted plastics, you can take out the silver housing that holds the fog/reverse light

then the red/clear cover and the clear lens

full disassemble of inner light


VERY VERY important DO NOT touch the chrome part of inner housing it will get your prints and if you try to clean it... the paint will come off.... wear a glove or you will repaint them....


Use the small drill bit to pre drill the housing then use the 13/64 drill bit.. again do it slow and and use the low rpm setting on the drill. you will drill 20 holes.


Temporary reassemble the chrome part of housing, you will notice part of inner housing has no room on the back side because is sitting against the outer housing.
Here is where the dremel comes in.. use the dremel to sand down surrounding holes on some of back side to make some room for the LED and at same time fix of base of pointed long legs where next to the hole so the led will sit correctly.. (sorry don't have picture..)

Assemble the LED:
the longer leg is + and the short leg is the ground


Now set the LEDs in the holes you just drilled and solider with 5 leds at the time. you will solider them negative leg to positive leg alternating then solider one resistor at the positive leg


You are going to make 4 sets of 5 led lights to a string with one resistor on each string. By the time you done should look like this


Use one wire to connect the resistor then other wire to connect all the negative. In the picture, I use green wire for ground and red wire for the positive


After that is done, its a good time to test out the LEDs by use the 12v battery from your drill tool


after test out the light, use hot glue to hold the leds and insulate the wires

Drill the a small hold on the side of outer house to let the new wires out. again do it slowly..

reassemble the light and the housing. use hot glue on the 8 points where you removed the melded plastic


put back the lens cover then hot glue the edge. then you are done.. just have to work other side..

You might want to add one more resistor on the new wire coming out the housing if the light is too bright. (I have to because the led i use is 15000mcd otherwise people behind me won't see anything)

When comes to wiring the car I took out the truck panels then ran the wire down the black tube into the side wall.


Just have to open up the airbag panel


If you wire base on this this thread http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...LED-Taillights all you have to is to connect the to the park light wire and ground wire. The new light will do driving light and brake light..
If you want to disable the center light of outer tail light, use VAGCOM in the Central Electronics Module long coding, bits 9 through 13 to 00 00 00 0F 00 http://golfmkv.com/forums/showthread...ight=led+tails


Finished products



installed on the car


If you are intersted doing the mod and have questions. I will be more than welcome to answer you.

[DarkNeo]

[gottiR32]

How bout i buy the tails and send them to you and send em back all pretty...good job anyhow...

[PSU]

Still one of the biggest bosses I have ever met.

Thanks for this write up. Killing it Wei.

Also, you should get some LED license bulbs.

[sixteen10]

[foreverblue]

How bout i buy the tails and send them to you and send em back all pretty...good job anyhow...

you will miss out the fun of this DIY... every step I did I was hoping.. please don't f up, please don't f up lol

Still one of the biggest bosses I have ever met.

Thanks for this write up. Killing it Wei.

Also, you should get some LED license bulbs.

Thanks boss... I was thinking about to covert to all to LED, too.

[skaven-R32]

There is also be a kit (that was) available, but I don't have the link on my work computer.

Nicely done write-up! I've always lamented the fact the inner rings were 'fake' on our platform.

[mfbmike]

Damn son, looks dope.

Skyline mod. I get it now.

[MoWsE]

If you ever get into the market of doing these for people, let me know! I'm so in! LOL! Honestly don't have the want to try and do it myself

[r-dub]

sick!

[Ryan E.]

nice work!

[willlangford]

Good writeup!

Jon Sibal did a writeup on his blog a few years ago as well.

http://jonsibal.com/blog/2008/11/mk5...light-project/

[foreverblue]

thanks all

There is also be a kit (that was) available, but I don't have the link on my work computer.

!! there was a kit...... !! I would get if it's available.. how much did it cost?? The leds and resistor cost me around $20.. and about total of 6 hours of work include the wiring in the car

[foreverblue]

Good writeup!

Jon Sibal did a writeup on his blog a few years ago as well.

http://jonsibal.com/blog/2008/11/mk5...light-project/

the tutorial i was trying to follow is base on the jetta's led light, but the housing is totally different...

[Ripdubski]

Excellent!

[jwbekens]

Stylish, functional, bold! Nicely done, young man!

[willlangford]

the tutorial i was trying to follow is base on the jetta's led light, but the housing is totally different...

Yea, exactly. Yours is great. now I just need to figure out how to do this with Euro tails. I'm not a fan of how the LED housings look. Thanks again for a great writeup.

[R3Drew]

Def a boss mod

[foreverblue]

Here is a theory, could use 5mm bi color LED run one more wire 5 more resistor per side. could do the park, turn and brake light just like the outer light.

[foreverblue]

Yea, exactly. Yours is great. now I just need to figure out how to do this with Euro tails. I'm not a fan of how the LED housings look. Thanks again for a great writeup.

what is the Euro inner back side looks like, i might have an idea..

[willlangford]

what is the Euro inner back side looks like, i might have an idea..

[foreverblue]

you don't want to drill any holes on the red part of housing (not the cover)
if there is one more piece sit between the red housing and the outside housing, you could use couple clear led mount it on it... If not, you might have sit the leds on the back side of outside housing..

[germanbycar]

I could never do this.

[willlangford]

Yea.. right now it's not very high up on the list, if/when I do this mod I'll pick up a new set of tails and mod them.

[l1DEMON1l]

Love it! Good DIY! I'd actually love to have some tails like that but I'm too terrified to crack them open since I'm not a very patient person... Don't want to go and blow $400 just to break them.

[R32R36]

Nicely done! The manual is very good but doing it is not that easy.
I had these lights in my R32, made by a former forummember. Unfortunately the quality was not good. Nobody else could make them (lights, turnsignal and brake) because of the small space inside. I have a new version from somebody else in my R36 (lights, turnsignal, brake, reverse and foglights).
Seeing your job makes me greedy.

[eyepoppet]

why did you have to wire them into the car rather than just tapping into the stock wiring harness???

[eyepoppet]

"Use one wire to connect the resistor then other wire to connect all the negative. In the picture, I use green wire for ground and red wire for the positive"


Could you exlpain this one again. for some reason i feel like you did more than what the picture showed.

Im going to try this out on a pair of stock headlights i have sitting in my basement.

[foreverblue]

why did you have to wire them into the car rather than just tapping into the stock wiring harness???

I tapped into the stock outer tail light wire harness. I ran the wire from the hatch to the outer tail light connector.

"Use one wire to connect the resistor then other wire to connect all the negative. In the picture, I use green wire for ground and red wire for the positive"


Could you exlpain this one again. for some reason i feel like you did more than what the picture showed.

Im going to try this out on a pair of stock headlights i have sitting in my basement.

follow the green wire, you will see I use the single wire start with the top and went counterclock around the leds connect the 4 grounds. same with the red wire, start at top went counterclock (under the electric tape is the resistor) connect the 4 resistors.

[eyepoppet]

ordered some LEDs a few days ago. going to figure out how to do this with the oem gti inner tails. The inner red lens is different and clearance might be a problem but i figured i could cut away from it and make it work..the LEDs only cost like 10 bucks lol so who cares if if i **** it up.

[foreverblue]

ordered some LEDs a few days ago. going to figure out how to do this with the oem gti inner tails. The inner red lens is different and clearance might be a problem but i figured i could cut away from it and make it work..the LEDs only cost like 10 bucks lol so who cares if if i **** it up.

good luck

[Stero1D]

Pm sent

[VWNDAHS]

Incredible job! I'd love to see some better pics, maybe a car park et-al, to get an idea of how they look on both sides but man, I'm loving it! ditto on the if-you-decide-to-do-it-for-pay-i'm-likely-down

[dhimarko]

I read you used 15000mcd, but what was the Wavelength? 630Nm??

[foreverblue]

I read you used 15000mcd, but what was the Wavelength? 630Nm??

619-622nm