Here is how I modified some brightass 12W LEDs to fit in my rear turn signals

[phatz314]

I got them (and that gif) from autolumination dot com.

They are bright as all hell. But they don't fit. At 59 mm in length, they are just a few mm too long for the OEM LED tail light housing. But after you pull off the lens, you gain a few mm:



And with a little grinding,



you can get the metal lip off the one side, and shave the plastic so that the bulb sits further down inside the connector:



I'm not going to lie to you, I'm a little embarrassed at how bad this looks, what with the exposed wires. If I were less lazy, I might have siliconed the hole where I chewed through the bulb seat. But it stays pretty dry in the lamp housing, and in any case there's an electrical connector right there anyway.

End result: now I have bright, omnidirectional, high-powered amber LEDs in my rear tails, with no errors! What do you think?

[corrado917]

More pics?

[not JDM]

need pics of final result

[feels_road]

Seems like a lot of work...

Anyway, ceterum censeo we need to find a high-output LED fog lamp supplier.

[phatz314]

More pics?

need pics of final result

Alright, will snap a few pics today. They definitely look better than these unidirectional bulbs (less of a hot spot, and the light fills the housing better)

Seems like a lot of work...

Anyway, ceterum censeo we need to find a high-output LED fog lamp supplier.

Meh, most of the work was unpacking my angle grinder. Takes about 2 min per LED

As far as the fogs, have you seen these?

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...highlight=fogs

[Aonarch]

[Derrick_B]

Wouldn't a Dremel or similar rotary tool be better for this particular task? I can't imagine trying to achieve any sort of precision with an angle grinder. Anyway, I am looking forward to the pics. Does the bulb sit in the plug properly or is it loose?

[phatz314]

here's a craptastic iphone 3GS video taken at dusk

[phatz314]

Wouldn't a Dremel or similar rotary tool be better for this particular task? I can't imagine trying to achieve any sort of precision with an angle grinder. Anyway, I am looking forward to the pics. Does the bulb sit in the plug properly or is it loose?

yes. the one advantage to an angle grinder is that it's sitting in my garage, as opposed to a Dremel, which is sitting on a shelf in the store. But yes, a Dremel would be much better.

bulbs do sit properly, but yeah they'll wiggle a bit because I chewed away all the structural integrity at the base. But, I can insert and remove the modified bulb without any special effort

really the point is you could do this with any LED bulb, as cleanly as you want. lots of folks want to use different bulbs that don't fit in our small housings, so that's why I wanted to share this crude method with the forum

[Ryan_R]

here's a craptastic iphone 3GS video taken at dusk

Good light fill in the lens. Do you think these will fit and produce similar results?

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...744x-x18-T.htm

--Ry

[gtipwnz]

Is there a problem with the ones that come in the tails? I haven't installed them yet, and I haven't really heard of any need to do this.

[phatz314]

Good light fill in the lens. Do you think these will fit and produce similar results?

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...744x-x18-T.htm

--Ry

Those are dimmer and will cause intermittent bulb out errors in hot weather until they inevitably fail. On the plus side, no physical modification is necessary for them to fit.

[phatz314]

Is there a problem with the ones that come in the tails? I haven't installed them yet, and I haven't really heard of any need to do this.

The OEM LED tails come with incandescent bulbs in the turn signals. They are very reliable (until they burn out). Like many people here, I wanted an LED turn signal so it would match, plus these are brighter and fill the housing better than the unidirectional led bulbs.