DIY - Maverick LED tail lights upgrade. Before and After [Video]

[midcoastme]

As far as I know there is no solution yet for the brake/turn signal bulbs. You would likely need a resistor to match the prior bulb wattage so they don’t hyperflash/show the bulb is out. Diode Dynamics was working on one @SgtLip might know more.

I replaced all of the bulbs except the headlamps with LED's on my PT Cruisers. For the front park/turn bulbs I have "switchbacks" which are white for park then flash amber when the turn signal is on. Tail/Brake bulbs are red LED's. I have 2 resistors on each side which are added to the turn signal wires to prevent the hyperflash. I put clear lenses on my sedan's taillights so the same switchback bulbs are used in the rear turn signals. I added an extra wire from the reverse circuit to each of the turn signal sockets so I have brighter light when in reverse, and normal amber with the turn signal. 4-way flashers and turn signals always override the park and reverse white lights.

It does mystify me why some cars will have LED tail/brake, but incandescent turn signals. Must be the $5 resistors add too much to the bottom line...

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[Mymaverick2021]

Ordered the LEDs last night. Just need a truck to put them into.

I'll order mine when I get my build date

 

[SgtLip]

I'll order mine when I get my build date

I'm with you on that one. I sure don't want to spend bucks today for something that won't show up for 6 months if at all.

 

[Nighowl2000]

just installed mine. Need them as the rear tinted window is dark and hard to see out of at night.

This is the amazon link Canada

edit: wont let me post link do a search for wt21w-5730-33w

 

[Masejoer]

A before and after against a wall, with static camera exposure settings, would be far more helpful for comparison. A darker exposure would also help not blow out the camera, so the beam quality can be compared - light shining up into the sky is useless.

This is important with running/brake lamps, but can also be helpful in identifying where the light is going on the reverse lamps. In many cases, installing LED bulbs (not all, just depends where the specific product's emitters align against the reflectors) will throw a lot more light up into the sky, but could also illuminate the ground worse than factory (needed for backup camera usage in the dark). A higher CRI like the factory blackbody radiator can also help with seeing color at night when offroad - for cheap white emitters, lower color temperature typically will have a higher CRI to compare well against the incandescent bulb.

Never just drop a LED bulb in - a lot of people do so and get worse effective performance. This is far less likely an issue on reverse lamps, but on my F150, I ended up going back to incandescent brake and backup lamps immediately because every LED product I tried performed worse where the beam mattered. I did find a better LED bulb that worked for the front signals, but that was all. It still took about a half dozen different products to find one that gave a decent beam profile and running vs signal luminescence for those front marker/signal lamps.

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