Ricing out teh tail lights with LED....

[HyperTek]

anyone know what series bulbs are in teh kouki 180 tail lights?? Anyone got any LED bulbs in thier car?? lol yah it sounds ricer, but I like the response LED gives. Im talkin about those cheap bulbs wiht alot of LEDS on them.

[90RS13]

LED bulbs shouldn't sound ricer. They burn brighter and use less energy. There are many cars that come stock with LED tail/signal lighting. M3's for one, and if an M3 is ricer, then I want to be as rice as I can.

[kouki-gymkhana]

Alright, I figure I better say something before old_s13 gets in your ass about this question. First, AVOID the LED replacement bulbs you are talking about. They have horrible light output and viewing angles and are not worth the money. In a reflector based housing, they often don't put out enough light to evenly illuminate the whole housing. All you see is the stupid little 5-6 LED bulb. Second, if you want to get creative with LED lighting but don't want to spend the next 2 weeks soldering in each LED into a home built array, you should consider trying to retrofit some aftermarket LED truck trailer lights into your tail light housings. I've seen it done on a Maxima and a few Civics and, although not nearly as trick as the clearcorners.com stuff, it would give you the effect you desire.

I'll be starting this project after I get my H9 to D2S headlight retrofit finished up in a month or two.

Hope this helps,
-kouki :)

[HyperTek]

what tail lights you gonna do that to? i can imagine kouki s14 tails... but kouki 180 tails would probably be harder...

[kouki-gymkhana]

I'm going to retrofit the USDM stock hatchback tails. I don't think it would be possible to use the truck trailer modules in the kouki tails but there are other options. No disrespect to old_s13 but there are a number of companies that sell premade LED array's that will fit into the kouki tails to mimic the clearcorners.com "single LED" upgrade. These arrays are a little pricey at about $35-50 each and you'll need four of them. I think the hardest part about that retrofit would be to separate the kouki lenses from the housings without fucking them up (hey $450 a set ain't cheap!) After that, it should be just connecting 2-3 wires.

Now if you want to do the "dual LED" upgrade with the LED rings that everybody loves, it's a bit harder but still doable if you have more $$$ and patience. I won't say too much else about it but this step probably adds at least another $200 to the project.

Sooo, if you want some numbers to formulate a rough budget, here they are:
New kouki tails: ~$450
Round LED units: ~$200
-------optional------
LEDs for "dual LED" upgrade: ~$200

Total: $650 for "single LED" $850 for "dual LED" + about 5-20+ hours of your time depending upon how savvy you are with wiring and such.

Hope that answers your question and sorry if it's overkill. :bow:

-kouki

EDIT: Sorry, all this is for s13 kouki tails.

[old_s13]

hypertek, dont be stupid -- you've been on here long enough to know how things work, especially when it comes to lighting.. i've preached enough on this shithole.

They answered your question up above, you arent upgrading -- you're DOWNGRADING by going with shitty 1" LED clusters, congrats. Maybe if you're lucky you'll be able to see your car if you park it in a closet with the lights off and a blanket covering the crack at the door.

Kouki, you didnt say anything rude against me or my work.. no need to apologize for nothing. As for attempting to mimic any of the stuff I've fabricated, good luck... is all I can say. Too many hours have gone into R&D with what I sell on ClearCorners.Com.

- Mike

[HyperTek]

thanks for the answers!! just the info i needed..

[twitchy]

im gonna retrofit some dribing lamps into my taillights so people can see me stopping in a blizzard a mile away