Led Tailight Conversion D.I.Y.
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From: REHOBOTH BEACH DE
88-300CE TWIN TURBO, 99-C43, 05-G55K, 71-280SL, 94-E320 CAB, 08 CLK63 BLACK SERIES
Led Tailight Conversion D.I.Y.
Finished up on the tail lights, but the pix were taken in bright sunlight, will do some night shots.
Note I haven't yet done the turn signal/flasher or backup, wanted to see how the tail and brake lights came out !
The tail light assembly uses two types of bulbs.
The larger 1156 which was repaced by Velocity Distributing #HPR13 RED ( $19.99 pair) and the smaller 5008 replaced by Super Bright LEDs #67-15 RED ( 4.95 each) You want to order the LED color to match the color of the lens it sits behind.
If you remove the inner housing and take off the lampholder metal strip you will see that the innermost position has no contact installed. Innermost is used for the rear fog light(s)
I picked up a tail light very cheaply on EBAY and used the contacts to install in the fog light position. The USA car is not wired for rear fogs, so I wired the new contacts to the brake lights (yellow wire)
The inner housing assembled with the "new" brake lamp
LED tailight/side light on the right side.
They are brighter and appear more red, but the camera lens had a polarizing effect in the bright sun light.
LED tail light/side light and brake lights on right side, again bright sunlight not giving the true look.
Note I haven't yet done the turn signal/flasher or backup, wanted to see how the tail and brake lights came out !
The tail light assembly uses two types of bulbs.
The larger 1156 which was repaced by Velocity Distributing #HPR13 RED ( $19.99 pair) and the smaller 5008 replaced by Super Bright LEDs #67-15 RED ( 4.95 each) You want to order the LED color to match the color of the lens it sits behind.
If you remove the inner housing and take off the lampholder metal strip you will see that the innermost position has no contact installed. Innermost is used for the rear fog light(s)
I picked up a tail light very cheaply on EBAY and used the contacts to install in the fog light position. The USA car is not wired for rear fogs, so I wired the new contacts to the brake lights (yellow wire)
The inner housing assembled with the "new" brake lamp
LED tailight/side light on the right side.
They are brighter and appear more red, but the camera lens had a polarizing effect in the bright sun light.
LED tail light/side light and brake lights on right side, again bright sunlight not giving the true look.
Thread Starter
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 2,494
Likes: 17
From: REHOBOTH BEACH DE
88-300CE TWIN TURBO, 99-C43, 05-G55K, 71-280SL, 94-E320 CAB, 08 CLK63 BLACK SERIES
LED'S to the right, stock to the left.
Camera shows a lot more "hot spot" glare with the stock bulbs.
In actuality slight advantage, hardly noticeable to the stock bulbs, but the LED's are a truer red and appear more controlled and visible.
Biggest change in visibility is in adding the inner brake light on each side
Camera shows a lot more "hot spot" glare with the stock bulbs.
In actuality slight advantage, hardly noticeable to the stock bulbs, but the LED's are a truer red and appear more controlled and visible.
Biggest change in visibility is in adding the inner brake light on each side
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 268
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1992 190E 2.6L
FYI,
You may get errors on you dashboard telling you that you have a bad headlight or lamp error. This is just from experience. I replaced my sidemarkers and tailights with one of these and I couldn't figure it out. I checked and double checked, it drove me nuts. I went back to the OEM bulbs and BAM! The error light went away.
I think the LED's either draws or under-draws(I don't know if that's a word) current from the system, but it does report a small change like this.
It looks good, just don't go nuts like I did with searching out for the lamp failure indicator.
-J
You may get errors on you dashboard telling you that you have a bad headlight or lamp error. This is just from experience. I replaced my sidemarkers and tailights with one of these and I couldn't figure it out. I checked and double checked, it drove me nuts. I went back to the OEM bulbs and BAM! The error light went away.
I think the LED's either draws or under-draws(I don't know if that's a word) current from the system, but it does report a small change like this.
It looks good, just don't go nuts like I did with searching out for the lamp failure indicator.
-J
Last edited by jgajito; Aug 9, 2007 at 11:27 AM.
Thread Starter
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 2,494
Likes: 17
From: REHOBOTH BEACH DE
88-300CE TWIN TURBO, 99-C43, 05-G55K, 71-280SL, 94-E320 CAB, 08 CLK63 BLACK SERIES
FYI,
You may get errors on you dashboard telling you that you have a bad headlight or lamp error. This is just from experience. I replaced my sidemarkers with one of these and my tailights just like yours and I could figure it out. I checked and double checked, it drove nuts. I went back to OEM bulbs and BAM! The error light went away.
I think the LED's either draws or under-draws(I don't know if that's a word) current from the system but it does report a small change like this.
It looks good, just don't go nuts like I did with searching out for the lamp failure indicator.
-J
You may get errors on you dashboard telling you that you have a bad headlight or lamp error. This is just from experience. I replaced my sidemarkers with one of these and my tailights just like yours and I could figure it out. I checked and double checked, it drove nuts. I went back to OEM bulbs and BAM! The error light went away.
I think the LED's either draws or under-draws(I don't know if that's a word) current from the system but it does report a small change like this.
It looks good, just don't go nuts like I did with searching out for the lamp failure indicator.
-J
I removed my "lamp failure" bulb from the dash a long time ago when I installed standard #1156 bulbs in the fog light position.
The addition of these lamps wired to the brake lights would give a lamp out indication.
The trade off of having much more illumination in the brake lights was more importantant to me then a lamp failure indication.
The circuit is very sensitive to any change in overall resistance !
Thanks
Ed A.
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 268
Likes: 0
1992 190E 2.6L
Resistor value for LED Conversion
100k, 220k, how much does it need to draw?
-J
Last edited by jgajito; Aug 9, 2007 at 11:26 AM.
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Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 268
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1992 190E 2.6L
When I did the whole tailight replacement assembly on my W124 and it's BRIGHT. Then, I followed my car one night while someone else was driving, and it was so annoying, I had to follow blind-side.
As for the bulb replacements vs. the whole assembly, I did those on my '85 W201. That circuitry wasn't as sensitive as the later models, '93-95's.
-J
Last edited by jgajito; Aug 9, 2007 at 11:25 AM.
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Thread Starter
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 2,494
Likes: 17
From: REHOBOTH BEACH DE
88-300CE TWIN TURBO, 99-C43, 05-G55K, 71-280SL, 94-E320 CAB, 08 CLK63 BLACK SERIES
What I'll do is go back to original with the single tail and side marker 10W 5008 and the single 21W 1156/7506 which would calculate as a 41W load per side.
I'll confirm an actual reading with a multimeter.
I'll then replace with the LED's including the additional brake light.
Retake a load reading.
Do some quick Ohm's Law stuff and calculate resistance require to match the stock setup...
Just one more thing to add to my list of "Things to do when I don't have any other things to do"
