JDM tails question. Only 3 light up? Options

[kcizzle]

I just installed my JDM tails tonight.. To check if they are working, i turned on the ignition and i noticed that when on the park position, one light on the driver side tail does not light up but both the passenger tails, lights up. I am talking about the red lights so only three lights light up but when i step on the brake all of them light up brighter. Is this normal or should all 4 of them light when i'm in park position?

This post has been edited by kcizzle: Dec 14, 2006 - 1:51 AM

[Slick]

I just went outside and checked (i just got mine installed too ) and all 4 of mine turn on. check your bulb.

[kcizzle]

I just went outside and checked (i just got mine installed too ) and all 4 of mine turn on. check your bulb.

my bad... bulb was too tight.. just rotated it.. BINGO! i panic immediately! thanx slick!

[Slick]

No thanks needed, just send pics of the new look! And congrats!

[Negative]

Further question: My '99 GT had 4 bulbs in the original stock USDM tails. The JDM ones I got only had spaces for 3 but on further inspection it had an undrilled bossing where you could put one more bulb [for the white corner spots]. I carefully drilled these out and now the white lights up at night time too. Did anyone else have to do this?

[Slick]

Further question: My '99 GT had 4 bulbs in the original stock USDM tails. The JDM ones I got only had spaces for 3 but on further inspection it had an undrilled bossing where you could put one more bulb [for the white corner spots]. I carefully drilled these out and now the white lights up at night time too. Did anyone else have to do this?

Only 3? Nah, mine came with all 4 open, literally plug-n-play.

[Negative]

wonder why I had to? Definetly OEM though.

[celicaST]

Further question: My '99 GT had 4 bulbs in the original stock USDM tails. The JDM ones I got only had spaces for 3 but on further inspection it had an undrilled bossing where you could put one more bulb [for the white corner spots]. I carefully drilled these out and now the white lights up at night time too. Did anyone else have to do this?

hold up, you have your turn signals lit at night? mind posting a pic of them on?

heres a pic from my profile, would be interested to see what it looks like with the turns lit continuously



This post has been edited by celicaST: Dec 15, 2006 - 8:41 AM

[Negative]

No problem. It's day time though and it's kinda hard to tell what I'm talking about:


That's not the orange part lit up. They only come on when the blinker/hazards are on. At night the whole white is lit up. All I did was drill out carefully where the bossing was and insert the 4th bulb where I think the old orange was on the USDM tails was. My GF and friends are always giving me sh*t cause I can't leave well enough alone LOL. I wanted the white lit up so I made it happen. Next I want the red around the back up light to light up too and the LED bulbs from Autozone. I have the next 2 1/2 weeks off so I will probably do that then. I'll post up pics after the new year. How do ya'lls JDM tails light up? Anybody got pics?

[Negative]

Oh nvm. I didn't see your pic. Yeah that's what mine looked like before I f*cked with it. What did you do with the 4th bulb from your stock harness?
BTW - the litlle black things you see inside my white parts are shavings from drilling that part out. I'm having a b*tch of a time getting them out. LOL. Will do that when I light up the red around the back up light and maybe around the blinkers too. Gonna look so sweet!

This post has been edited by Negative: Dec 15, 2006 - 8:54 AM

[celicaST]

No problem. It's day time though and it's kinda hard to tell what I'm talking about:


That's not the orange part lit up. They only come on when the blinker/hazards are on. At night the whole white is lit up. All I did was drill out carefully where the bossing was and insert the 4th bulb where I think the old orange was on the USDM tails was. My GF and friends are always giving me sh*t cause I can't leave well enough alone LOL. I wanted the white lit up so I made it happen. Next I want the red around the back up light to light up too and the LED bulbs from Autozone. I have the next 2 1/2 weeks off so I will probably do that then. I'll post up pics after the new year. How do ya'lls JDM tails light up? Anybody got pics?

the pic i posted is how they are supposed to light up. to my knowledge, you are the first to do that. i kind of like it if you could post night pics later tonight or whenever, id appreciate it. what do you mean the orange part isnt lit up? is the other bulb ouside the reflector?

edit- when i bought my jdms, they included the harness and bulbs.

This post has been edited by celicaST: Dec 15, 2006 - 8:59 AM

[Negative]

yes. That's the one I custom installed. If you guys like it I could finish with my mods on the tails and write up a short and easy how-to. I really like it better this way too. Im not done by any means though. I want everything red and white to light up at night. Hit the brakes and the middle two get brighter and the third light lights up, put in reverse and the little white squares light up and hit the blinkers/hazards and the orange lights up [already does all that that stock obviously]. That's my goal while maintaning a uniform look - ie not brighter in some spots than others etc.
WHAT DID YOU GUYS DO WITH THE 4TH LIGHT? leave it dangling inside the body?

[celicaST]

yes. That's the one I custom installed. If you guys like it I could finish with my mods on the tails and write up a short and easy how-to. I really like it better this way too. Im not done by any means though. I want everything red and white to light up at night. Hit the brakes and the middle two get brighter and the third light lights up, put in reverse and the little white squares light up and hit the blinkers/hazards and the orange lights up [already does all that that stock obviously]. That's my goal while maintaning a uniform look - ie not brighter in some spots than others etc.
WHAT DID YOU GUYS DO WITH THE 4TH LIGHT? leave it dangling inside the body?

so does it look orange lit at night? dont know what other people did with the 4th bulb, but i think what you did is pretty cool, might do it myself. just the thought of cutting into 250 dollar lights so you plan on putting leds so theres a ring of red light around the reverse/turn lights? that will look sick if it looks uniform like you said. props for custom work

[Negative]

No it only looks orange when the blinker/hazards are lit. Otherwise it looks white. That's the custom part so far. I was alittle cautious on it too but it took me all of 2 hours to decide to pull them back out and install the 4th bulb. I didn't get the harness cause I got them from Kodak in exchange for a full rewiring job on his audio system and some Fosgate 6.5"s installed in the rear. Pretty fair exchange for both of us since he also got my USDM tails which were almost brand new and looked perfect. So the JDM harness only has 3 bulbs?
BTW - Might not light up the red around the blinkers as it will probably not be too uniform. We'll see. But I'm definetly doing it around the back up lights - plenty of room to work in there.
thanks for the props. You want a how-to when I'm done? I could take pics for each step. If you only have 3 bulbs I could show you where to wire in the fourth one and the LEDs for around the back-up light. Or you could use the stock USDM harness like I did.

This post has been edited by Negative: Dec 15, 2006 - 9:18 AM

[Negative]

Um I feel stupid now. I took off my JDM tails last night to install my LED bulbs and found out I actually have 5 bulbs in each.
2 - 1157 - Brakes and night time illumination.
2 - 1156 - Back up lights and Blinkers
1 - what looks like a 194 - this is the one from the stock USDM harness that I used for lighting up the white corners of the JDM tails. This one lights up with the headlights like the brake lights do but doesn't get brighter [obviously] when you hit the brake.
BTW - the Red LED 1157s look way redder than stock [less orange-ish] which is what I was going for but unfortunately they are not quite as bright as stock. It's also harder to tell when you hit the brake cause they don't get much brighter when you hit the brake. I only did one side so I could take pics tonight and show you guys what I mean. I'm still debating whether or not to take them back. I'll post pics tommorrow.

This post has been edited by Negative: Dec 20, 2006 - 3:06 PM

[Negative]

OK here are some pics. My camera's flash sort of overpowers the white part unfortunately but trust me the white part does light up. Also the RH side has the LEDs I installed where as the LH side is stock bulbs.
Brakes only, lights off [white not illuminated]:

Lights and brakes lit [white illuminated]:

Corner shot with the lights and brakes lit [white illuminated]:

And just a shot of my new clear sidemarkers lit up:


So, as you can see, The LEDs are way dimmer than stock and there is very little difference between when the lights are on only and when the brakes come on making them very dangerous. The people behind me will barely be able to tell I'm braking except with the addition of the third light. So needless to say those $40 dollar LEDs are going back and I'm just gonna sharpie my stock bulbs to make them redder.
Opinions?

[Negative]

Found Red bulbs for the tails. Waiting until nightime to see them sux.

[trdproven]

they should have 2 parts that light up on each side, those same two on each side light up when braking. amber clears light up for hazards or turning. Thats it right?