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Custom Rear Bumper Lights


Strudul

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Want to do something about the rear bumper lights. Not a fan of the styling of aftermarket solutions, but was considering just removing the red lens to clear them out and fitting a red bulb. However, since that involves taking them apart anyway it'd be a shame not to do something a bit more special.

 

Thinking that I could gut the cluster and install 2, parallel LED strips:

- The top strip would be reverse lights / sequential indicators

- The bottom strip would be used for fog lights

 

E.g

8215910dcd67867d1972b1a71277d0b1.png

 

Would implement something like these for the reverse lights / indicators and similar but in red for the fogs:

 

Questions / concerns:

 

Difficulty

- Retrofitting headlight DRLs is just a case of tapping into the wires and the controller will do all the work, I'm assuming it should be a similar process? Then it's just a case of making space inside the assembly and mounting them?

 

Legality

- Is it ok to have reverse lights and indicators combined? Not sure how they would work if you tried to reverse while using indicators / hazards and the laws / requirements.

- Will an LED tube be bright enough for a fog light?

- Would the light tubes need to be divided to stop light interference (white reverse + red fog just causing a pink glow)

 

Aesthetics

- Will it look shite?

- The tubes are white / clear, so you should only see colour when the lights are turned on.

 

Fogs:

76048ffee439bd9deeb3812db961c27c.png

 

Reverse:

1ba8f0c584a4d379b6588f6c9587827f.png

 

Hazards / Indicators:

dc46bfcd775a7df58fe63d6367f41d21.png

 

ac4b831878e040d6c097f360701f9c51.png

Edited by Strudul
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The problem as I see it is unless you redesign the internals its going to look exactly like someone has just laid some LED strips inside a bulb housing. You will still have the holes for the bulbs, the bulb surrounds etc. So unless you can think of a solution to either hide this or gut them out I dont think it will look right.

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The problem as I see it is unless you redesign the internals its going to look exactly like someone has just laid some LED strips inside a bulb housing. You will still have the holes for the bulbs, the bulb surrounds etc. So unless you can think of a solution to either hide this or gut them out I dont think it will look right.

Gutting would be the plan, then something can be fashioned to go behind the LED strips to look nice, though you'll still see 2 white tubes...

 

Tinting would work to hide it, but I reckon it'd affect the light output too much to be an option.

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Try and source a 2nd hand pair, maybe Jon @ Emperor has some before he closes down to experiment on mate.

I cant really comment as I went down the the usual cleared out lens and LED bulb route.

Oh yeah, was definitely gonna pick up a spare set to play with. Can't be having something go wrong without a spare and end up with the Z off the road with the rear lights melted to the inside of my oven :lol:

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Would it be legal to re-purpose the 3rd brake light as a fog light?

I2TK6lW.png?1

 

As for combining the reverse light and direction indicators, I found this:

Reason for Rejection

2. A direction indicator:

h. adversely affected by the operation of another lamp e.g. dual function lamps on foreign vehicles.

Would that mean I'd need separate lights?

Edited by Strudul
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Legally speaking you don't need reverse lights at all, they don't form part of an MOT, they're there for courtesy and to illuminate in the dark only. At one point yank tanks didn't have them at all. In terms of light strength for your fogs, they need to be as bright as your brake lights, but again, there is no equipment used on your mot to verify this. Your indicators MUST be orange in colour when flashing. And you can fail an MOT for 'light seriously affected by another bulb'. So if you have combined reverse/hazard strips and they stop being orange when you reverse, that's a fail.

Personally I'd scrap the reverse light and concentrate on indicators and fogs.

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Legally speaking you don't need reverse lights at all, they don't form part of an MOT, they're there for courtesy and to illuminate in the dark only. At one point yank tanks didn't have them at all. In terms of light strength for your fogs, they need to be as bright as your brake lights, but again, there is no equipment used on your mot to verify this. Your indicators MUST be orange in colour when flashing. And you can fail an MOT for 'light seriously affected by another bulb'. So if you have combined reverse/hazard strips and they stop being orange when you reverse, that's a fail.

Personally I'd scrap the reverse light and concentrate on indicators and fogs.

Aye, I know they aren't required, but they are useful. I have a long driveway to reverse up, which is already a pain at night, nevermind without any light :(

 

Had a thought though, seeing as I don't really care how the reverse / fog lights look, I just have a hankering for sequentials, could I leave those as bulbs and just run an LED strip for only indicators along the top? Still have the same concerns about light pollution, but don't know the extent of the issue or how strict the rules are, though I could always fashion some aluminium dividers. My other worry would be heat from the bulbs, but if I swap out the fog and reverse bulbs for (chromed) LEDs, I'm assuming it would be fine?

Edited by Strudul
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Turning out to be a bit harder than I thought...

 

- Most units are white and amber

- When connected, the white light always shows until there is voltage to the amber light

- The amber light overrides the white light and does it's fancy sequential flashing pattern

- Even though the voltage to the amber light is intermittent, It will continue to only do the amber sequence

- It will only stop if there is no voltage to the amber light for a couple of seconds

- At this point, it detects you are no longer trying to indicate and will switchback to white

 

This is fine for front lights, but not so great for rear lights where you don't want the white light powered and showing all the time.

 

If there is no voltage to the white light, and you apply voltage to the amber light, it will light up and begin it's sequence, but will cut short as soon as you stop providing power to it (i.e. every time the indicators ticks off)

 

I've seen mention of lights with 4 wires that have a dedicated power input, allowing you to use the amber lights individually, but can't seem to find any (for a decent price). There's probably a way to mod the 3-wire units so they have constant power without causing the white LEDs to light up or lengthen the period of time that voltage is applied when the indicator is used, but that's starting to feel more like work than fun tinkering.

 

:headhurt:

Edited by Strudul
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Though having now typed that out, another potential solution would be getting some red / amber strips instead.

 

I believe you are allowed to permanently have red light showing at the rear, so they could be powered constantly, which would allow the amber sequential indicators to function properly :happy:

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and that's why you should buy these bits from the experts lol... :D

I would if they'd make some I liked the look of and didn't cost £400 :(

 

Can always just clear out the fog and leave it at that, or actually apply myself and make a custom circuit.

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Had a chat with a manufacturer who make quality 4-wire sequentials so the amber and white work individually.

 

Prices are ~£66 for a set of 60cm strips that can be cut down to the desired length, but if you buy 10 sets it's only ~£30 per set. Anyone up for a group buy? Would be ideal for headlights too :blush:

Edited by Strudul
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