Beetle LED Tail Light Swap?

Has anyone swapped out the stock tail lamp housing for and LED unit? We have been looking on Ebay and other places for a company that sells RED LED tail lights with an AMBER turn signal. I think most of us agree that AMBER is easier to see in poor weather conditions.

Any information on where we can find a tail lamp like we're looking for and success or failure would be very helpful! Thank you! -Dave

2001 Beetle TDI

I have looked at what is offered on various places on the internet for quite some time and I am not impressed with any of them. So, I am engineering some myself, but I am horribly slow. That means, don't wait for me, particularly since I am going to do city lights for a Golf first, anyway.

Things to be careful of are "high intensity" adertisements that are made with large numbers of 3 or 5 mm LEDs. They get their high intensity by focusing a beam, and will result in an overall shortfall in total lumen output while still costing quite a bit. In addition, if the LEDs are overdriven (usually the case) the life of the LED may be measured in tens of hours, rather than the thousands of hours quoted. After a relatively short period of time, the LEDs will begin to burn out and there will be a tremendous drop in light output.

My other problem with rear turn signals and lights has been the wonder of what will happen with turn signal function as well as a nosy computer that will try to figure out if the bulb is still there or not. Replacing a filament bulb with an LED will show the computer a higher resistance, so much so (in my case since a small 'feeler' pulse will be so small as to not be able to get through the current regulator circuitry I plan on using) that the computer would think the bulb is burned out and command the blinker to go into fast blink mode.

I just haven't decided what to do about it. Yes, I know about the parallel resistor 'fix' but I am trying to get around that as it is not esthetically pleasing to me.

Anyway, those are my thoughts for the moment, and I'll be happy to read anyone else's thoughts and solutions as well.

Cheers!

The only option I've seen with red LED parking/brake lights and amber turn signals are the following:



Not to turn this thread into a solicitation, but I've actually got a set of these tails that I've never installed if you're interested in purchasing a set. I already have LED tails on my NB (red/red) and I decided that I like the ones that I have better than the above ones.

I have been trying to work with LED lighting and I'm down to the brake/tail lights (1157). There is a relay-brake switch mod that looks good, but I cannot get to the wiring because there is no room for more than one hand (I cannot cut, solder, shrink sleeve - heck, I cannot even use those damnable crimp connectors!).
If anyone knows where else I can work with that black/red brake light switch wire, I'm all ears. I have my relay setup all prepared.

Maybe it's just me, but I would get a quality set of LED bulbs, like the Sylvania at the parts store, and drop into the stock housing. I had pretty good luck with the '13 Beetle this way.

Stay away from the cheap 1157 LED bulbs - they will just annoy you with how much they suck.

Stock is 7528L for brake/tail and 7506 for turn. Sorry, I haven't found amber yet.

Jason

Tdi swap?

Our2001TDI said:

Has anyone swapped out the stock tail lamp housing for and LED unit? We have been looking on Ebay and other places for a company that sells RED LED tail lights with an AMBER turn signal. I think most of us agree that AMBER is easier to see in poor weather conditions.

Any information on where we can find a tail lamp like we're looking for and success or failure would be very helpful! Thank you! -Dave

2001 Beetle TDI

[/https://inlandempire.craigslist.org/cto/d/victorville-2011-audi-a4-primium/7064425362.html

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