garciapiano
Veteran Member
Hi,
Has anyone installed LED bulbs in their tail light sockets? I've found that the extra brightness and instant-on of the LEDs helps modernize the car and provides a factor of safety.
You can go straight to 5x red W5W LEDs in the high mount light with no impact to normal operation, but the 1157 Tail/brake lamps need resistors added to run properly.
I am trying to figure out a way to get my 1157 LED brake bulbs to work. I used a similar approach on my mk4 where you can use the 31 (ground) and 58 (tail light positive) open pins on the bulb holder to easily "splice" in a set of resistors without cutting into the factory harness. I thought I could connect two load resistors in series to just the driver side rear bulb holder, effectively putting them on the common ground for both the tail and brake lights. This appeared to work when the car was OFF, but when the car is running (engine on), the center mount brake light runs at all times at about half power (without brake pedal depressed), so I've since removed the LEDs and gone back to the incandescent bulbs.
Without the resistors attached, the center mount light is on at full brightness at all times. This happens because there isn't enough resistance in the circuit to prevent the high mount brake light from lighting (my guess is the current jumps the switch or backfeeds from somwhere.) I'm not surprised since this also happens on the Mk4 cars.
I haven't tried it yet, but I'm thinking I should just add another resistor and try again?
The Mk3s seem to work differently since they appear to be wired a little differently – both tail lights share a common ground wire and the passenger side has a different plug going to it. But perhaps I have the resistors attached to the wrong point (they are effectively wired in parallel with the circuit and not in series.) My feeling is that I'll have to splice the resistors into the harness on the passenger side.
Perhaps I should just abandon this project given that the resistors will be pulling current at all times and could overheat or melt something in the trunk.
Has anyone installed LED bulbs in their tail light sockets? I've found that the extra brightness and instant-on of the LEDs helps modernize the car and provides a factor of safety.
You can go straight to 5x red W5W LEDs in the high mount light with no impact to normal operation, but the 1157 Tail/brake lamps need resistors added to run properly.
I am trying to figure out a way to get my 1157 LED brake bulbs to work. I used a similar approach on my mk4 where you can use the 31 (ground) and 58 (tail light positive) open pins on the bulb holder to easily "splice" in a set of resistors without cutting into the factory harness. I thought I could connect two load resistors in series to just the driver side rear bulb holder, effectively putting them on the common ground for both the tail and brake lights. This appeared to work when the car was OFF, but when the car is running (engine on), the center mount brake light runs at all times at about half power (without brake pedal depressed), so I've since removed the LEDs and gone back to the incandescent bulbs.
Without the resistors attached, the center mount light is on at full brightness at all times. This happens because there isn't enough resistance in the circuit to prevent the high mount brake light from lighting (my guess is the current jumps the switch or backfeeds from somwhere.) I'm not surprised since this also happens on the Mk4 cars.
I haven't tried it yet, but I'm thinking I should just add another resistor and try again?
The Mk3s seem to work differently since they appear to be wired a little differently – both tail lights share a common ground wire and the passenger side has a different plug going to it. But perhaps I have the resistors attached to the wrong point (they are effectively wired in parallel with the circuit and not in series.) My feeling is that I'll have to splice the resistors into the harness on the passenger side.
Perhaps I should just abandon this project given that the resistors will be pulling current at all times and could overheat or melt something in the trunk.
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