griggs95 Posted November 6, 2012 Report Share Posted November 6, 2012 Has anyone done the LED tail lights and brake lights as replacement bulbs? How much did it cost to replace the 4 bulbs and was it worth it? Are they brighter etc. ? I'm just looking to do those first and then maybe some of the others in the future, thanks you guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhenne4 Posted November 6, 2012 Report Share Posted November 6, 2012 Well if you are a 2010-2012 then you can't put the LED lights on there without replacing a lot of stuff including the trunk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EcoBoostSHO Posted November 7, 2012 Report Share Posted November 7, 2012 I think he is talking about replacing just the bulbs...not the actual tail assemblies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjhpadi Posted November 7, 2012 Report Share Posted November 7, 2012 I tried replacing the bulbs with LED bulbs and they wouldn't work in either taillight or backup lights. I think you need to add resistors or change the wiring to make the LED's work. More work then I wanted to tackle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
griggs95 Posted November 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 7, 2012 Yes I was referring to just changing the bulbs themselves but only the brake lights and running lights in the rear of the vehicle. Turn signals do require resisters otherwise they blink to quick like a riced out Honda. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjhpadi Posted November 7, 2012 Report Share Posted November 7, 2012 The tail light bulbs were what I tried changing with the correct replacement LED bulbs and they didn't work. I didn't replace the turn signals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHOdded Posted November 7, 2012 Report Share Posted November 7, 2012 Haven't tried replacing taillights with LEDs, but did replace backup lights in another Ford vehicle. I used 7W Cree LEDs, you can find them on EBay or Amazon. They seem to be working well so far, but it's only been a month or so. Could be the electrical system in the SHO is monitoring the lights in a way that makes LEDs incompatible, but unless they are using some sort of "smart bulb", I don't know what that would be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHO Rod Posted November 7, 2012 Report Share Posted November 7, 2012 The tail light bulbs were what I tried changing with the correct replacement LED bulbs and they didn't work. I didn't replace the turn signals. Did they just not light up? Keep in mind that the 'D' of 'LED' stands for diode, these bulbs are polarity sensitive and will only work one way. If they don't work the first time, rotate the base 180 degrees and try again. If the bulb is good, it should work. -Rod Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjhpadi Posted November 7, 2012 Report Share Posted November 7, 2012 Understand how they work, since I replaced all the interior lights, trunk lights, puddle lights, and the front marker lights with LED bulbs. Don't have any idea why they would not light in the rear but they were no go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHO Rod Posted November 7, 2012 Report Share Posted November 7, 2012 Maybe you just got lucky with all of them. I guess my comment doesn't apply to you then, but may be of use to others on this forum who attempt to switch to LEDs. -Rod Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjhpadi Posted November 7, 2012 Report Share Posted November 7, 2012 Yeah, it was strange, that I had no problem with the lights I changed, but the LED's didn't want to work in the tails, still not sure why...kinda puzzling!:noidea: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EcoBoostSHO Posted November 7, 2012 Report Share Posted November 7, 2012 I suppose its possible that the body control module (not sure what Ford calls that or if they even have one) is sensing the resistance of the bulbs (to determine if they burn out) and has some logic that prevents them from lighting if they see a very low resistance (could look like a short circuit to it...). One could measure the resistance of the existing bulb and try putting that in series with the LED bulb to see if it would work. As someone else mentioned they only conduct current in one direction so they have to be installed correctly as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjhpadi Posted November 7, 2012 Report Share Posted November 7, 2012 Geesh, I know that LED's have to be installed in the correct "direction"...however, I am not very good with electrical stuff, so I didn't really fool with anything other then the wouldn't light when installed in either direction. However, the first part of your post does make sense, I and suspect that you are correct as the reason they wouldn't light. However, I did forget that sometimes they would light, but then wouldn't go out with the lights turned off...again, :noidea: and since I have limited knowledge of the lighting system, I didn't pursue it further. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
griggs95 Posted November 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 7, 2012 I'm not sure it's really worth it at close to $30.00 per bulb and I need 4 of them to complete the tail lights. I love the immediate response time of LED's on braking but I don't want to deal with returning all this stuff through the mail either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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