Facelift Tail Light Repair
- Thread starter Brunocrossley
- Start date
<Holy thread revival, Batman>
Noticed by chance the other day my passenger tail light was dim so had a search for the listed LEDs but couldn't find them at a sensible price (or more often, sensible postage) so I dug about and took a chance on some 2PLCCs from eBay:
(Dead cheap for 10. I was going to get OE fit 4 pin 4PLCCs but they're hard to come by.)
Anyway, hacked open the light today (thanks to the OP for the guide but I think he's sold up and moved on.) For the curved edge along the back edge of the light, I cut underneath the little overhang (ie at right angles to the other 3 cuts and parallel to the little stub) and that worked a treat to give me a straight cut and a piece that was easy to glue back in after.
I started by changing the duff LED and my pocket friendly replacements were spot on - I struggled to find decent specs on brightness for a given current so I thought I'd go for something bright (these say they're 600mcd) so that I had the option of adding a resistor somewhere to bring the current down if they were too bright.
I swapped the other two too, tested it and put the board back in. A drop of hot melt on the back of the PCB allowed me to stick the PCB to the pegs and the cutout bit of panel roughly into place. I then sealed it all up with PU adhesive as I had a tube open.
Here's a little diagram of the pin layout of the original common anode LEDs and the anode/cathode arrangement of the new ones:
Probably unhelpful photos from my shocking phone camera:
Noticed by chance the other day my passenger tail light was dim so had a search for the listed LEDs but couldn't find them at a sensible price (or more often, sensible postage) so I dug about and took a chance on some 2PLCCs from eBay:
3528 SMD Surface Mount LED SMT PLCC-2 - White Red Blue Green Yellow Amber RGB | eBay UK
RGB Red=400mcd. Pure White 1600mcd 6000K 3.2V 30mA 120°. Amber 300mcd 603nm 2.1V 30mA 120°. Blue=350mcd Red=625nm. Yellow 480mcd 590nm 2.2V 30mA 120°. Blue=470nm Red=2.5V. Green 900mcd 520nm 3.2V 20mA 120°.
www.ebay.co.uk
(Dead cheap for 10. I was going to get OE fit 4 pin 4PLCCs but they're hard to come by.)
Anyway, hacked open the light today (thanks to the OP for the guide but I think he's sold up and moved on.) For the curved edge along the back edge of the light, I cut underneath the little overhang (ie at right angles to the other 3 cuts and parallel to the little stub) and that worked a treat to give me a straight cut and a piece that was easy to glue back in after.
I started by changing the duff LED and my pocket friendly replacements were spot on - I struggled to find decent specs on brightness for a given current so I thought I'd go for something bright (these say they're 600mcd) so that I had the option of adding a resistor somewhere to bring the current down if they were too bright.
I swapped the other two too, tested it and put the board back in. A drop of hot melt on the back of the PCB allowed me to stick the PCB to the pegs and the cutout bit of panel roughly into place. I then sealed it all up with PU adhesive as I had a tube open.
Here's a little diagram of the pin layout of the original common anode LEDs and the anode/cathode arrangement of the new ones:
Probably unhelpful photos from my shocking phone camera:
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