Harley#356
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 20, 2013
- Messages
- 502
- Reaction score
- 11
- City, State
- NJ
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2013 Explorer Sport
So it bugged me how the taillights are LED brake lights, LED parking lights, and halogen reverse light, and halogen turn signal.
I already converted the full interior, puddle lamps, and tag lights to LED. And did the reverse lights as LED (http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=386235), so here's the info for the turn signals front & rear.
Here's the parts I used. Since the ebay links won't last forever, but they're good for now, I'll post both the part specs for future searching, and the direct links for anyone upgrading now....
Front Turn Signals: I forget exactly what the manual calls for, the Sylvania site isn't working for me right now to double check, but the ones I got cross reference to all of the following with a T25 base: 3157, 3156, 3457, 4157, 3456, 3057.
The LED is 27 5050 SMD LEDs. You want 5050's! Don't be pursuaded by one having 50 LEDs of the smaller 3528 type, it won't be as bright as 5050s even with 1/2 the number!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/11096705203...X:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_1449wt_1255
Front Marker Lamps: These are 194 T10 bulbs. You always want the same color LED as what's behind the reflector. Amber reflector = amber LED. So I got amber 194 T10 LED bulbs with 5 5050 SMD LEDs
http://www.ebay.com/itm/35076891920...X:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_3025wt_1255
Rear Turn Signals: The manual calls for a W21W. Same thing with the 5050 SMD LEDs, the most 5050's I was able to find in this bulb size was 13 of them. This size also cross references to 7443 and 7444. Get amber if you want the rear turn signals to be amber like stock, or get red if you want to change the rear turn signals to red (both are DOT legal)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/171032580623?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
Rear Load Resistors: The front turn signals shouldn't require load resistors. It may vary depending on which bulbs you get, but in my 2012 Raptor, and our 2013 Sport, neither required load resistors up front, both required load resistors out back. I got these ones, they're 6.8 ohms and 25 watts, and nice and compact.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/31067006923...X:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_2389wt_1255
Rear factory turn signal bulb vs. the repalcement LED...
Here's how I hooked up the load resistor. There's only 2 wires to the turn signal bulb, so splice the resistor into them in parallel with the bulb. THe resistor has 2 leads so you could wire it on 2 circuits if a tailight had 2 bulbs. Ours only have one, so I just used both leads in the same connector. I used blue wire taps rather than the provided red ones, but either will work.
I left the turn signals on for about 5 minutes to feel how hot the resistor got. Current only passes thru here when the blinker is on. You can have the car lights on all day, no current goes through this circuit unless the turn signal is on. After about 5 minutes the resistor got pretty hot, hot enough you didn't want to hold it, but not hot enough to melt plastic or even tape. I had some 1/8" thick by 1" wide aluminum stock. I cut a 3" piece and put double sided tape on the back, and stuck it to the taillight, then used gel superglue and glued the resistor to the aluminum, and the height is perfect to squeeze the assembly under that plastic tab sticking out of the taliight. Everything is clamped in place, and after running it for another 5 minutes with the flashers on, with the added heat sync of the 3" piece of aluminum, it allowed enough heat dissipation that you could then touch the resistor without feeling that hot.
Further back pic of the taillight with where I mounted the resistor...
STOCK....ugly orange egg yolk in the clear light...
LED.....nice crystal clear lense with the LED installed...
LED turned on....still nice bright amber light. Or if you choose a red one, it'll be a nice red to match the factory brake lights. I think I may swap mine from amber to red just to have 1 less color on the rear, and to look different from every other explorer out there.
Now the fronts, the LED's dont really gain you as much, since it's behind an amber reflector. But to me, the crisp on/off action of the LED just looks more high end than the fading on, fading off, of a halogen bulb.
Pic was really hard to take to show anything in the daylight with a camera phone, they light up just as bright as the stock ones. Install I had to unbolt the hood bump stop brackets (two 8mm bolts) and undo the top headlight bolt (1 10mm bolt), and the top headlight clip, to pull the top of the headlight out a hair to be able to get the bulb out since there's a metal brace right behind the bulb housing that it just barely hits.
I already converted the full interior, puddle lamps, and tag lights to LED. And did the reverse lights as LED (http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=386235), so here's the info for the turn signals front & rear.
Here's the parts I used. Since the ebay links won't last forever, but they're good for now, I'll post both the part specs for future searching, and the direct links for anyone upgrading now....
Front Turn Signals: I forget exactly what the manual calls for, the Sylvania site isn't working for me right now to double check, but the ones I got cross reference to all of the following with a T25 base: 3157, 3156, 3457, 4157, 3456, 3057.
The LED is 27 5050 SMD LEDs. You want 5050's! Don't be pursuaded by one having 50 LEDs of the smaller 3528 type, it won't be as bright as 5050s even with 1/2 the number!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/11096705203...X:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_1449wt_1255
Front Marker Lamps: These are 194 T10 bulbs. You always want the same color LED as what's behind the reflector. Amber reflector = amber LED. So I got amber 194 T10 LED bulbs with 5 5050 SMD LEDs
http://www.ebay.com/itm/35076891920...X:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_3025wt_1255
Rear Turn Signals: The manual calls for a W21W. Same thing with the 5050 SMD LEDs, the most 5050's I was able to find in this bulb size was 13 of them. This size also cross references to 7443 and 7444. Get amber if you want the rear turn signals to be amber like stock, or get red if you want to change the rear turn signals to red (both are DOT legal)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/171032580623?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
Rear Load Resistors: The front turn signals shouldn't require load resistors. It may vary depending on which bulbs you get, but in my 2012 Raptor, and our 2013 Sport, neither required load resistors up front, both required load resistors out back. I got these ones, they're 6.8 ohms and 25 watts, and nice and compact.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/31067006923...X:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_2389wt_1255
Rear factory turn signal bulb vs. the repalcement LED...
Here's how I hooked up the load resistor. There's only 2 wires to the turn signal bulb, so splice the resistor into them in parallel with the bulb. THe resistor has 2 leads so you could wire it on 2 circuits if a tailight had 2 bulbs. Ours only have one, so I just used both leads in the same connector. I used blue wire taps rather than the provided red ones, but either will work.
I left the turn signals on for about 5 minutes to feel how hot the resistor got. Current only passes thru here when the blinker is on. You can have the car lights on all day, no current goes through this circuit unless the turn signal is on. After about 5 minutes the resistor got pretty hot, hot enough you didn't want to hold it, but not hot enough to melt plastic or even tape. I had some 1/8" thick by 1" wide aluminum stock. I cut a 3" piece and put double sided tape on the back, and stuck it to the taillight, then used gel superglue and glued the resistor to the aluminum, and the height is perfect to squeeze the assembly under that plastic tab sticking out of the taliight. Everything is clamped in place, and after running it for another 5 minutes with the flashers on, with the added heat sync of the 3" piece of aluminum, it allowed enough heat dissipation that you could then touch the resistor without feeling that hot.
Further back pic of the taillight with where I mounted the resistor...
STOCK....ugly orange egg yolk in the clear light...
LED.....nice crystal clear lense with the LED installed...
LED turned on....still nice bright amber light. Or if you choose a red one, it'll be a nice red to match the factory brake lights. I think I may swap mine from amber to red just to have 1 less color on the rear, and to look different from every other explorer out there.
Now the fronts, the LED's dont really gain you as much, since it's behind an amber reflector. But to me, the crisp on/off action of the LED just looks more high end than the fading on, fading off, of a halogen bulb.
Pic was really hard to take to show anything in the daylight with a camera phone, they light up just as bright as the stock ones. Install I had to unbolt the hood bump stop brackets (two 8mm bolts) and undo the top headlight bolt (1 10mm bolt), and the top headlight clip, to pull the top of the headlight out a hair to be able to get the bulb out since there's a metal brace right behind the bulb housing that it just barely hits.
