Replace Individual LEDs in Tail Lights

[firm0707]

Dears,

Many thanks for your replies, guidelines and advise.
Just finished my work on it. I've only changed few of turning signal LEDs for now. But now in a future I guess it wouldn't be a great issue to open it again and replace whatever I'll need.

After resoldered I closed it using buthyl tape.
Planning to perform the same on the left one (unless I have my friend Dremel)) ) to have a possibility to solder at any time.

[y2k_o__o]

Yes and no...

I bought a spare LED tail light from eBay to tool around with. I have several observations...

- Don't try removing the clear lens cover if yours is already attached well. It will be difficult to reattach and make it look perfect. I cut open the back side instead to access the circuit board. That said, if your seal is already broken, might as well pop it off the rest of the way.
- My LEDs all work fine - something is wrong in the circuit board that causes them to not light up. It seems like an overly complex design to turn on a few LEDs so I haven't been able to troubleshoot it.
- The brightness of the LEDs or driver circuitry varies from year to year so getting a used light unit and swapping it is a gamble.

These lights are super cheaply made and delicate.

My recommendation is just cough up the $ and buy a new one if yours breaks.

I have a pair of tail light that has the cover detached already. How do I remove the chrome reflector and reach the PCB?

[y2k_o__o]

sweet! Got a link to the piranha LED parts?

Here's what I found on aliexpress, and these piranha led seems to have the same metal base as ours. Not really sure if it has the same wavelength as our OEM ones.

I haven't taken my LED light apart yet. If someone already has the LED board out, please compare the dimension against the diagram below

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004344029448.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.2 5.25f5VwpLVwpL1z&algo_pvid=dda7bbb7-9c82-43e2-83f2-69ab666559c9&algo_exp_id=dda7bbb7-9c82-43e2-83f2-69ab666559c9-12&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22order%22%3A%2216%22%2C%22eval% 2 2%3A%221%22%7D&pdp_npi=4%40dis%21CAD%213.62%213.62 %21%21%212.47%212.47%21%402101d9ee1738992222421770 9ec11b%2112000028837198917%21sea%21CA%21100962474% 21X&curPageLogUid=9saC5QfqV8TN&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch%7Cquery_from%3A

I can see that positioning the LED accurately would be a challenge. so I have to think of a way to align them before de-solder the old ones out.

[Casa de Mesa]

I accidentally ripped off the lens on one of my taillights, so took them both apart and reglued them: https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...081#post191081 Heat gun, razor blade and patience was all that was needed.

I didn't try taking the entire thing apart though, but I'm pretty sure it would have disassembled pretty easily if I had removed the screws. Just be careful with the chrome, as it's super easy to damage.

The link heinzboehmer provided above took me to a different post for some reason. Dropping this here for anyone looking to find this: https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...081#post191081

Also, I'm about to start the journey of fixing some tail light LEDs. Going to try to separate the lens from the cover, as one of the tail lights has gunk inside of it from a failing lens seal. It needs to be fixed anyway.

I'll try to take pics and if I find anything useful of sharing along the way, I'll add to this thread.

Also, found this video about gluing the lens back in place. Thought it was directionally helpful:

https://youtu.be/JM5mOcGS71o?si=7b50Z0yBbymSWIaX

[Casa de Mesa]

Well so far so good...

Separating the lens from the housing was *very* easy. Just a heat gun and some patience. Came apart in under 15 min and I was going slow.

Onto the LED job.

[Casa de Mesa]

So as it turns out, you 100% can get into the taillights without cutting into them. However, the lens needs to first be separated from the housing.

If anyone is attempting this, I HIGHLY recommend removing your lens. The adhesive on both taillights I disassembled was very old and dry rotted. I suspect this will become a "routine maintenance" item for those with water leaking into their lights (or who want to preventatively address it) and not wanting to spend $750 per light as these cars continue to age.

I'll add to this DIY or maybe even do a separate one (how to disassemble LED taillight housings), as I took lots of detailed photos and went slow so as not to break anything. Which, in 20 year old plastic, is quite easy to do. I tested several techniques and went until I heard plastic cracking, then backed off. There is a way to get these apart without breaking a thing.

Here's where I'm at currently, out of time to progress this further this weekend.

[Casa de Mesa]

Another thought here. At this stage of disassembly, it would be easy to get the chrome plastic recoated if anyone knows if that's possible. It's on my list to research. The chrome on the taillights I acquired has seen better days.

Lastly in case he sees this and is like WTF, I very recently bought WOLFN8TR 's driver's side LED taillight. Had I not had a backup on the way, I probably wouldn't have attempted this.

[heinzboehmer]

Nice! Agreed that removing the lens if the adhesive is failing is the way to go. Should have done it this way from the start, but the adhesive was fine back then.

And +1 to rechroming if possible. That stuff is extremely easy to damage.

[Casa de Mesa]

Just ordered some LEDs. And by some I mean 50. At $0.67 each, it's hard not so get extras!

Thanks for the DIY on the PCB LEDs. Time to learn how to solder PCB boards now. I'm good with the "blunt object soldering" but PCBs will be a whole new universe for me.

[WOLFN8TR]

Lastly in case he sees this and is like WTF, I very recently bought WOLFN8TR 's driver's side LED taillight. Had I not had a backup on the way, I probably wouldn't have attempted this.

Ya I seen this right before you bought mine. I wish you luck with the repair. 😎

[heinzboehmer]

Just ordered some LEDs. And by some I mean 50. At $0.67 each, it's hard not so get extras!

Thanks for the DIY on the PCB LEDs. Time to learn how to solder PCB boards now. I'm good with the "blunt object soldering" but PCBs will be a whole new universe for me.

Hot air makes stuff like this a breeze. You can get reflow stations for super cheap these days from the usual suspects.

(and you won't end up with the horrible solder blobs that are all over my repaired taillight from trying to use a soldering iron with too big a tip)

[Casa de Mesa]

Heads over to YouTube "reflow station".

[heinzboehmer]

Heads over to YouTube "reflow station".

If you do end up going that route, you should consider destroying the old LEDs with pliers to get the bulk of them off, then clean up the pads with hot air. Will save you a lot of headache. Just watch that you don't accidentally pull a pad off during the destruction phase.

There's a lot of copper (i.e. heat capacity) in those GND/power planes and it's not easy to get everything up to solder melting temp with the cheap reflow stations.

[Casa de Mesa]

Appreciate the pointers, as always.

This wording:

...you should consider destroying the old LEDs with pliers to get the bulk of them off

...induces and makes me realize how little I know about working on boards!

But knowing this is the direction I should be heading will hopefully narrow my focus on what to research and ultimately buy.