DIY: Custom LED 3rd Brake Light

[eyezack87]

This is a DIY covering the creation of a normal 3rd brake light, but in high quality LED pieces, not those PNP bulbs that aren't bright enough. Hopefully you guys will learn something. Of course, difficulty rating is very high so I don't expect many people to attempt this but its good knowledge for the future you know?

*Disclaimer*
I, nor Toyota Nation or Club Lexus take responsibility if you do something wrong and mess up your car. While the chances are low if you do exactly what I did, theres still the chance a small solder bridge between bad parts will blow a fuse on you. So yeah, ATTEMPT AT YOUR OWN RISK!!

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What you need:

1. One Large PCB board that you can solder with (Make sure its a little bigger than your 3rd brake Housing)
2. 30 High quality Superflux LEDs (LumiLEDs are what I'm using)
3. 5 100ohm 1W resistors
4. 2 47ohm 1/2W resistors
5. Solder
6. Red/Black Wires
7. Something to connect to the original wires in your housing (I used wire taps to make it easier to change but you can buy your light bulb base online for PNP use)

You will be wiring the LEDs exactly as the picture above suggests. You're more than welcome to come up with your own layout but my way has been working for quite some time. Its pretty much standard wiring - power > resistor > LED series > ground


Steps with Photos:

Make an outline of your housing on a piece of paper, cut it out, then trace it along the large PCB board like so.





Now test fit the 30 LEDs to make sure they fit before you cut the board out.





Now cut it out and fit it into your housing with the LEDs taped into place (tape in the back so its easier to "stick" to the board)







Now paint it whatever color you want. I picked black so its easier to see the LED during the day since I removed the diffusor.



Now solder the LEDs from + to - in a single direction according to my paper layout I made for you guys. Connect the +/- of each LED to the one next to it BUT make sure to stop where I showed above.







Now solder in your resistors, power, and ground wires according to my chart. Now you can test fit it and connect it to your housing using the taps (if you followed me), or the bulb bases.





Finished Shots:

Now you're pretty much finished. Place back into your car and enjoy the new look. Its more updated AND if you had an ES, you're less likely to be rear ended during the day due to inefficient 3rd brake/tail lights

Random angles (seats have now been replaced with perforated leather btw )...







Pictures during the afternoon AKA freaking bright sun











Pictures during sun down AKA 5pm ish









And heres the shot at night, which I'm sure you all are more interested in anyway lol. If anyone was wondering, street signs are illuminated from very far away. Very cool effect at night, especially when there are people rubbing against your ass. Its a good warning light for those bastards











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And thats it. I hope you enjoyed this DIY. I cut it down from the "work-in-progress" thread over on Club Lexus for my 2ES to make it cleaner for you guys. Of course, it doesn't necessarily apply to just 2ES/Gen 3+4 Camrys, it can apply to anything as long as you have your mind on it. You'll get a tail light out warning light but its easily fixable with another resistor or if you just pull the bulb out from the dash (in which I am doing since I'm doing all LED braking systems).

Good luck to everyone who does this too. Its a fairly simple mod and it goes well with custom LED tails too (more on that when I finish them). Any questions, comments, or concerns are welcome


Heres my WIP thread over at CL if you want to read up on my revisions and ideas (I'm a Hall of Famer ):
2ES Project Thread: Custom LED Lighting

[ColombianMax]

Looking good! I have my tail lamps LEDed but not my 3rd brake light... thats what I need! Have you considered LEDing your tailights?

[eyezack87]

Originally Posted by ColombianMax

Looking good! I have my tail lamps LEDed but not my 3rd brake light... thats what I need! Have you considered LEDing your tailights?

Lol, I thought I stated that above

Its a WIP since ES's generally don't have LED tails to buy. Everything is custom for ES guys usually...which is good

[Bdub215]

Good work Issac! following this for a while on CL. Wish i coulda did this to my 95 ES but its long gone.

[ColombianMax]

Originally Posted by eyezack87

Lol, I thought I stated that above

Its a WIP since ES's generally don't have LED tails to buy. Everything is custom for ES guys usually...which is good

Sorry I just went over the pics and straight to posting. Tell me about it... its the same for us Maxima guys, barely any aftermarket support due to the fact that they're family sedans. I had to get my tails custom made as well as my headlights. There's only 3 of us in IL with LED tails in our maxipads which is cool but seeing your post really makes me want to LED the 3rd brake light soon

[ColombianMax]

I know this is a Toyota forum and all but while on topic and especially since both have to be custom made..here's a pic or two of mine. If you guys are looking to LED your tail lights, feel free to contact me as I have a friend who strictly does this for a living. Here's some samples of my car, btw the darker looking portions are due to the factory reflector built into the taillight lens itself and possibly my point and shoot camera but take a look for yourselves

[eyezack87]

Originally Posted by Bdub215

Good work Issac! following this for a while on CL. Wish i coulda did this to my 95 ES but its long gone.

Thanks . Haha, you're more than welcome to continue it on your current car. Afterall, we both know that there will always be things we will nitpick

Originally Posted by ColombianMax

Sorry I just went over the pics and straight to posting. Tell me about it... its the same for us Maxima guys, barely any aftermarket support due to the fact that they're family sedans. I had to get my tails custom made as well as my headlights. There's only 3 of us in IL with LED tails in our maxipads which is cool but seeing your post really makes me want to LED the 3rd brake light soon

Haha, I'm 1 of 2 people in the US to have the LED brake light for a 2ES. I sold a set to a forum member over at CL and hes been loving it ever since. For the tails, I'm debating to sell a real kit or not though. It would be nice to be the only 2ES member with LED tails...but its nicer to share so thats why I post my schematics and what not hehe

[Bdub215]

Originally Posted by ColombianMax

Sorry I just went over the pics and straight to posting. Tell me about it... its the same for us Maxima guys, barely any aftermarket support due to the fact that they're family sedans. I had to get my tails custom made as well as my headlights. There's only 3 of us in IL with LED tails in our maxipads which is cool but seeing your post really makes me want to LED the 3rd brake light soon

Maxima owners imo have a way bigger aftermarket then us camry guys. Alot of it has to do with the vq motor.

[ColombianMax]

Originally Posted by Bdub215

Maxima owners imo have a way bigger aftermarket then us camry guys. Alot of it has to do with the vq motor.

I love my VQ I suppose the 4th gen maxima (95-99) may have some mods out there but my 3rd gen (89-94) doesn't have as many, that has a VG30e which is the same as the 300zx with SOHC. Regardless, the best mods are the ones you custom make where everyone looks for on eGay and cant find

Thats one of the reasons why I'm letting you guys know, I've got someone who can make some nice LED tails with YOUR custom design or he can come up with a nice clean pattern. His prices are quite affordable for the amount of work it takes. My tails alone took him 8 hours and I sat there the whole time watching

[FLIP K1DD]

super nice DIY! but um..forget the DIY, how much for one for a 94 camry, both 3rd brake and tails!?!

[Dick Tuck]

There are a lot of good highpower LED plug in replacements on the "Superbrightleds .com" site. Just Google it. BTW there IS a Federal "lumen" " not to exceed" (brightness) standard but I don't think anyone other that the Federal DOT knows about it. They probably whack semi drivers though.

[Oldcar95]

Do you have any technical spec on the LEDs (web site info)? Any part numbers and who was the supplier? How did you solve the burn out light bulb sensor? I read that there needs to be a power resistor in parallel across the power input so the sensor does not trip. Looks like a great project! Has me thinking about building one.

[eyezack87]

Originally Posted by FLIP K1DD

super nice DIY! but um..forget the DIY, how much for one for a 94 camry, both 3rd brake and tails!?!

Haha, its easier said than done. I have to take the measurements of the space inside the housing for me to work with. Then I'll have to custom design the board and layout for you to review/approve. After that, I'll make it. The thing about measuring the space, the tail will have to be baked open to do it. Thats why this DIY is a bit more tedious for tails. The 3rd brake is the easiest so far

Originally Posted by Dick Tuck

There are a lot of good highpower LED plug in replacements on the "Superbrightleds .com" site. Just Google it. BTW there IS a Federal "lumen" " not to exceed" (brightness) standard but I don't think anyone other that the Federal DOT knows about it. They probably whack semi drivers though.

Bad experiences with PNP bulbs from them. For one, they seem to fail if I don't add another resistor to the mix and some aren't that bright behind a 2ES tail light diffusor in the bright sun. Sides, anyone can do an easy bulb swap, its custom stuff that gives you more pride in a car. Also, I like seeing individual LEDs

Oh, and I'm not the craziest person yet. Some guy put 63 LumiLEDs in his car just to prove to people he can haha. It was an intense light thats for sure

Originally Posted by Oldcar95

Do you have any technical spec on the LEDs (web site info)? Any part numbers and who was the supplier? How did you solve the burn out light bulb sensor? I read that there needs to be a power resistor in parallel across the power input so the sensor does not trip. Looks like a great project! Has me thinking about building one.

Sure. HPWT DH00 G4000 is the part number. They're called LumiLEDs (spec sheet). I bought a 1200 pack from ebay a while back but they're also sold here. Unfortunately, those are sold out AND they're uber expensive. If you need any I sell mine for $12.50 + shipping for a tube of 60 LEDs.

As to answer your bulb out sensor thing, its a relatively easy fix with a "load equalizer". Of course, since I'm going the full LED braking route, I'm just going to pull that bulb out sensor light in my dash out. No need to spend more money on something that'll last longer than the car lol

[ColombianMax]

Originally Posted by eyezack87

Oh, and I'm not the craziest person yet. Some guy put 63 LumiLEDs in his car just to prove to people he can haha. It was an intense light thats for sure

63 isnt that crazy, I currently have 96 LEDs just for brakes/tail lights, I'm not quite sure how many LEDs are used for turn signals.

The more LEDs the more tedious the job is but more satisfying in the long run

So do you have pics of those tails you sold? I'm rather curious on what they looked like

[eyezack87]

Originally Posted by ColombianMax

63 isnt that crazy, I currently have 96 LEDs just for brakes/tail lights, I'm not quite sure how many LEDs are used for turn signals.

The more LEDs the more tedious the job is but more satisfying in the long run

So do you have pics of those tails you sold? I'm rather curious on what they looked like

Oops, I was just talking about the 3rd brake light when I was talking about the selling and the amount of LEDs part. The guy wanted to put more but got lazy/ran out of room on the board lol

For tails, more is usually better as it increases the amount of light that goes through the lens for people to see. My tails currently have 75 LEDs per side, which gives me a whopping 150 LEDs for the tails only with the reflectors to make them more focused. Add on the 3rd brake light and I'll have 180 LEDs illuminating/grabbing the attention of the poor drivers in SoCal

I'm almost finished with them though. Just need to find the right power/ground wiring, JB Weld the boards to the housing, dremel out the damn diffusors, tint the empty diffusor spots red, then silicone the housing back together. Needless to say, it'll take a small while since I'm super busy during the weekdays