430 Rear light mod.

That's a good question?

 

May I know how to get it done on the whole 360 deg. Any threat?

Thanks

 

Great idea Anders. Just found back your thread while I was checking my taillights. On my car, the outer lights work a bit different. When the position lights are on (5W), both bulbs will light on (2 halfs). But you're right, the 21W part (braking light) works only on one of the 2 bulbs. Indeed, the metallic link between both 21W pos. is not made. I will connect them as you explained, trying to solder them or putting a screw there.

I'm wondering how you were able to light on also the inner lights when braking. Actually, only one half is equipped with a bulb holder which is used for the fog lights (specific 21W bulb). The other one is empty as shown in the picture below. How did you fit a bulb in the empty one? I suppose you changed also the wire harnesses? Did you remove the fog light functionality or you added a relay to switch between brake or fog?

BTW, I'm considering to replace these 21/5 bulbs by led bulbs because in Swizerland, we drive always with the lights on. I noticed that a lot of water vapor is getting there with the bulb heat. With LED's, this issue should be resolved for good.

Many thanks
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I personally think the way they do it in the EU version (only half the tail light lit) looks cooler, but I assumed this was illegal in the states.

 

Looks fantastic! But I reckon it takes much more tech skills to pull this one off than the led angel eyes.

 

Hahaha....thats obvious. There's nothing the two of you can't pull off. Us lesser beings have fumbly fingers that don't seem to fit anywhere around a F-car. LOL. But thanks for sharing. I'm starting to feel a tad bit of confidence and soon I will embark on the led angel eye project before knocking up more courage to do this. Thanks once again.

 

That's cool, thanks very much for your feedback Anders. Where did you buy your 21/5 LED lamps? How many leds have each lamp? I'm interested in this because there are so so many available LED lamps (BAY15d) that I can't make up my mind which one to choose

You're right, I want to keep the overall power consumption under 3.5 Amp. I have to check what's the consumption of a 24 led BAY15d lamp.

Thanks,
Stef

 

Keep on reading our posts you'll get very familiar with the subject and as Anders said, make slow moves, take your time when you do something the first time. Study everything carefully before going to the next step so that you can remember how it was. Never remove everything at once so that you still have a reference in case you don't remember anymore how to put it back. I will post some detailled picts/procedures once I'll start the mod. For now, I'm studying the subject

 

Anders, if I read well your post, you kept also the foglight isn't?

In this case, if I resume:

Normal position position light: 4 x 5W = 20 W
Braking light : 3 x 21 W = 63 W
Fog light: 1 x 21 W

Is that right?

Thanks,
Stef

 

That's for 430s, right? I'd like to get all 4 lamps to light up rather than 3 with the easy screw fix, but could that potentially blow the fuse Stef? If so, the mod has to be done along with an LED change to be safe, no? I have a manual, but blowing a brake lamp fuse is not a safe thing to mess with.

Hey, wouldn't the better option be to buy another 'outer' base, so you can light up the entire lamp with just one bulb??? Take care gang.

 

JC, as Lilleprins wrote, you better go with LED lamps because 3x21W or 4x21W will blow the fuse for sure. You have to keep it all together under 3 Amps to be save.

This mod is definitely for the F430. I prefer to keep my stock lights as LED's will be perfect and a cheap solution. Also LED's will resolve the heat problem I have with normal bulbs and they are good for 50.000 hours .
Cheers,
Stef

 

Thanks buddy. Thought we had 3 already, so we only have 2 brake bulbs per side, correct? Will wait until somebody posts pics of the LED lights to make sure they're at least equally bright from all angles, especially from the side. Also want to make sure there won't be a dash light, in case this car (manual here -I know F1 does) monitors the brake lights. Take care.

 

Attached is a first guide to understand the wiring of the taillights before doing any mod. I based this guide on the European version. Be aware that the US version is different as they don't have tail fog lights. If some can come in with the specifics of the US version, that would help the US community

More to come later
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Thanks for warning, you're right, the led bulbs you bought have "only" 24 leds and that will never match the brightness of a 21W bulb. I bought those having 35 Xenon white leds. But even that will not be bright enough I'm afraid. I will add a double led ring glued inside the lights which is based on very bright SMD 5050 Leds (see details about SMD in the Angel Eyes thread). One ring for position lights, second ring for stop lights. Led rings + 35 Xenon white led bulbs should give a brighter result than classical bulbs. In addition, I will implement this on all four lights (currently, the stop light is only on one half light). With 4 lights lighting up when I'm braking, I hope to scare a bit more those who can't resist to tailgate me I will add a relay to switch between the fog light and brake light.

Of course, lights off, all this will be totaly unvisible which is my second goal.

More to come later

 

Some new followup on this suject. Attached, you'll see the stock wiring of the F430 EUR taillights (one side - 2 taillights). The second image is a proposal of the modified wiring so that all 4 position lights and all 4 stop lights will work. When the fog light is switched on, a relay will give the priority to the 2 fog lights of the inner taillight. This will work only if LED bulbs are used as classical 21W bulbs would take too much Amps.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Picture of the current taillight harness of one side (both sides are identical).
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

It's a proposal Anders Everything need to be validated in real conditions once I'll get all the LED lamps and strips. If it will looks like a Xmass tree, than it's a no way My goal is to create something very effecient but "invisible" at the same time.

I'm still working on the relay to find something more integrated like a switching IC. As the Amps to switch is very low, there is a good chance to not use an electromecanic relay (coiled).