LP640 Tail light retrofit

Anyone try fitting LP lights on a Murci? Looks to be the same dimensions...

 

not just tail lights but the whole rear retrofit on this Roadster...
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I looked into this for you when I was at the factory last summer... from talking to the tech there and looking at it, it looks like the bolt-up might be ok. (I would put the two next to each other before spending the money of course)

The problem is how the lights work, on the Murci the bulbs are on traditional wiring harness. The 640 bulbs are setup different.. from a quick look at them, there is a circuit board on the unit that is power up, then a signal is sent to it telling which bulb to light. (they probably did this for dashboard indicators of burned out bulbs, and to save on the amount of wire runs in the vehicle)

This was just from a just a few minutes of looking at it while at the factory.. I would spend some time pulling one apart to see what exactly you are up against..

 

If anyone wants to do the rear bumper update, I have a complete lp640 rear bumper available...

 

I think you nailed it with this one. But anyhow, am I correct in saying that the normal Murcielago uses halogen based bulbs to light up the tail lights? If so, then I'd be willing to bet some money that the LP640 (if it uses LED based bulbs) *MUST* be using a different wiring schematic designed to accept the lower voltage used by the bulbs. If so, then in order to retrofit the LP's tails into a non-LP Murcielago, you would need some sort of resistors wired in or swap in the newer wiring harness itself in order to prevent bulb out warnings triggered by usage of the older, halogen-based wiring system.

Don't quote me on this, but I believe I'm on the right track with the above analysis. It reminds of a smiliar situation with BMW switching to LED based tail-lights in 2003, and in order to retrofit the 99-02 models with the updated LED tails, one had to do lots of retrofitting to the wiring and relays - OR go the easier route by just wiring some resistors into the circuit to absorb the leftover voltage from the LED bulbs (since the LEDs used less power than sent out by the halogen based wiring).

 

I dont think it would be that hard - I have seen my guys do stranger things.. question is the cost must be up there - i know the reg taillights are $1400-1500 each alone - I am going to call my dealer tommorow and get a parts listing and costs... let you know!

 

Sounds good. If the tailights already were prewired with the newer circuitboard/resistors, it should be basically plug and play. It also makes sense to do that though, as it keeps costs low from having to redo wiring in the newer Murcielagos from production. Better to just have the new tail-light housing take care of it all.

I'd like to see you're findings just out of curiosity!

 

Those tops are the ugliest things in the world....... god help me...

 

You on about the softop? If so, a friend once stated they look like a, "bad toupe." Couldn't agree more.

 

agreed,+1

 

hmm..since he have done it 40%..why dun he finish the side and the front..? LOL..make it 100%..the LP front looks way better then the normal 1

 

Hi how much are you asking for them email [email protected]. Please let me know
Regards,

 

just tint the regular ones. it gives the same kind of consistancy that the lp640 tails have.

 

I remember in another thread Roy Cats saying for it to work you have to do some major rewiring of the car... and that it would cost to much to be worth it... too bad IMO because the LP640 lights look WAY better.

 

I doubt it has anything to do with resistance and such. LED's draw less power, but there isn't anything "left over", they just put less strain on the wiring/battery, etc.

More likely, they are using something like CANbus or LINBus. What that means is instead of the switch at the brake pedal being what activates the brake light, instead they have a microcontroller somewhere in the dash that sends a data signal to the tail light unit. This way, you can just use two wire (i.e. canbus) or other bus methods and those few wires carry all the signals to the tail light. The controller in the car says to the tail light "hey turn on the back up lights" or "turn on the brakes..... ok now turn them off" and all of that is done with less wire and less complexity (and its lighter).

It would probably be quite easy to put an LP640 light on a Murcie in terms of wiring. It may not be easy to try to make an interface to send the same bus signal with only the tail light, but it should be quite easy to circumvent the bus circuitry on the tail light and just make a plug that would make it work just like a Murcie light (i.e. it's easier to bypass the bus system than to try to recreate it on a Murcie - thats' where the "means a lot of wiring" comments come from).

If anyone has an LP640 tail light, and pays shipping to send it to me and back, I don't mind looking at it and seeing whats involved in making it work on a Murcie. More than likely we're talking a few jumper wires and a few electronic components, and at worst it would be a new control circuit board. Either way it would be pretty easy, and I'm not looking for any $$, I'd do it as a favor just because I think it'd be a cool project.

 

Speaking of which, if anyone has a MURCIELAGO tail light (the bulb one), that they would be willing to send me, I can also design a circuit board that's all LED and would go into the Murcie light and use Murcie wiring. One of the things we manufacture is brake lights with microcontrollers built in, and they have various effects (i.e. when you hit the brakes, they come on, but fade out instead of just turn off when you release the brake).

Probably could do something cool for a Murcie. Not enuff of a market to go buy a Murcie light and do this, but if someone has one around that can be the prototype (no harm done during proto phase), I'll do the design/build for free.