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LED bulb for Tail light

34K views 120 replies 13 participants last post by  ishtori 
#1 ·
has anyone installed any 7443 LED bulb for their taillights?

thanks
 
#3 ·
V-leds 7443 Platinum red is what I am planning to buy.
 
#4 ·
So, it has been a week since I put in LEDs for my taillights and center highmount brake light. The difference is day and night and I absolutely love them. I got them from VLEDs.
 
#6 ·
#10 ·
The mini square is in the accent lights>circuit boards>red. Easy to get to it. The last two are in accessories/adapters etc. The daisy chain is the trickiest to find and is currently out of stock as I think I got the last piece. I'll post links in a while. Standby..

You can also talk to Jake at VLEDs. He is fantastic and is very helpful.
 
#11 ·
#13 ·
You would need two mini squares for good output. The daisy chain connects the two mini squares. The other end of the daisy chain connects to the 194/T10 adapter. And this adapter fits into our Odyssey's 194/T10/921 receiver.
 
#15 ·
My van's headlights are OEM HID!! :)
 
#17 ·
You mean for the high beams?
 
#18 ·
No, as a substitute / replacement for the HID's. I watched a program recently and the 2014 Corollas all have LED headlights. Was surprised by that but it looks as though LED headlights will eventually supplant HID's in automotive lighting.
 
#19 ·
But I don't think the current aftermarket LED lights are powerful enough to serve as your replacements for factory HID headlights. The LED headlights that come from factory must be very good I suppose.
 
#20 ·
I don't know - I've seen some with proper ballasts that are in the 1000-2000 lumen range. To convert to wattage, you divide this number by 15 to get equivalent wattage so even 1000 *should be* plenty.

I know the H11 Fog light bulbs I bought off ebay (just to try), are super bright and work great at night. Anyways, was just curious. I think we're getting to the point now where LED's will become better and cheaper as the applications become more widespread in production cars.
 
#21 · (Edited)
Here are two pictures. I took these picture last evening. My daughter was operating the brake pedal. The first picture was the one with the brake depressed and the second one was with the brake released. The sunlight, though is not too bright, is falling directly on the tailgate. I'll try and take some night time pictures tonight.

Land vehicle Vehicle Car Minivan Mitsubishi
Land vehicle Vehicle Car Minivan Mitsubishi
 
#23 ·
To be honest, those pictures don't do justice to how deep red and bright my taillights are, thanks to the lousy camera in my HTC One.

The housing with OEM bulbs looks orange-ish both during day as well as at night, in comparison to the deep red colour of the housing with LEDs. During day time when the sun was directly shining on the tailgate, the housing with OEM bulbs was noticeably dimmer and the housing with LED bulbs was noticeably brighter. I didn't get a chance to take that comparative picture. But I did experiment for 3 days with the OEM bulbs in the left housing and LEDs in center high-mount and the right housing. At least a dozen people at traffic lights were trying to indicate to me that I have a problem with the bulbs in the left housing, in that they are not lighting up as bright as the center high-mount and right housing and were trying to advise me that I should get the bulbs checked in my left housing.

And lastly, at night the brightness and the deep red combo is simply awesome. As I said before, the difference is day and night and I absolutely love these LEDs from VLEDs. I can't imagine how bright the top of the line V3 Triton must be in real world!!
 
#25 ·
And lastly, at night the brightness and the deep red combo is simply awesome. As I said before, the difference is day and night and I absolutely love these LEDs from VLEDs. I can't imagine how bright the top of the line V3 Triton must be in real world!!
Currently negotiating an Odyssey. The V3 Triton bulbs will be the first upgrade I put on the car :) Hopefully everything will fit...
 
#24 · (Edited)
Final question - as I'm ready to order these - on a few of the items you have to choose a colour and base. I'm assuming you chose red as the colour and no base (for center high mount for example)?

EDIT - I noticed you chose red for the first two but you didn't specify for the others. I'm guessing they are all red.

Also wondering though - why for #1 was it 7443 but #2 is a 194? Aren't they all 7443? If not, which ones are which? Thanks for answering all my questions - I like to know what I'm getting into before I buy anything!
 
#26 ·
1. You are right, all the LEDs I chose are red. Red bulb in red housing - no light gets filtered through the housing's red lens. So no loss in output lumens. White bulb in red housing - all the colours except red get filtered by the housing's red lens leading to drastic reduction in total output lumens and a significantly dimmer/orangish final light output.

2. The center high-mount is a red mini square circuit board that ends in a white two pin socket. Our Odyssey uses 921 bulb whose base is the same as 168/194/2825 etc etc... So, we need to buy a 194/168/2825/921 base adapter. If you are using only one mini square, then the white two pin socket of the mini square circuit board fits into one end of the base adapter and the other end of the base adapter in turn fits into our Odyssey wiring's 921 socket. In this case you wouldn't even need a daisy chain. But, if you surely want two mini squares and even if daisy chains are out of stock, it is very simple to connect the two mini squares as long as you know how to solder or responsibly connect the cut ends of the wires of the mini squares and put proper insulation over them. I strongly suggest that you get two mini squares and be diligent in either soldering (soldering is a pain for me) or cutting, joining and proper insulation of the circuit board wires. THERE IS ZERO CUTTING OF OEM WIRING. IF YOU ARE CUTTING OEM WIRING, THEN YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING WRONG. The output from two mini squares is safer and fantastic in the center high-mount. I'm actually planning to get two more mini squares to place them in the right and left corners of the center high-mount but I'm worried if I might overload the wiring which was designed for only one incandescent 921 bulb. So, that's for a later date after some more research.

3. 7443 is the bulb that goes into your outer housing that doubles up as taillight (when headlights are turned on) and brake light (when brakes are applied). The 194 goes in the inner housing which functions only as tail light (when headlights are turned on). Our Odyssey uses 7443 standard base bulb.

Don't let my English confuse you. Precise writing hasn't been my forte all my life. I hope I didn't confuse you further.
 
#29 ·
Oh, ok.
 
#31 ·
The mini square comes with a two sided sticky tape. The opening in the housing is 21mm at its widest part and the mini square measures 16x16mm. It was an easy push through the housing's opening and then you stick the mini squares to the inside of the back of the housing. The trickiest part is to stick the two mini squares in the housing such that the illumination is symmetrical once you press the brake pedal. That adjustment took me one hour. If I have to do it again, it won't take more than 5 minutes now. In fact, in that one hour I tried all different locations in the housing to get the most symmetrical and prominent output from two mini squares. Placing the mini squares at the center of the inside of the back of the housing is the best place to get symmetrical, uniform and prominent output.
 
#33 ·
Because the bulb mounts from the side into the housing and not from behind the housing. Meaning - it mounts from driver's side to the passenger's side. Which means the big 921 LED from VLEDs will give uneven illumination in that housing because that LED bulb has some front firing LEDs along with the radial firing LEDs. The front firing LEDs will invariably give extra illumination to the passenger's corner of the housing leading to asymmetrical illumination of the housing.
 
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