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Budget taillight upgrade

11K views 61 replies 11 participants last post by  Mazda6Suspension 
#1 · (Edited)
I have a 2014 GT and wanting to upgrade my rear taillights/marker lights to LED. The running lights and brakes lights are already LED.

At first I initially swapped them out with some spare 194 LED's I had laying around in xenon white. They looked good but barely any different than the OEM bulbs.

So I decided to buy some red VLED bulbs, there are 4 bulbs in total for the rear. I read on multiple sites including superbrightled.com page that red LED's should be used behind red lenses. The reason being red lenses filter most white light but filter very little red light.

After swapping the other LED's out for these red LED's all I have to say is WOW!!!!! These bulbs look amazing in the factory taillights and really transform the look completely. I used are more powerful 360 degree red bulb for the center markers and a lower power single direction bulb for the side markers. I tried the more powerful bulb in the side markers and it was just too much. In the rear they look perfect. I also have VLED's single direction bulb in my license plates lights in 6000k. I've been running this bulb for the past 6 months.

Let me know what you think. Automotive lighting Vehicle Car Automotive design Light
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#2 ·
So hold on .. I have a 2016 - T without the new front - and also the "old" lights.. I thought all the markers, etc where LED's already... they are not?

Btw it looks pretty darn good..

I like the new lights from the 16 GT / 17 .. with the solid diffused LED line and I think that would be possible with our "old" lights as well .. and not having one big spot in the middle.
 
#5 ·
I'm glad someone's tried this. I've been planning to use red VLEDs on my car as well. It's hard to gauge from your photos since there's no before/after comparison provided and because the colors and intensity of LEDs are hard to reproduce accurately in photos.

Still, it's great to hear you're happy with the results. What's "WOW!!!!" about them exactly?

- Are they brighter than stock?
- Do they fill out the lamp housing better?
- Is the color more red?
- Something else?
 
#8 · (Edited)
Yeah it is very hard to tell in pictures alone. I would have done a before and after pictures but I already had LEDs in there.

Are they brighter than stock? Yes, I wouldn't say WOW if there was no difference. I'd be disappointed and probably wouldn't even post results like my last LED's. The 360 degree bulb I used in the rear taillights are about 50% brighter than stock, if not more. The single facing led I used in the side markers are brighter than stock but only slightly.

Do they fill the lamp housing better? Yes the 360 bulb definitely fills the whole rear marker.

Is the color more red? Eh I don't notice, just brighter as more usable light is making its way through the red lense. I'm not really sure what more red is since the factory lense produces a good red. It's not a different shade of red if that's what you're asking.

Here's the bulbs I used.

Sidemarkers
http://www.vleds.com/194-hpc.html

Rear Taillights
http://www.vleds.com/194-6-hpc.html

You can use the bulbs I used for the rear taillights on both the side markers but I found them to be overpowering. They definitely fill the side markers much better but they are just too bright for side markers. They also just barely touch the lense when installed and since thee bulbs generate heat I didn't want to risk it.


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#7 ·
The more I think about it, if your taillights are the same as the 14 and 15 then you most definitely do not have LED's. Did you look behind the panel and attempt to pull the socket? There is absolutely no way you can tell what type of bulb is in there by just looking at it from the outside. They are both behind a red lense so you see nothing.


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#9 ·
That looks awesome...I think? It's just so hard to see lighting differences in pictures. If you go out there and put the incandescent bulbs back in one side and take a comparo pic, I'm sure you'd get a lot of internet high fives...like...tons.

I also tried the several styles of white LED's in the rear and saw no difference. Glad you figured it out with the red! I may try it with these to avoid the hot spot in the middle of the rear strip.
 
#11 ·
That looks great and thanks for the links! Also, where did you get the license plate lights from? They look whiter than mine and doesn't seem to have that blue tint to it which I don't want..


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#12 ·
That looks great and thanks for the links! Also, where did you get the license plate lights from? They look whiter than mine and doesn't seem to have that blue tint to it which I don't want.

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Mazda6, he got the license plate lights from the same place - as I recall they're this VLED bulb:

LONG LIFE WHITE LOW PROFILE 1 LED 194 - Forward - 194 - Shop Bulb Number

If you want a pure white color, choose a bulb with a 5000K color temperature. Most bulbs are 6000K, which have a slightly bluish tinge. Another great option for your license plate bulbs are the Philips Vision 194 bulbs.

https://www.amazon.com/Philips-Bright-White-Interior-Vision/dp/B017VORB7M/

They're indicated as 6000K, but the color is actually more like a pure white 5000K. The light output on these will be more omnidirectional in the housing (like original stock incandescent bulbs). They're also exactly the same size as the original bulbs, have a 12 year warranty, and run extremely cool.
 
#17 · (Edited)
I refuse to buy any JDM Astar products. Unfortunately I've had more of them fail than any other LED I've tried. Even the cheap eBay bulbs.

What trunk light were you referring to that I'm unhappy with? Maybe my original LED's before my VLED upgrade? Honest putting white behind red is not going to illuminate as good as red behind red. My precious LED's were bright as heck, I mean really bright but behind a red lense they didn't look different than stock. These VLED's are probably the best you can get for this setup.


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#21 ·
Cool, glad you were able to find one that worked well. Do you by chance have a link to the LED light bar you used? Strange is that the Osram Sylvania bulb finder database shows the trunk light as being a 194 bulb.


Thanks for posting about your experience with the VLED tail light bulbs - it gives me a lot of confidence to get them for my car too.
 
#25 ·
Wow! That looks fantastic - very clean install, and it lights up the trunk really nicely. Thanks for posting the photos so we could see what you did. For a $10 upgrade, the VLED light strip seems like a no-brainer upgrade.

Out of curiosity, how did you fasten the light strip to the underside of your trunk? Did you use double sided tape or velcro or something?
 
#30 ·
Well with regards to the LED taillight bulbs I lied about the color difference. They are most definitely more red than what they were with white bulbs behind it. It still matches the brake light but you can tell there is definitely a deep red that wasn't there before. I saw another 6 on the road that I was able to compare to and the red LED's definitely make the taillights more vibrant.


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#32 ·
I just wanted to provide an update to the skeptics. I had someone in another 6 pull up to me at a light last night and ask me why my taillights were so much brighter than there's and why the light filled the lense more. I was happily able to tell him the reason why and after seeing him pull away it's truly a night and day difference. I would easily say it's a 200% increase in brightness. Even the factory bulb does not light up the full length of the taillight on the trunk section and creates a hotspot, where as my led bulb does fill the whole length of the lense while also increasing the brightness simultaneously.


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#35 ·
Is this GT specific, or will it work on a Touring?
 
#47 ·
So I got my amazon LED's today and right away installed them.

They are definitely brigther however they are also overpowering a bit.

Hotspot is still the main focus and they don't fill up the light either however I have a hunch that the lense is to fractured as it goes further down (so the ends work more like a reflector).

Color is off, too however if you look at it from far away, it's fine.

Sidemarkers are actually pretty bright now and are filled up.

I will drive around and see how I like them .. or not.
 

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#58 ·
Here's the VLED's

Just make sure to get the 360 degree firing LED without the single led on the top. That's what I got and it helps to eliminate the hot spot. You can still tell the light source is in the center but it doesn't have a bright hotspot.
So, does this mean that you removed the single led on the top yourself? I don't think they sell the 360 degree one without the led on top.

Thanks.
 
#52 ·
Ordered a set of this over the weekend so hopefully will get them fairly soon.




Is the install fairly easy, as in are the bulbs pretty much plug and play?
 
#61 ·
Better late than never I guess, but I finally snapped a shot so others would see it on another 6. This was just taken about 20 minutes ago, so while it's cloudy (and under a parking garage) it's obviously still not night time (and sorry, I just realized it's a pretty crappy pick)


 
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