I developed a real nice modification to the Saturn SL tail light. I have purchased and tried may LED type tail light bulbs and found most of them are of low quality. So after trying many of them I found a real nice way of lighting up most of the tail light lens with only 7 LEDs wired in series with no resistor. Install is simple just drill 7 holes and glue in the LEDs and wire them up. The whole string of LEDs only takes about 100ma of current, the regular tail light takes 650ma of current.
When drilling the holes for LEDs 2, 3, 4, and 5, in the reflector area be careful not to chip the back of the reflectors by stopping the drill from going through the hole too much. There is approximately 1/4 inch between the back plastic and the reflector front. I put one of the LEDs in the side of the revers reflector to utilize it for tail light. It does not affect the revers light in any way because as soon as reverse light comes on the white bright light washes out the one LED and you have basically only white light because it is so much brighter. So that one Lens then serves two purposes. To hook it up just strip a little insulation off the tail light wires and wire it together. I snip off the skinny part of the LED terminal and bend both terminals over gently a little so they don't stick up so much, I try to keep them as low profile as possible and then I glue the wires down so they can't move around. I use super glue to glue the LEDs in the holes and it works really well to use super glue accelerator. Makes for fast assembly of many projects. The LEDs have a plus and a minus so you have to make sure to wire them properly in series. They have one wide terminal and one narrow terminal.


WARNING, I have not yet tried to fit the tail light in my car to see if there are any interference in fit, so you might wait till I have tried it for fit. It may requiring moving one of more LEDs. Easy to do.

I will put up some photos See attachments
Photo 1 ..... Standard tail light bulb shows how much of tail light assembly actually puts out light at night on the road
Photo 2 ..... Shows LED added inside reflector section as other places
Photo 3 ..... Shows angle view of LEDs
Photo 4 ..... Shows LEDs and regular bulb running together.
Photo 5 ..... Shows angle view of them both
Photo 6 ..... Shows Back LED placement
Photo 7 ..... Shows more LED placements
Photo 8 ..... Shows more detail for placement of LED number 6

the LEDs are high power 1 watt LEDs 8mm diameter straw hat style and in a string of 7 they are running at about 1/3 power so they do not get hot and should last forever. You would never have to worry about your tail light being out again..
Here is source of LEDs I used.

items in store on eBay!


Up next will be the turn signal upgrade using yellow straw hat LEDs. Even easier.

Update Feb 20:
I completed the turn signal and brake light enhancement. Works real nice. I put 2 - 1 Watt 40 degree red LEDs in each of the reflectors. two in the brake, two in the turn signal and two in the backup light. So all three light up red when I apply the brakes. So it works real nice no problem with it being not bright enough. When I apply the turn signal light the bright white bulb lights of the yellow lens just as it is supposed to and shows bright yellow the red is over powered, the back up light should be the same. So as it turns out 2 of the lens areas are doing double duty to increase the area of the light and a high degree of visibility over stock. Will add pictures later.

 

Wow, this is really dangerous. You now have very bright taillights which is going to make the brake lights very difficult to see. I tried LEDs in the taillight once but you could barely tell when the brakes were applied.

I would have wired up all those LEDs to the brake light circuit, or most of them anyway so when you apply the brakes, the driver behind you will take notice.

 

That may be true in your case. On this setup I retain the standard bulbs and I will take a photo of the brake light in relation to the tail lights with LEDs later today, so you can see the brightness difference. I am also planning to add some more LEDs for the brake light this weekend. Since the brake light is only on momentarily in most cases I can put 6 in a row with a resistor and it will be way brighter than the tail lights. the photos are taken in a dark room so the camera makes them look brighter than they are. The LED sections are actually a little dimmere than the standard tail light bulb. I think the brake light will have no problem being seen. Will let you know as I go along.

 

Just account for those times you are sitting in traffic when designing the brake light LED portion

 

Yes you are right. I tested the tail light section for over 1/2 hour and no heat or warmth happened on the LEDs. So I need to do the same for the brake light. So far I have 6 LEDs with a 3 ohm 1 watt resistor, just need to run it for a long time to see if it works and stays relatively cool.

 

how's this project coming, sir?

 

Well I finished the project but car broke so have no place to install them. Just have a pile of parts I have purchased for the car and car is no more.

 

sorry to hear that, man.

Feel free to post what you have in the classified section of the forum.

You never know what others are looking for.

Definitely include pics of the taillights and the electrical description of what you created.

You are of course welcome to hang on the forum and shoot the breeze.

As a permanent member, you account stays open forever (as long as I am Mod anyway)