diy jdm style tail lights

[T.J]

well ive just finished this mod the other day its relitively simple provided you solder and properly insulate the joins youll have no issues with it

**NOTE THIS IS A GUIDE ONLY IM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ISSUES THAT MAY ARISE FROM THIS**

what youll need:

2x stop/tail globe holders i cut mine out of an old honda from the wreckers i got them for free

2x stop/tail globes bout 5-10 bucks

soldering iron

solder

drill if you really want

insulating tape or heatshrink

silicone gasget sealer

first pull out the tail light and unplug it from the wiring harness the inner lamp hole isnt cut for our models so itll have to be cut out you can use a drill to drill around the top to cut out the hole but i found just melting it out was much easier.

this is the part that needs to be cut out

this is the side i tried drilling i needed to clean it up with a soldering iron on the edges

the plug i used 3 wires one for earth, park and stop

the wires off the plug needed extending the wiring goes as follows

white/green stripe= earth

green/white stripe= brake

green= park lamp

these wires i refer to are the wires on the the tail light that you need to hook the extra light socket onto.

do not cut the wiring on the tail light just strip back the insulation and wrap the additional wires around them and solder them and either tape them up so they dont touch the other wires or use heatshrink if youve got it

putting in the globes seeing as theres no nodules to clip the globe housing into the tail light so i just melted the tabs off the sides of the globe holders

then i ran a bead of silicone gasget around the part where the globe holder goes into the tail light and simply pushed the gobe into the hole and waited for it to dry then reinstalled the tail light.

heres one side done

and both sides done

Edited June 24, 2008 by T.J

[¥uri]

could this be similar to do on a sedan ?

[Suprathai]

That is awesome!

A trip to the wreckers this saturday!! :D

[T.J]

could this be similar to do on a sedan ?

yes i do belive its possible

[¥uri]

Cool, thanx. looks awesome!

how long did it take?

oh and you have pm

Yuri

[T.J]

Cool, thanx. looks awesome!

how long did it take?

oh and you have pm

Yuri

well it took roughly an hour a side depending on how long the silicone takes to dry

[bonbon]

oh man just did this today, i used some bulbs i had lying around, but their friggen huge, ended up cutting the whole face just to get the bulb in

tip: buy small bulbs :P

write up helped me alot, thanks! i was about to do it with the lights still on the car, lucky i took them off, took me about 2 hours too

Edited June 26, 2008 by bonbon-2zzge

[Sportivo VVTL-i]

Nice write up T.J

JDM ftw

Good job john, now you can do it for my car

[Blind Kid Seeks]

hey i dont mean to play devils advocate here.....

BUT..... What re you gonna do when the globe fails? I mean you've just glued the thing into the Tail light assembly!

[bonbon]

i didnt fully seal mine only had abit of silicon, its easy enough to cut open with a thin knife

haha phan, you and luke now :P

[T.J]

hey i dont mean to play devils advocate here.....

BUT..... What re you gonna do when the globe fails? I mean you've just glued the thing into the Tail light assembly!

thats why i used silicone cause you can pull it out easily enough just give it a twist and pull and it should come loose then just silicone a new one in trick is to use new bulbs so you wont have to change them for a while

[J e r e M y]

just curious..if its all LED bulb..lets say 24 or 36 on each of em..

will it be abit too bright?

[bonbon]

just compare intensity with the bulb from your first light

make sure its a dual filament bulb or equivalent led, or itll look weird

[jaderd]

im a bit too lazy to look at moment lol, im guessing the upgrade model is the same in relation to individual chambers so i could do mod also ?

if noone knows thats cool ill just look when i can be bothered :)

cheers

[bonbon]

yeah it is, when you pull off the panel inside the car, you can see where you need to cut

you can take the light out without pulling part the rear, just need nimble hands

[jaderd]

sweet might pop them out tonight or this week and do them inside in the warm

nice easy DIY

[jaderd]

Hey guys, quick note, i have the upgrade corolla sportivo and from popping the back part off as if replacing a globe, i already have the "socket" spot there all wired up with (21w) written on it meaning it will acts as just a brake light. So all i have to do is drill the hole in the back so can fit globe............easy as and then it will work as a brake light. So to make it work as a tail light also i just have to splice into one wire from the other lens and bring it across to create the constant power when headlights on and thus acting as a tail light 21/5w.

Cheers guys,

im guessing the pre facelift isnt the same ? if so why did everyone do it the hard way and scrap the back casing/plug holder and do it all different ?

looking forward to the quicker and easier DIY than i thought :)

1 = Exising brake /tail light (21/5w)

2 = Indicator

3 = Reversing light

4 = currently says 21w, just need to drill the hole in casing for globe, then splice into number ones wire enabling tailight and bring across to number 4 to make it the same function

In the picture all the globes connect to the back plate that seems to be hinged sort of up near number two and clips in below three, it swings out in direction of arrow allowing you to change globes etc and also see that number 4 socket already exists with wiring (can feel springy wire/electrode when stick finger in hole, where would normally push globe and twist to secure).

Edited July 31, 2008 by jaderd

[bonbon]

i didnt understand a single word you just said

our tail lights are exactly the same cept for the look

all i did was make a hole for the globe (in an existing template that isnt cut)

and tapped the lines for the other globe and bought them over, so the whole unit comes out as one like normal with the one plug

[jaderd]

yeah ill take pics when i do mine tonight or tomoz...........you dont have to run any wires though.......what im saying is yes you have to drill out the hole for globe but the socket is already there and wired as a 21w brake light :).........so all you have to do is pop in globe

If you want it as a tail/brak like i do i have to just see which extra wire the exisitng brake/tail has and splice into that one wire.......easiest way to say is it will end up looking completely factory as the globe sits in its own pre exisitng wired socket :)

[evoke]

pre facelift and facelift corollas are different. checked it at the last meet. the facelift corollas has a ready to go socket/platform where you can just twist the globe in. the AUS spec are just missing the hole, thats where mario and his handy skills made a hole for mine :P

but when simon takes photos and posts them up, you'll understand

[Dennis_ZZE122]

left: JDM tail light

right: AUDM facelift tail light

top right: socket/platform for facelift tail light

JDM tail light with sockets

[jaderd]

Hey guys, have taken heaps of pics.....and yes, it is all there ready for it to work as a brake light, which is what i want.......after thinking about it i would rather it just work as a break light, so during day driving along......no light....hit brakes.....get the two lines. At night driving along have the 1 line "tail light" brightness, hit brakes and you get the 2 lines at full brightness, nice and bright and good definition for cars behind you.

I made the hole, put in the globes and no go :(

had a look and easy fix, although they have connected up the globe so its a plug n play socket it only has the earth connected. Need to connect the "brake" power wire....see pic below with info

Drew one in paint.......tells the story

Edited August 1, 2008 by jaderd

[jaderd]

All done.....easy as pie......17$ all up

Bit of a run down of what you need to do for the upgrade tail lights

Stock tail light - can see there are 3 screw that hold the taillight in

Stock tail light with socket plate removed

Can see the socket is already there ready for a 21w brake light to go in

Place where hole needs to be made for globe to fit

Easiest way to make hole is with soldering iron.....can make it exact size needed then through melting the plastic.....bad smell though :(

Went to fit and realised didnt work as wire 3 (counting top to bottom) is plug is non existent

Therefore no power of any sort is getting to cicruit 3 (counting top to bottom) on socket plate.

Figured out that circuit 5 (top to bottom) is brake light wire and therefore need that to be connected to circuit 3, cannot connect to actual circuit as solder wont stick and therefore need to connect to actual electrode as sticks fine to that, tidied up loose wire some some strong tape so not in way at all.

Back in and cant tell difference nice and neat

All finished and work very well.......about 2 hours all up.........so ne one doing upgrade lights should do it easy as now.:)

Edited August 2, 2008 by jaderd

[Guni]

Looks like its going to be a pain in the ***** doing the pre-facelift ones .....

All done.....easy as pie......17$ all up

Bit of a run down of what you need to do for the upgrade tail lights

Stock tail light - can see there are 3 screw that hold the taillight in

Stock tail light with socket plate removed

Can see the socket is already there ready for a 21w brake light to go in

Place where hole needs to be made for globe to fit

Easiest way to make hole is with soldering iron.....can make it exact size needed then through melting the plastic.....bad smell though :(

Went to fit and realised didnt work as wire 3 (counting top to bottom) is plug is non existent

Therefore no power of any sort is getting to cicruit 3 (counting top to bottom) on socket plate.

Figured out that circuit 5 (top to bottom) is brake light wire and therefore need that to be connected to circuit 3, cannot connect to actual circuit as solder wont stick and therefore need to connect to actual electrode as sticks fine to that, tidied up loose wire some some strong tape so not in way at all.

Back in and cant tell difference nice and neat

All finished and work very well.......about 2 hours all up.........so ne one doing upgrade lights should do it easy as now.:)

[T.J]

um guni the car i did this tech guide on was a pre facelift the ones jaderd has done on his are facelift so the pre facelift is easy