playing with LED lights

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REEVSY

REEVSY

Member
Posts
57
Location
Ormskirk Lanc's
Hi all, 1993 Defender 300 TDI. Having a play with converting to LED lighting.

Having replaced all the conventional bulbs with LEDs and them not working I reversed polarity on the front side lights ie swopped the leads around positive to earth and earth to positive, that worked I now have front LED side lights, did the same with the flashers and replaced the relay to one that works with LEDs and they work, the same with the reversing and fog lights and they workbut am now stumped as to how to reverse the stop/side light connection, this unit has three wires black (earth) green (Stop) and red (Side) I reverse black with green and the stop light works but no side light! Conversely I swop the black with the Red wire and to side lights work but no stop lights. Have others resolved this problem and if so how?
 

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Are you just fitting led bulbs?

They are a bit crap as they dont solve the real problem of corrosion on the pins of the bulb. Not to be negative about it. Ill try to put a more positive spin on things in future....
 
As above, the full LED units are a huge leap forward compared to changing bulbs - much more weatherproof. However, you've bought the bulbs now :)
 
zeaphod said:
As above, the full LED units are a huge leap forward compared to changing bulbs - much more weatherproof. However, you've bought the bulbs now :)
Click to expand...
i changed a few with led bulbs and then saw how crap they were, the originals filament bulbs were much better. Ive since fitted a full led sealed unit set up and its in a different league.

In brightness ...:cool:

and in price... :oops:
 
OK Thanks for that!

As I see it: the LED Bulb only allows current to flow one way so! To get the side light to work I have to swop the black wire earth - over with the live feed + wire (green) which supplies power for the side lights via the sidelight switch, then swop the live feed + (Green) over to the earth pin in the connector block thus reversing the circuit and allows current flow through the LED and lights up the sidelight part of the LED bulb, However to do the same for the stop light I have to revers polarity for this part of this LED bulb to work by swapping the Red + wire with and earth but have already used the Black wire so have nothing to act as a return to complete the circuit.

By the way rear LEDs are multi type element bulb ie stop and side light in on bulb.

vilguy which units did you use?
 
REEVSY said:
OK Thanks for that!

As I see it: the LED Bulb only allows current to flow one way so! To get the side light to work I have to swop the black wire earth - over with the live feed + wire (green) which supplies power for the side lights via the sidelight switch, then swop the live feed + (Green) over to the earth pin in the connector block thus reversing the circuit and allows current flow through the LED and lights up the sidelight part of the LED bulb, However to do the same for the stop light I have to revers polarity for this part of this LED bulb to work by swapping the Red + wire with and earth but have already used the Black wire so have nothing to act as a return to complete the circuit.

By the way rear LEDs are multi type element bulb ie stop and side light in on bulb.

vilguy which units did you use?
Click to expand...

What zeaphod means is though, that you probably dont have connection with one of the pins in the unit. This is dead common in defenders as they leak water in and the contacts get corroded. Have you checked that the contacts are good? Ive ressurected them with a sharp screwdriver before.

I used RDX units on the front and combined indicators, stop, tail units on the rear. (I cant remember who made them but they were only about £20 a piece)
 
Something sounds amiss. You shouldn't have to swap anything over. One of the three connections will be for earth, then applying battery to either of the other two should give you side or brake. I'd make a couple of test leads direct from the battery to see what is going on. I wonder if you have somehow been supplied with +ve earth bulbs.
BTW, I have fitted the Wipac LED units, found them to be excellent.
 
I may go down the sealed unit route in the end. The light holders are new and not used so should be OK, As for the bulbs I can use them on one of my vintage cars as it's easy to swop polarity and as they only have dynamos good for power usage.
 
If you can stand the extra expense, the sealed units are simply much better. Completely waterproof, which is a huge bonus on a Land Rover with the exposed lamp positions. I had to drill a couple of holes for the fixing screws, as they didn't match the old ones in every case - but that's for a 1985 model. The Wipac lights came already fitted with later type plugs, I had to solder on longer tails.
 
Reevsy, I can understand your problem, and you're not going to solve it at the standard bulb holder end of the wiring loom. You either need to rewire the brake light and rear light switches to -ve and the earth to +ve, or buy new fittings and bulbs, which would be a lot easier (because you'd also need to reverse everything else using those earths!). I am a bit puzzled as to why anyone would make a bulb that works the way your ones are though?
 
Just a thought though... How good are you with soldering irons? If you really want to play, you could take your 'bulb' apart and reverse the leds inside it.

Or do what I did and buy some 12V superbright leds and solder them into an old bulb.
 
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