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Bumper Light LED Retrofit 1, Page Updated January 27, 2008

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Project Completed in Early 2006

This page describes my first difficult mod where I retrofitted my aftermarket clear bumper lights with LEDs. After trying out every LED bulb out there at the time, I was disappointed with the poor quality of these bulbs. So, as they say, the only way to do something right is to do it yourself. I do not recommend doing exactly what I did here, for the quality is horrible and the lights no longer work.

Here are most of the tools I needed

First, I took the light apart using a screwdriver and a blow dryer to heat up the glue and wedge it apart. The lens came off, but I had to remove all of the adhesive so that I would be able to get the lens back on. Normally one would just reheat the adhesive and push the light back together, but I used hot glue to hold everything together, and the glue would have melted. I would just use my own caulk later. The adhesive is very hard, making this difficult. This part ended up being a waste, anyway since I never put the lenses back on. Note the piece of paper the adhesive is on. All of those drawings are my trying to figure out how to use relays to make the lights blink correctly.

Then, to the LEDs. I fashioned a line of LEDs out of a clothes hanger and some 20 LED bulbs I was not using for each side. I used the bulb LEDs instead of bare LEDs because I knew that I liked the color, and I did not want to spend more money without knowing what color white I would end up with. Note that the hanger has a coating on it. A raw metal hanger would conduct electricity and would not work. I simply cut the LEDs off of the bulb, hot glued them every half of an inch along the hanger, and soldered wires from each LED to it's relative location on the bulb. So there were 40 wires total on each side. It took me about 15 minutes per LED. The problem was that the hot glue melted with the soldering iron, and there was so little left to solder to. This resulted in the LEDs not working after only a few weeks of use.

Here it is on. I wanted this to be the parking light.

I also needed panels of LEDs to light up for the turn signal, and these fit perfectly underneath the line. See page 12 to see how I did this. I painted all of the wires and glue silver. I glued all the LEDs in place after cutting out places for the LED line to go.

The line and the panel are different wires:

It is hard to see, but the line was bluer, and the panel was more purple. The line worked great as a parking light, but the panel was not bright enough to be the turn signal. So, I used a crazy system of relays to make the line of LEDs blink opposite of the turn signal, just like the M3 blue/amber mirrors used to.

Here is the relay setup. The blue relay switches with the turn signal to make the LED line blink. The clear relay behind the blue one is powered by the parking light so that during the day (it is off), the LED line blinks normally with the LED panel, and during the night (the relay is on), the LED line is a parking light and it turns off whenever the LED panel turns on. I had to do this on both sides. They just sat behind the light, and I used hot glue to water proof them. You can see both of the connectors going to the bumper light. You can also see the old turn signal connector that is no longer used. I wired the new diablo style mirrors to the LED line so that they would both blink and stay on. Yikes!!! I ended up removing all of these relays when I made my lights work more normally.

Anyway, on to the pics of my car. There is no lens on the bumper lights anymore, since the lens pattern messed up the way the LEDs looked. So, I filled all of the openings with hot glue to make it water tight. It didn't look very good or professional, but what can you expect from my first LED light.

Here it is off

Here it is with the parking lights on. The LED line and LED panel alternate when the turn signal is on.

The line is easily seen from the side, so I had a bright turn signal for side viewing.

Here it is blinking without the parking lights on. Notice how everything blinks together.

I liked how it looked, but after a few weeks, sections of the LED lines were breaking due to poor soldering. The turn signals were not even visible from a distance, and I was not going to put the lenses back on. At least one of the panels of LEDs is now an interior light. RIP.

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Don't forget that if you have any help, advice, comments, criticisms, or questions about my car and future mods, please sign my Guest book!

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Table of Contents

My Corolla Today
Page 1: Current Exterior
Page 2: Current Interior
Page 3: Current Engine
Page 4: Current Audio

Corolla Time Lines
Page 5: Phase Time Line
Page 6: Detailed Time Line

Other Stuff
Page 7: Photoshop
Page 8: Look at this page before you buy replacement LED bulbs
Page 9: Details on my current and future mods
Page 10: For Sale!

DIYs and Project Write-ups
Page 11: Bumper light LED retrofit 1
Page 12: Third Brake light LED retrofit
Page 13: Diablo Mirror LED replacement
Page 14: Taillight LED Retrofit 1
Page 15: High Beam DRL Mod
Page 16: Bumper Light LED Retrofit 2, PLUS detailed description of how I do LED mods
Page 17: Painting preparation (details on my fenders, grille, trunk, and Bondo)
Page 18: Side marker LED retrofit and installation
Page 19: HID fog lights and headlights
Page 20: Interior painting, modifications, and exterior trim painting
Page 21: Installing Halo/LED/Projector headlights
Page 22: Mirror cover LED replacement
Page 23: Installing a new stereo and speakers
Page 24: Body kit installation, front end conversion, and other body work for round 2
Page 25: Retrofitting LEDs into my third mirrors and front turn signals
Page 26: Putting interior LEDs behind the dash and in all the buttons and all over the interior
Page 27: LED tail light retrofit 2 and baking your lights in the oven to remove the lens