Alright guys, I bought a pair of these red LED taillights shown, used.

I hooked them up tonight and am slightly perplexed. They have plugs that plug into the factory bulb sockets so they are a "plug & play" install. I plugged everything in and turned on the lights, and only the two outer sections on both lights actually light up.

I tested the turn signals and brakes (which are on those two panels), and everything works perfectly, but no light from the inner panels.

BUT, I tried plugging the inner panel into the middle plug...and when I do that, it lights up, on both lights.

What gives?

 

Seems like I read a thread earlier this week on one of the forums (AFM maybe) where someone was complainging about a LED light kit...that it truly was not plug and play. I forget the exact details however. Might be worth looking into it.

 

This sounds like the factory tail light harness in which the 2 outer sections are all that is lit up through the turn signals and braking. You'd need sequential tail lights to accomplish that feat. You just bought the tail lights or both?

Of course, if your running lights aren't lighting up the first strip then I believe there is an issue.

 

I AM talking about the running lights. I don't believe you can even use these lights with a sequential kit because the inner LED's are wired as "single function" LED's, and they're also the only ones without resistors.

hootie, I'm looking for that one but I don't see it on AFM. Maybe I'll try google.

I just find it odd that the inner light won't light up from the plug it's supposed to be plugged into, but will light up when plugged into one of the other two. I'm wondering if it's some kind of a current draw thing? Still seems weird...

 

You could be on to something with the current draw...LED pulls much less current than a standard bulb, so maybe the car is sensing it as a blown bulb. I read a thread on one of the forums about a similar issue, but it was with the turn signals (front I think). Not much help, but something to look into. Can you contact the manufacturer?

 

I'm not even sure who makes these ones. I'll look, but I'm not too confident I'll find anything.

I would think the other two resistors would be enough for this one to still light up...maybe not. I had a couple resistors laying around from another LED project, maybe I'll try a little test wiring to see if that helps. I had the same issue with the front turn signals though, now that I recall...had to run bulbs in them because even with two bulbs and two LED's, it would just not light anything. Three bulbs and one LED would work, though.

 

edit: oh nvm u bought actual tail lights, i thought it was a sequential kit....sorry, good luck!

 

Well, I found some 3157/3057/4057 "male x female" socket extenders with resistors built in on ebay...so I ordered those, gonna try em for the inner lights. I figure that's probably what I need.

 

I have the same lights on mine and just messed around with the connections until everything worked properly. Would let you know which way mine were hooked up but haven't had the lights apart since putting them in about 4 years ago and don't have my car here to look at.

 

OK, I found the issue and thought I might post this up for anyone else that might have the same problem.

Turns out it was a 2-part problem.

First off, the plug on the inner panels only has 2 contacts on it, on the same side of the male end. The female plug has contacts on both sides, but most 4057/3157 bulbs have contacts on both sides of the male end so there's no connection issues. With only the two contacts, they were not properly touching the contacts in the plug. The solution was easy enough- I had some wiper blade packages laying around that were made of thin clear plastic, and it looked like just about the right thickness to make up the difference, so I cut out a small rectangle and super glued it to the blank side of the plug as shown:



Secondly, it still wouldn't light up when connected directly to the plug, so I found these handy little things on ebay for $15:


It has a male 3157/4057 plug on one end, a female plug on the other end, and a resistor in the middle.

With those hooked up and the thin plastic piece glued to the plug, they light up with no issues.