LED's in brake light

[akeenan]

ok, today i noticed 4 LEd's in my brakelight are out. this makes me think they must be wired in groups of 4 series to parallel.

anyways back to my query. replacing the 4 would be easy enough however getting the 4 to match the others perfectly would be hard.

can you buy these things seperately eg: from nissan...anyone know or would iot be easier to buy the whole light unit/ loom and all...

where from whats the cost.....

[Guest RedLineGTR]

if we are talking about the rear brake lights, then just pull one of them out go to a local store and get a set of four, not to hard me thinks...you'll have to take off some of the boot trim to get to them, then you just uncrew the cover anti clockwise and bingo your lights..

[akeenan]

the ones in the spolier. it would be easy to replace them but getting them exactly the same would be a little difficult, trial and error with all the red ones.

[Guest RedLineGTR]

oh thats what were talking about...mmmm

[Guest RedLineGTR]

yah only way to do em...trail and error...you could also pop one of the good ones out...go to a couple of electronics stores and compare them to the closest ones...get like some sort of power source same voltage as the lights so you can test em out

[funkymonkey]

just check the resistance of each one, use a 500mA ammeter and check if there is a reading when you touch positive and negative...

[funkymonkey]

if you get one without a reading you know there's a break in the circuit... ie its blown

[Henros]

Why not replace them all? high brightness red LEDs are not that expensive.

[(B1) MR_fanny]

mine went out and i cracked it open and took it too dick smith to sort me out with new leds/resistor.......the guy couldnt even figure out how it worked..bloody useless!! so i just got a friend of mine to get me a toyota one from work and i just ripped that apart and poped in...replaced the whole thing...sweet as!!

[blind_elk]

Originally posted by RedLineGTR

if we are talking about the rear brake lights...

That's distinct from the ones at the front??

[Madtrang]

Alot of dick smith fellars have no idea. If some leds are to bright just put a varable resistor in the circuit to them. And change resistance till it looks correct. Never poped mine a apart though so, it's just a thought.

If u r realy tricky you could set up a circuit with the three color led's and get them to change by siwtching them, or run em through a micro and make some cool flashing affects. Well that would be cool, but in a bit of a fantasy world now. :-)

[akeenan]

oh shit sorry dudes, i fixed it the other day but forget to check the thread.

for everyones information the brake light in the r33(the one in the spoiler) is wired in groups of 4 serial leds then those groups in parallel. it turns out that the third group on mine wasnt working, after using some logic i found that one of the dry joints wasnt soilded correctly. i tried to fix this but still didnt work so i took the easy way out and bridged the connection with the next set of leds and everything works fine.

[Knat]

I'm having a problem with none of the leds working and I believe its the diode, but can't get into the sealed unit. How did you guys get into it? I've sat down with a stanley knife and tried cutting into it, but doesn't seem to budge and don't want to screw it...

I was quoted $150 for a 2nd hand replacement upon trade in of my screwed one because they can apparently fix them and resell them...

[jake32]

I'm having a problem with none of the leds working and I believe its the diode, but can't get into the sealed unit. How did you guys get into it? I've sat down with a stanley knife and tried cutting into it, but doesn't seem to budge and don't want to screw it...

I was quoted $150 for a 2nd hand replacement upon trade in of my screwed one because they can apparently fix them and resell them...

I have a new one you can have for $150... unused in nissan box , I think it was about $260 from nissan by the time it arrived from backorder car had been written off

[Airzone]

I'm having a problem with none of the leds working and I believe its the diode, but can't get into the sealed unit. How did you guys get into it? I've sat down with a stanley knife and tried cutting into it, but doesn't seem to budge and don't want to screw it...

I was quoted $150 for a 2nd hand replacement upon trade in of my screwed one because they can apparently fix them and resell them...

Yeah, it's a bitch to open... You have to persevere though. We snapped a blade in the process, but once you get it started, then it's easy. Beats paying $150 when all you gotta do is replace a two cent component

[PJ]

Can anyone tell me what the diode or resister thingy is that is by itself on the LED side. Mine is completely crispied so i cant tell what it is.

[Airzone]

It's just a diode... Totally useless IMO.. After all, the whole device is just a strip of diodes :-)

Weird, 'cause my diode also fried itself... If you can't find another one, just bridge it.

[akeenan]

bridging is the key

thread back from the dead

[Knat]

bridging is the key

thread back from the dead

Thanks Guys. Haven't had time to have another crack it and don't really want to screw it up either or I might have to take you up on that offer jake32. It is a R33 light you have isn't it?

So Stanley knife is the way to go to crack it open? You guys didn't use solvents or anything to assist?

[Airzone]

Nah, didn't use any solvents - didn't want to melt the light. Man, it's a biatch of a job though

Just persevere. With all my trying, it took 3 different stints to slowly wear it down, then it cracked open.