Sounds good Scott.
Two of my friends have done the LED in their 2002's. Both have had trouble with them.
They are soooo bright they look like they are stepping on the brake the whole time. Just saying.....
LED replacements for Festoon bulbs
- Thread starter JFENG
- Start date
Two of my friends have done the LED in their 2002's. Both have had trouble with them.
They are soooo bright they look like they are stepping on the brake the whole time. Just saying.....
The beauty of the Honda bulbs is that the base is standard and a drop-in replacement. They are 27 W instead of the standard 21 W so the current is about 25-30 higher (~1.9 vs. 1.5 A @14V) so make sure your contacts are very clean. They are very high quality bulbs.
Light bulb upgrades
In my quest to find the brightest bulbs possible for my brake lights I saw a tip on the 2002faq about using a Honda bulb to replace the stock 21w bulbs in our cars. It's made by Stanley and it is part number 34903SF1A01. Available at dealerships but I got mine online from eBay Honda dealer...
e9coupe.com
All in here
Test on Stanley bulbs.
Honda bulb test
Internet browsing suggests white is a better color for the reflectors than silver paint.
I cant see the harm in trying.
Honda bulb test
Internet browsing suggests white is a better color for the reflectors than silver paint.
I cant see the harm in trying.
Interesting thought?
i do NOT have LED tail lights, just the honda stanley type bulbs
I worked for many years in the 1970's for GE Supply co. We had a big stock of the GE miniature lamps.( "lamps" is the technical word for light bulbs). I experimented with these bulbs in the round taillights of my '72 2002. I found brighter bulbs that were also higher wattage and hotter than the stock OEM bulbs. They,over time, melted the inside of the plastic taillight lenses. Please don't let that happen to the coupe rear lenses now that LED technology is available for running ,rear,and brake light bulbs.
And for those of you who want to possibly avoid a rear-end collision at a traffic light,install a third brake light in your rear window.
Hal Boyles has made an LED third brake light for 2002 and our Coupes. I bought his prototype and he sent me his revised design that fits the curve of our bottom rear glass.
It is being installed this week at the shop. I had installed his first version months ago and it is very bright and can be seen by the typical SUV and trucks driving around us.
Having a pedestal under the light is a good idea as can be seen in these photos. Note the wire goes through a drilled hole in the back deck and spliced into a brake light circuit. The wood base will be covered in matching black vinyl. The edge of the 3D printed light housing has double-sided tape fixed to the rear glass. Hal's email [email protected]
And for those of you who want to possibly avoid a rear-end collision at a traffic light,install a third brake light in your rear window.
Hal Boyles has made an LED third brake light for 2002 and our Coupes. I bought his prototype and he sent me his revised design that fits the curve of our bottom rear glass.
It is being installed this week at the shop. I had installed his first version months ago and it is very bright and can be seen by the typical SUV and trucks driving around us.
Having a pedestal under the light is a good idea as can be seen in these photos. Note the wire goes through a drilled hole in the back deck and spliced into a brake light circuit. The wood base will be covered in matching black vinyl. The edge of the 3D printed light housing has double-sided tape fixed to the rear glass. Hal's email [email protected]
Attachments
The only problem with Hal’s lamp is the upper mount to the glass was with sticky tape, that won’t work. I bought for the 2002 and didn’t install.
Only use the Stanley bulbs for the brake lights
The first light I had for the coupe was mounted to the glass with the 3M double-sided tape. The curve didn't match the glass and it fell off a few times. His new light housing is a better fit and the pedestal will keep it in place. I also bought the upper light for my 2002,but have not mounted it. Hal said the tape holds the light to the glass in the 2002 application.
i'm glad i bought the LED third brakelights that @adawil2002 made a few years back. no longer in production because the source of the LED strips dried up. mounts up high and is barely visible when not in use
Made ~300 of those LED 3rd brake lights for Coupes & 2002s. I use incandescent bulbs for everything else.
I had dim tail lights from filthy lenses & dull reflectors. I cleaned everything & found the reflectors were well beyond polishing, the silver plating was gone. I used real aluminum foil tape, which can be polished to restore them. I've seen others paint them with Krylon or Rustoleum Chrome. (tape doesn't need to dry)
I really like the idea of putting the LED strip at the top of the back window. It's almost invisible when off and is easier to see by the second car behind you when lit. I'm pondering putting in a newer type of LED strip that has orange on either end so the turn signals can be up in the back window as well. I've been rear ended waiting to turn left and I certainly don't want that to happen in my coupe.
I have one of Andrew's LED strips, I stuffed it up into the headliner behind the rear window and hard wired it to the brake light circuit, invisible until it goes on.
I don’t have a gap between the headliner and the roof. The white headliner fabric is tucked under the inside edge of the rear window gasket. Perhaps this is not stock. An alternate is to mill a 0.125” wide by 0.125” deep slot in a 1/4” x1/4” strip of black ABS, and glue in a length of narrow LED strip light (300 lumens per foot). The abs ‘holder’ would need to be glued to the window with some exterior grade silicon caulk or maybe superglue?
The abs strip should be more than flexible enough to follow the contour of the top of the window. I could go the full width for 900 lumens of stop light!
Ultra narrow LED strip light, 12v
The abs strip should be more than flexible enough to follow the contour of the top of the window. I could go the full width for 900 lumens of stop light!
Ultra narrow LED strip light, 12v
You must have a sunroof.
Don’t we all?
And yes the fabric around my rear headliner zipper hangs down and looks terrible. I may give up and lightly glue it up against the zipper after the car gets repainted.
Mo Brita does excellent work!
Yes, so I’ve heard, but some of us enjoy puttering around and not doing as good a job as the professionals.
Did the Honda Stanley brake light bulb swap today, super simple and big improvement. Thanks for the tip!