Continue to Site

Welcome to our site!

Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.

  • Welcome to our site! Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.

Bought these tail lights, need to wire properly

Status
Not open for further replies.

thejuggla1

New Member
So my Vehicle is a 94 Suburban I bought these style tail lights.

**broken link removed**

And here is a Diagram(Old but it still the same as mine) for the tail lights

https://www.chuckschevytruckpages.com/images/1973-1987_chevy_taillightwiring.jpg

First thing, I heard making the LEDs brighter will damage them, makes sense to me but is it ok if it is just the occasional brake?

The ones I bought use the stock tail lights, so there is no problem there, BUT however, the brake/turn signal is now white, which is very bad. The red LEDs are just wired in the marker lights(Did that myself since they won't come on if unless I signal or brake then leaving me with NO red in the rear guaranteed ticket), it came with no ballast or anything to make it work with the signals.

Now here where you guys come in, I need to know(I think its called a 555 timer?) what to build and where to put it in the circuit, to make it work with my signal and brakes. Preferred to have both LED circles blink, even thought defaultly only the bottom Bulb blinks on the stock lights.


Just some notes of how my tail lights work:
Top ones - Markers only do not blink(Not 100% sure but I think they might get brighter with brake)
Middle ones - Blink/Brake and Markers
Bottom ones - (Shouldn't really need to know this since they don't really have an effect on this but w/e) Reverse only obviously

If I can't make this work, I guess I'll have to use the bottom one for turning/brake and the top circle for Markers.
 
Last edited:
Your reference to Chuck's comes back "403 forbidden". Let's try Headlight And Tail Light Wiring Schematic / Diagram - Typical 1973 - 1987 Chevrolet Truck, Chevy Truck Wiring - Chuck's Chevy Truck Pages instead.
First thing, I heard making the LEDs brighter will damage them
Brighter than what? An LED can be designed to be dull or bright. If you buy a bright LED, supply power to it within its ratings and it will live a long life.

The ones I bought use the stock tail lights, so there is no problem there,
Please rephrase. It looks like the lights sold on eBay use stock lamps for the Backup function (located at the bottom). It looks like they use LEDs in the tail light location at the top.

I re-read all this a couple of times. (Actually a whole lot more than a couple of times.) Where does the stock bulb go into this LED fixture? It sort of looks like it would go into the space on the bottom? The stock bulb (I guess #1003 or #3056) would be white, so the bottom location would be the back-up just like it always was.
Just some notes of how my tail lights work:
Top ones - Markers only do not blink(Not 100% sure but I think they might get brighter with brake)
Middle ones - Blink/Brake and Markers
Bottom ones - (Shouldn't really need to know this since they don't really have an effect on this but w/e) Reverse only obviously
It really looks like you already have the new light operating correctly.

Just curious, what does "w/e)" mean?

I would have guessed the original Suburban was:
Top: Tail = Bulb type1003 = 12 watts.
Middle: Tail/Blinker/Brake = Bulb type 3057 =12/27 watts
Bottom: Backup = Bulb type 3056 = 27 watts

Which is the same as what you have now, after all the re-wiring. Please say again what changes you want to make?
 
Oh all I wanted to do is incorporate the LEDs into the turn signal and brake but have them on otherwise as marker lights, since the original bulb has like 2 modes for this, so it doesn't need a whole circuit board to do this, but the LEDs.

The stock light housing fits perfectly into the new chrome/LED case, it is just they are white brake and turn signal which is illegal. But I fixed that by buying amber bulbs and sharpie them red with a couple coats.

Really, now that I think of it, I dunno why I made such a huge post. You know what just ignore the post, and pretend the topic said "I wanna wire my LEDs to stay on all the time, but blink with the turn signal" since at the moment it can't do both, so I have to make a circuit board that does this.
 
Last edited:
You're saying that the product shown on ebay is just a clear replacement lens, with LEDs added in circles around the original marker brake/turn lamp fixtures?

Your red Sharpie cover on the bulb won't stay red for a whole week; the ink will bleach. :(

If so, consider that there are LED replacements for OEM incandescent bulbs such as 3156, 3157, etc.. They don't need a filter. Look at **broken link removed** and similar sites.
 
I was hopeing the sharpies bulbs would last a bit till I can buy something off ebay.
I also ran into a unrelated problem, I dunno how well you guys can help me but:

I went to add these LEDs tail lights and I wired my left one in fine, it works properly. I went to wire my right side THE SAME WAY and when I went to check the brakes my right one doesn't work, the LEDs don't come on, but the left side works fine.

The weird thing is the turn signal works fine however the brakes and the turn signal use THE SAME WIRE(I dunno if it is like this for all vehicles, but that is how it is on mine) so I am so stumped, I checked the fuse box, tried disconnecting the LEDs, switching the stock bulb(Check it with like 3 different NEW bulbs.) and no luck.

And about those LED 3157, does that work with brake and signal? Because 3157 is usually just a marker bulb, and the 3057 is a dual bulb that does markers and signal/brake.
 
Last edited:
I went to add these LEDs tail lights and I wired my left one in fine, it works properly. I went to wire my right side THE SAME WAY and when I went to check the brakes my right one doesn't work, the LEDs don't come on, but the left side works fine.

The weird thing is the turn signal works fine however the brakes and the turn signal use THE SAME WIRE(I dunno if it is like this for all vehicles, but that is how it is on mine) so I am so stumped, I checked the fuse box, tried disconnecting the LEDs, switching the stock bulb(Check it with like 3 different NEW bulbs.) and no luck.

For some reason this decided to fix itself, I have no idea why, and I doubt it won't be long till this happens again since things don't just fix themselves.

Anyways, about the bulbs, will the 3157 Blink and get brighter for braking or will I just waste my money on a bulb that is suppose to be a marker.


Some I looked at, are these ok to buy or are they 'cheap'? Can they blink and show braking?

**broken link removed**

**broken link removed**
 
Last edited:
I still actually have an older car that uses the bayonet bulbs, so I all I know is from the pictures on the web sites. In my second message I typed 3157 instead of 3057. Didn't catch it due to my own ignorance of the new wedge-lamp part numbers. My bad; please don't stay confused.

Best consult your owners manual for the actual part number(s) that you need.
 
I still actually have an older car that uses the bayonet bulbs, so I all I know is from the pictures on the web sites. In my second message I typed 3157 instead of 3057. Didn't catch it due to my own ignorance of the new wedge-lamp part numbers. My bad; please don't stay confused.

Best consult your owners manual for the actual part number(s) that you need.

Don't got an owners manual, I know if I put in a regular 3157 my turn signal/brake doesn't show, but I dunno if it will be the same for LEDs?
 
Too much information.

I know nothing about 3156 or 3157. Never even seen one. I typed it by mistake instead of 3057 because I was confused by the bayonet bulbs "1156" and "1157" which do similar functions in my car.

Please forget I typed 3157. I meant 3057.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest threads

New Articles From Microcontroller Tips

Back
Top