pdyebrasil

Hey guys, I decided that since nobody makes LED 3rd brake lights for our 3rd gen 4Runners that I would make my own. I upgraded to the LED tails and I couldn't stand having the 3rd brake light not match. So, here are a few pictures of what I did:

I used 20 Lumileds Superflux red-orange LEDs (red-orange matches the tails, and is brighter than pure red). It probably took me about two hours from start to finish, and I'm not an experienced solderer.





I didn't make any modifications to the housing, and thus I won't have any issues with leaks and such.



It matches the LED tails for brightness.



Not a very good picture, but it helps you get an idea. Taking a picture from directly behind the truck turns out really blurry and you can't see any detail. This is actually the reflection off of a store window.



Anyway, sorry for the poor quality of pictures, I'll try and get some better ones up and also a video. Way easy to do, and I think it cost me under $20 all in all Next up I'll be doing my front turn signals...

Elton

looks sweet got links for where you got the stuff maybe a list or parts needed

pdyebrasil

To do it exactly like I did you need:

20 red-orange Lumileds Superflux LEDs (got mine from azdave on HIDPlanet forums)

1 Prepunched 2 & 3/4" x 6" perfboard (Radioshack)

4 Resistors: 22 ohm 1/2 watt (Radioshack)

about 1 foot of wire (Radioshack)


Understand that if you wanted to do it exactly like I did, that's what you need. If you wanted more or less LEDs in each series you would need to recalculate for the type of resistor and whatnot.

blarchitect

That looks really good. Can you take a daytime pic?

pdyebrasil

Thanks man. Here is a quick picture I took before I left for work this morning:

pfdaxe

Looks very good!! I would do this mod if I didn't already have the Jaos roof spoiler with LED light...

pdyebrasil

Thanks man! Hey I think I figured out why you had that problem with the ABS light when you installed your tails... I installed mine without any ABS light, but once I installed the LEDs in the 3rd brake light, mine started coming on. Must be that the filament bulb up there was drawing just enough wattage to keep it from coming on. Since you already had LEDs up there, you had the problem when you installed the tails, while I had it when I did my 3rd brake I'll put in a resistor up there to fix it.

X-AWDriver

Definelty updates the look and still looks very OEM;nice job.

Texas_Ace

Very nice! I will have to look into this!

JHRRLD

I bet you are right, I had the same ABS light problem when I installed the LED tails. I also have the JAOS spoiler with the LED third.

JC_ez

Great job! I did this a while ago. One of my favorite little mods.

Fo_SheeZy

Looks amazing, Rumbles made one as well.

pitpatt

sure enough... an LED light thread and Brian is in here...

pdyebrasil

I'm curious as to where he got that housing? Props to him if he made it, I'm not that skilled I totaled everything and I actually paid less than $10 to do this mod. I'm guessing he spent a little more

I am going to try and make it look better by sanding down the inside of the lense so that it is completely smooth. Right now different parts of the light look brighter from different angles because the lense is distorting the light. That way it'll look more like the tails, and you'll be able to distinguish the individual LEDs more easily. It definitely doesn't look bad, it just could look better

Boostin00

Looks great. Glad to see people always coming up with new ideas!!!

Jason B

Great, great job! Would you mind if I used that picture on the site to show off the led tails?

pdyebrasil

Go right ahead man! Haha, I hope I can make you some money

leo the lion

where did you get the 6 leds from web site please.

pdyebrasil

Rumbles used six LEDs. You'll have to ask him where he got them. I used 20 LEDs in mine. Look at post #3.

Ron Helmuth

very cool thanks for parts listing

but I don't want my ABS light to come on... will it?