Replacing rear bumper reflectors with LED's
 

I read a comment on Corksports website (they sell something similar) that detailed how one guy used the tail lights to splice into thus giving him the ability to have these work as turn signals. He was able to run his wires up to the taillight harness. My question is, having LED tails (tech package), are there any issues I might have spicing into the wires at the taillight? From my understanding even though my tails are LED (just the red circular lights) the turn signal is not and I believe my backup light is not. Is it safe to splice these LED lights into those lines? Don't they hold different currents? Sorry it's a bit little technical but I'm not educated enough in electrical hence the question. It's an easy enough job, I'm just looking for some guidance. I appreciate the help.

Here is the product link:
2X Clear Lens Bumper Reflector LED Backup Lamp Tail Brake Light Mazda3 BL Axela | eBay

As long as the turn signals have a ground and the positive wire you are ok.

That review was probably mine as that is what I did on my both my cars. I have the reflectors spliced into the turn signals so they act as extra turn signals. I like that better than having the extra running lights.

A hint is that you don't have to run the ground and positive cable up. Run the ground to the License plate lights and splice into the ground there and just run the positive cable up through the vents and into the rear light area.

Also, get the RED splice clips for splicing into the wire and not the BLUE. the blue are for a larger wire and you can sometime have a hard time getting them to work. The reds are for a smaller wire.
From Amazon, this is what you want to use.

Cable Splice

Thanks for the help!

BTW the post was by – Thomas Corsini

You????

Also had a few more thoughts/questions if you don't mind. I'm really over thinking this. These have a red, black and green wire it appears from the pictures on ebay. So if I run the turn signal wire to each side of the cars taillights, then the ground to the license plate and the positive to the rear (unclear on what area you are referring to) this will allow for turn signal, red lights on braking and white in reverse?

I think there is a set up with these to where I can achieve all of the above lighting scenarios plus the constant red parking light, the feature you opted not to do. Any ideas on how to achieve this? Not sure if I'd do it, might be overkill but I like having the option if I so choose. Really appreciate the help!

Now just to figure out what wire goes where…

Nope, not me. I checked today and they changed up some stuff, they did have a video on there of my car and how I had it set up, but guess they took it off.

To answer your question. On the corksport set they have a Red, White, and Black wire. So for yours you would do the following.
Black wire would go to the Ground for the License plate lights
Red would go to the positive wire of the Plate lights if you wanted them to be on when ever your lights are on. Or you would run it to the wire that has current only when the brakes are applied if you wanted them as extra brake lights. I read somewhere that the corksport instructions were backwards and you should run the White cable instead, so in your case it would be green and then the red would go to the turn signals.
Green would go to the turn signal wire.

You kinda just have to play around with them and determine how you want them to be run. Best bet would to just install them, do the ground wire, and then run the other wires up to the rear lights and just decide how you want them buy just stripping the wire, and inserting the wire temporary into the back of the bulb housing to see how you want them to operate.

Here is a video of my 2012 car when I first wired them, I later came back and cut the wire that I had hooked up to the positive of the Licesne plate lights so I would just have them as turn signals.
Hope this helps some. If you have any questions just let me know and I can try and help you out.

Great info! I'll keep you on speed dial once I tear into this. The extra wiring info helps big time.

Had some follow questions from your last post.

*Black wire would go to the Ground for the License plate lights*
---I assume this is the most important step and make sure to do this first. And also it doesn't matter where this is spliced into, just as long as it is spliced, correct?

*Red would go to the positive wire of the Plate lights if you wanted them to be on when ever your lights are on. Or you would run it to the wire that has current only when the brakes are applied if you wanted them as extra brake lights.*
---SO whatever I decide here but I'll assume if I want them to be used as brake lights then I would have to run the wire to the tails, otherwise splice it into the license plate positive wire to have them run continuously……

*I read somewhere that the corksport instructions were backwards and you should run the White cable instead, so in your case it would be green and then the red would go to the turn signals. Green would go to the turn signal wire.*
---This got me a little confused. : ) You said red to turn signals but then you followed up by saying green to the turn signals??… Could you clarify please.

AND while I'm doing all of this, Does it matter if I unhook the battery? : /

Sorry just saw this.

Yes.
Yes.
I mean that someone said that they could be backwards, I cannot confirm. I would just say to wire it with the green one going to the turn signals.

And no, I left it connected.

Got it all finished. Thanks for all the help!

Looks good... I may try this

They came out nice man, didn't know they could function as reverse as well.

They also do the parking lights.

Just ordered the ones in your top link based on your success, could you lay out exactly how you wired it please? Just wondering if there were any gotchas not included in this thread.

much thanks!

I'd be more then happy to talk you through it. I can IM my cell number or if you're on Facebook IM me your name on here or both actually. You can't see my name if you search it on Facebook, I'm locked up tight on there.

I took some extra steps as the wires weren't very long that come with the lead's. Do yourself a favor and do the same, you can get color coded 18 gauge and continue the length up to one of the taillights. And get those red tap slices, works good with the 18 gauge.

I'll go ahead and post an IM I sent to torq for anyone that would like to use it.

I think this might help with some minor details during the install:

The way that I ran my wires were all to the driver side taillight assembly. The red black and green wires from the LED lights all hooked up to the black orange and green wires in the taillight assembly (yours could possibly be different, I have a 2012 with the tech package so I have LED's in the tails as part of that package). I soldered the passenger LED to the driver side LED and at the end of those wires I added a couple feet of 18 gauge wire so that I had enough clearance to run those into car.

The black wire obviously goes to the black wire on the car.

The white wire from the LED's goes to the reverse wire which is the white with red stripe. You can confirm the white with red stripe by opening the hatch and and on the hatch itself you can pop off the plastic cover and look at the wires that come out of the light assembly. You will see a black wire and a wire with white and a red stripe.

The green wire from the LED's go to the orange wire from the tail light.

The red wire from the LED's goes to the green wire from the tail lights.

To access the backup wire the best way I found was to run an extension of wire which I used 18 gauge and ran it up along the side behind the plastic trim and up to the headliner. There are three pop screws that easily come out. Take those three pop screws out. Once you do that you will see a plug in the middle of the headliner.Pull the headliner down some you will see the plug and the white wire with the red stripe on. Unplug the harness, this will give you much more room to splice into the wire.

Running the wires up from the bumper to the taillight assembly there are two maybe three places that you can access this. I chose to use the area where there is a rubber grommet. I popped that out, cut an X in it and fed the wires through it. Worked great and I think it's the better of the other two choices. The other two were a very small circle next to where the taillight bolts to the car. I didn't want to use this because once you attached the taillight assembly to the car the wires will get crimped. Not a good idea. The other was some kind of vent like thing with some rubber flap. I didn't want to use this because it looked like the car got a bit dirty in that area.

Hopefully your wires are the same color in you taillight assembly. If not all I can tell you is to get a test light at a hardware store. Ground it, turn the car on but don't start it, undo the wiring harness from the taillight assembly, stick the end of the test light into one of the holes of the wire harness (not the black as that is the ground) turn on the parking lights. Whichever one lights up the test light is the parking light. Then stick the end of the test light into the other hole, have someone step on the brake, whichever lights up the test light is you brake light. You can also test you LED's before you install them by using you battery of the car. Take the cover of the battery off, place the ground wire, (black wire) on the ground (negative terminal of the battery) then place each wire on the positive terminal of the battery one at a time. The white, red and green should all do something different. If one doesn't light up then send them back. I really recommend doing this first just to make sure they work. You don't want to get these things in and wired and not have them work.

These function as parking lights (running lights), brake lights and reverse lights. When you test then with you car battery you will see what I mean. Good luck and if you have any additional questions let me know. BTW google search Corksport bumper LED's. They have instructions on how to take your bumper off. To me that was the easiest part but that's only cuz I have next to no experience with electrical. The Corksport directions are worthless when it came to hooking up the wires.

And once you get these in and you're like me, you'll want to replace your existing reverse lights with LED's. I should be getting mine in the mail today. Let me know if you're interested I can send you the link. Hopefully I'll like them. I'll let you know.

Just to follow up on these. After several months with them they still work great although I came across an issue with one. The passenger side started to separate. These are two pieces glued together. I was worried about one initially because it wasn't put together as well as the other. I ended up using clear caulk around were the two pieces are glued together to give them some additional protection from the elements. Unfortunately the one still separated. It still works but the seller was nice enough to send me a replace and I still have to put it in. The weather is finally getting nice out here in Ohio.

going to be doing this soon!!

good write up

Not to revive from the dead but... Can anyone comment if the aftermarket LED reflectors... actually reflect light? Especially the CS ones, since they cost a pretty penny.

When I bought my set from ebay, and looking at the CS ones they seem to be the same, the red translucent part did not actually serve it's main purpose - to reflect the light from someone behind you when the car is parked at night. This is why I had to dremel the stock cover off of the OEM reflector and the ebay one, and glue the OEM red reflector on top of the LEDs. This provided me with the ability to a) use the LEDs as running/brake/turn lights, and b) have the reflectors reflect light back when the car is parked on a dark street.

That latter part is easy to figure out - in the dark, shine a flashlight at the stock reflector and the aftermarket one. Hopefully your aftermarket reflector will be just as effective. Otherwise someone may not see you and clip you when you're parked in the dark.

Kept forgetting to get a shot at night, also forgot I park in a lighted garage... CS look and reflect like OEM except when powered.

With flashlight:

Perfect, looks like the CS reflectors get the job done. I've ordered another set off ebay, I'll let you guys know how they are.

Did you split one of the wires to get the turn signal to work? Mine do all but turn signal.

Also, to your main point, reflecting, is this just a personal preference you want, I'm assuming?....

Well, IMHO, being reflective is the main purpose of the reflectors, while the LED functionality is secondary. I.e. I would never replace them with LEDs if they did not retain their reflective properties. They are passive safety devices and will work even when your battery is dead or the regular lights/LEDs are out. Rear-end impact aversion happens to be one of my priorities, but I'm just OCD like that...:439:

As for the turn signals, my LEDs came with 3 wires, but I really just wanted them as an extra set of running lights, so I don't utilize them for brakes/turn signals. I don't like tapping into too much stock wiring, if I can avoid it. Tapping into the license plate lights to have the reflectors turn on when I turn on my side markers was enough for me.
In my future re-install, I may hook them up to the brake lights, because that would still only require tapping one additional wire, instead of two for the turn signals.

Are these EBay lights holding up over time?

So far they seem ok, for the price. The plastic quality is not the best for sure but as far as the LED's themselves, they look just as good as first use. I check them regularly just to make sure.

I have a set off eBay from the seller, iJDMtoy. They're a real piece of crap. The LEDS were poorly lined up and now a few of them have gone out. They were about $25, so I'm not surprised they haven't lasted. The Speedline bumper LEDS are on my to buy list.

http://www.thespeedline.us/servlet/t...D-Strip/Detail

I had two sets. First set had a single row of LEDs and some went out fairly quickly. Second set had two rows of LEDs each and going strong for 6 months now. Neither had real reflectors so I had to retrofit those from the original ones, so that the car is visible to other cars at night. If you want to avoid the hassle and want to keep the stockers in tact, CS ones are the way to go.

built these in the middle of summer out of the stockers. they are actually pretty bright at night. just took the last two shots a minute ago, god i hate my car being so dirty but its been raining cats and dog balls here in the foothills.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.n...4483cdcdca5119
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.n...cf3af091dbaf2e
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...8a9fdee1847f53https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.n...14994b9d410bcehttp://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...psr5g8uz0x.jpghttp://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...ps96stfi0u.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.n...d3a8b31578629e

Looks like I might need to find an extra set of reflectors and do this also. How long is the LED strip you used, looks like a perfect fit. Also do you remember how much space is in there thickness wise? guess I could just pick up a set and pop them open.

@GoSpeed3Go; - Job well done! Definitely a great alternative to hacking up two sets of reflectors (china and stock) and just using the brightest LED strip you can find. Kudos, man.

i had to cut them and crack them open than grind off all the melted plastic, by the time i was done they were probably 3/8 inch thicker they still fit in there pretty good. i glued them back together with 3m autobody sealant. the led strip you can just cut to length and it wont break the circuit on most led strips. i think i had to cut a few leds off. just one of those sketchy hope it works mods.