[Z3] Coupe Led Third Brake Light Group Buy

Looking To Get A Group Of Coupe Owners Interested In A Led Third Light, John Firestone Will Be Able To Build It, If We Have 10-12 Owners Interested.

Originally Posted by bob lindquist

Looking To Get A Group Of Coupe Owners Interested In A Led Third Light, John Firestone Will Be Able To Build It, If We Have 10-12 Owners Interested.

I may be interested. Any ballpark on the range of cost?

Severely cost dependent.

BTW, John Firestone should be collecting royalties from TireRack for that AD placed on his last name...

[quote=fmcfad01;2715057]Severely cost dependent.



me too. thats why I want to try and get a groupe together.

does he have a product page/picture/description?

Originally Posted by bob lindquist

Looking To Get A Group Of Coupe Owners Interested In A Led Third Light, John Firestone Will Be Able To Build It, If We Have 10-12 Owners Interested.

Huh, not sure how this look. I thought the third brake light in the rear top spoiler has LED already. My is a 2000 M Coupe... I am interested in LED lights but don't know what it is..Please advise?

Originally Posted by orca4wd

Huh, not sure how this look. I thought the third brake light in the rear top spoiler has LED already. My is a 2000 M Coupe... I am interested in LED lights but don't know what it is..Please advise?

They are not LED's.

Pic of the bulb.
They are now only $3.31r

Originally Posted by Ron Stygar

Pic of the bulb.
They are know only $3.31r

Thanks Ron for sharing your vast knowledge. I may also be interest in this LED upon price and installaton instruction. Hope we can proceed with this group buy.

Ron, is there a component on the Z3 & Z4 that you haven't taken apart and documented?

I plan on changing the standard brake bulbs (left and right) to the luxeon bulbs as DWM documented in his massive thread on LEDS. I am also going to use the brake light flashing idea. So the third brake light needs to be converted to run and led flash circuit. This is My driving reason. Using the LED third light in conjunction with the Luxeon bulbs will give faster brake light performance with or without flashing circuit.

We are trying to get the cost down for John to design and produce some PC boards for this mod. 10 or 12 of us will get the cost down. as for exact cost lets see how we do for interested parties. I think Dwayne needs 2 for his 2 coupes. Me I am in for 1.

Originally Posted by Ron Stygar

They are not LED's.

The assembly comes out with a trick I guess. Ron recommendations on removing the light assembly?

Originally Posted by Ron Stygar

Pic of the bulb.
They are now only $3.31r

shouldn't we be able to replace these with a 12 volt led bulb, using the same pcb?

Red LEDs are typically around 2v, so you'd need to rig a resistor per LED or a high-power resistor at the input.

http://www.lc-led.com/View/itemNumber/148

should be a direct replacement for the stock bulbs.

I'd be interested, depending on the cost.

Yeah, those look to already have the resistor built into them. However, 2,500mCD is pretty dim for signaling. I used 10,000mCD wide-angle LEDs (20+ of them) when I made my LED tail light, and it was still a little dimmer than the incandescent brake bulb.

Here is a video comparison:



The LED lights are on the left, with 4,000mCD LEDs in the running light and 10,000mCD LEDs in the brake. They looked different in person, but there is almost no differentiation in intensity seen in the video. Yes, the light positions are different from stock as well. That was by design.

Anyone Know A Brighter 12 Led?

Originally Posted by Vinci

Yeah, those look to already have the resistor built into them. However, 2,500mCD is pretty dim for signaling. I used 10,000mCD wide-angle LEDs (20+ of them) when I made my LED tail light, and it was still a little dimmer than the incandescent brake bulb.

Here is a video comparison:



The LED lights are on the left, with 4,000mCD LEDs in the running light and 10,000mCD LEDs in the brake. They looked different in person, but there is almost no differentiation in intensity seen in the video. Yes, the light positions are different from stock as well. That was by design.

14,000 or 20,000 mcd? both are available

Originally Posted by bob lindquist

14,000 or 20,000 mcd? both are available

I'm sure either would be fine. The biggest issue is finding the right viewing angle. I wanted to avoid hotspots as much as possible, so I used 45 degree LEDs. When you get into the higher outputs, the viewing angle typically gets smaller. For example, I have some 135,000mCD LEDs, and they are 5 degree.

Hotspots aren't such an issue if you pack more LEDs in closer to each other, but the OE board isn't going to help with that. Even with the wide-angle LEDs I use, I would probably put double the number of LEDs in there as there were incandescents. The deed can be done with the OE board and 24 LEDs, but a better result (IMO) could be had by going completely custom.

Originally Posted by bob lindquist

shouldn't we be able to replace these with a 12 volt led bulb, using the same pcb?

When we were looking into it we decided a new board. Don't remember why.

I remember having trouble finding bright enough 12V LEDs. The stock PCB also expects a wider lead spacing.

two questions:

How does the light assembly come out?

If non-12v leds are used is there enough room for resistors?

Originally Posted by bob lindquist

two questions:

How does the light assembly come out?

If non-12v leds are used is there enough room for resistors?

It snaps out. Easier if you remove the plastic piece that it is in.

I would be interested in the GB as well. Again, this is sort of cost-dependent. Could we get any idea how much it would be if we get, say, 10 people on board?