Sebastian777

About to finish up on the exterior of my car. One of the last things is the reverse/turn signal lights in the back bumper. I'm hesitant to tint these because I have found it makes the back up lights useless when you have tinted windows. I'm assuming the GTS smoked light covers would be just as bad?

I've see some smoked led versions of these lights that also tap into your brake lights. Would these potentially cause the same problems as some have had with led tail lights? Has anyone tried the one here:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0192...THL&ref=plSrch

What about these that appear to use regular bulbs but come smoked, are they as bright as stock?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00FM...uyL&ref=plSrch

dcains

iTrader: (15)

That second set looks pretty cheesy, but the LED lights don't look too bad. And, if you buy them thru Amazon Prime, you can always return them. But, I'd buy the clear, and get some vinyl tint film for them, so you can tint them as you like, without doing anything permanent. Blue Batmoble sells a bunch of different tints, he's a member here, and they're not at all expensive. I'm not a fan of tinted lights, but if you must, that's your best soution.

Sebastian777

I've found going to Lowes or Home Depot and buying a roll of their vinyl window tint works great for tinting tail lights. A roll cost about $20-30 bucks and then you can do multiple vehicles.

I'm definitely leaning towards the LED ones, I'm just curious if tapping them into the brake lights is likely to cause the engine problems others have had here with LED tail lights. I seem to have gotten lucky with the LED tails I have on my car.

For the record, tinting LED tail lights doesn't really effect their visibility. In fact I think it (arguably) improves them. At night you can't tell a difference, during an overcast day it might diminish the visibility just slightly, but under a bright sun it actually increases visibility.

dcains

iTrader: (15)

I can't say what nay happen when you splice the LEDs into the existing system, but you,re correct that some Z's have problems with that sort of setup. As for the tint and better visibility, you might be right with a slight tint, but I've seen plenty of lights tinted so dark there's virtually no visibility, so I guess you'll have to play with that. Be sure to post some pics when you're done.

MicVelo

Tinted tails/brake/reverse/any lenses.....



Sorry, function/performance over aesthetics, any day.

But, not my car and IMO so.....

Sebastian777

With tinted tails, depending on the style to light, tint actually improves functionality. I know that sounds crazy but it does.

Think about a bright sunny day. Your tail lights are already glowing red from them reflecting the sun light off/through the red lense. When you hit the brakes, they simply glow brighter red. Now when you have tint, your black appearing tail lights suddenly turn red. It does actually make them more visible due to the drastic difference in contrast. At night, you will never notice the difference. The only time it hinders you is on an overcast day, but if you have LED lights, they are bright enough to shine through as well as normal tail lights.

As far as the turn signals and backup lights, tinted the normal ones does hinder their functionality. That's why I was actually looking into aftermarket LED tinted ones. I'm thinking even with the smoked lenses, they would still be brighter than stock.

That said, has anyone tried the GTS covers on their turn signals and backup lights? I can't find any pictures online of a 350Z with them that shows them with the lights on.

92K1500

iTrader: (1)

I've seen plenty of people with tinted tail lights and during the day you can't see their brakes lights at all, and at night you can just barely see their running lights before you plow into the back of them.

I've also seen plenty of people with tinted tail lights get rear ended.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Sebastian777

Dunno what they are tinting with. I go to Lowe's or Home Depot and buy a roll of their vinyl tint, the darker of the two options even. On my Legacy, brakes were visible at the end of a 1/4 mile track.

MicVelo

Like I said, whatever people wanna do to their cars is up to and on them.

Hey, some guys on here I like and totally respect do stuff on their cars that I shake my head about too.

You know who you are.

And I know the feeling is likewise.... "Dayam, Mic, fix that damn scratch already, ya slob!! How you drive that thing looking like that?!?"

"Very quickly around turns so nobody can tell its me."

Blue Batmobile

iTrader: (22)

You can also amber or redout the turns. I offer these Overlays.



Or full smoke, this is a lighter 60% tint.

B@t™

92K1500

iTrader: (1)

I forgot how ugly the stock turn signals are. I replaced mine after getting rear ended by a silverado.

mcubed45

I took some clear ones and blacked them out.

You lose some output without the reflector but if you use some nice LED's they're more than bright enough.



(pic is prior to upgrading bulbs)

Sebastian777

Are they the factory lights, can you use LED in the factory ones, what LED bulbs do you use?

mcubed45

I bought some of these and painted the inside black:





And installed LED's like these:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Sebastian777

Can you put those LED bulbs in a normal light, or does the light have to be made for LEDs?

dcains

iTrader: (15)

They're plug and play in the reverse lights, but if you put them in the signals you need to add load resistors to avoid "hyperflashing". Something like this:

https://www.superbrightleds.com/more...rning-fix/190/

vex008

iTrader: (4)

did the same as mcubed. they offer a blackout one now (after i bought mine)
you can use the regular bulbs if want.

Sebastian777

are you talking about the 2nd link in my original post?

mcubed45

Are you talking about the chrome/smoked ones?

I was looking for a blacked out version with a clear lens for the longest time but couldn't find anything so I went the DIY route.

Were you able to bake yours open? Idk what kinda adhesive they used but it wouldn't budge and I didn't want to melt the housing so I ended up cutting them open with a soldering iron. Such a pita.

Sebastian777

For the rear turn signal and backup lights, do our cars require Can Bus led bulbs?