After Market Tail lights...
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Nothing that I know of as of February 2019. All I know are there are Vinyl overlays to darken the tail lights. My hope is one day something will be made that allows the inner parts to become lights. But one can hope.
P.S. I long for a sequential LED style lights found on the WRX’s
P.S. I long for a sequential LED style lights found on the WRX’s
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When I tinted my tail lights I played around with the idea of making the inner sections light up. I tried to pull them open using a heat gun but no dice. It looks like the housings are glued. I think I could fit a 194 bulb from the side on the top section, but it doesn't look like there is room on the bottom. I also am not sure on how the light would reflect since it isn't designed to be lit. I have 63k miles on my 18 limited hatch BTW so I don't mind some modifications, but I'd prefer it if I could find some cheap replacement housings to mess with before drilling into mine. If anyone knows where to find some let me know. I plan on looking into this further and will report back if I figure something out. Just found this on a Crosstrek forum
So it has been done, lm not sure about the strips though. Not a fan of the individual diode look. I wonder if these would fit. Should give a cleaner unbroken line look.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FNL3F23/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_yVicEbAQJM7SC
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FNL3F23/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_yVicEbAQJM7SC
I would like to revive this thread a bit. I was also wondering about this modification. I'm sure you could bake the lens to release the glue as you due with headlights. would make getting a cleaner fit and finish with the lights. Would just then need to re-seal it.
My thought is would it be easier to just tap into the hatch LED for power and just make it an extra brake lights?
My thought is would it be easier to just tap into the hatch LED for power and just make it an extra brake lights?
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I did try that. On headlights it's a butyl material that almost feels like a putty. It gets softer when you heat it up. I tried that with the rear lenses and they didn't budge. They used actual glue not butyl seal. When I tried to pry them open after heating them they started to break. It's either a very strong adhesive or a plastic weld. That lens is fairly brittle.
My plan b was to drill a hole into the side and slide a strip in. The Gap is very narrow and I ended up cracking one of my lenses, thanks super glue. For power I just piggybacked onto the license plate lights. I wasn't really digging the look since it didn't even come close to matching the brightness or color of the tail lights. I'm not sure if I could find a strip that would match, but if I did I think drilling the hole method is the only way.
I made this attempt last February, but was too embarrassed to share it in a post, LOL. I might give it another shot since I'm running out of other stuff to do to the car. I'll post about it if I do unless it looks stupid. In that case I'll wait another year before I show anyone 😝.
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after doing a little further research on this, I realize that cutting or drilling is the only option. The idea I had was the one you used, drilling into the sides and feeding an LED strip in that way. I would want to tap into the third brake light versus the license plate lights. I guess the challenge is finding the right LED's that will look the most completely to the already existing lights.
I may not worry too much if these are just accessory brake lights and not regular running lights.
I may not worry too much if these are just accessory brake lights and not regular running lights.
so I just picked up an inexpensive back up light to use for testing. Want to A: find the best way to get lights into the top / bottom un-lit portions of these lens, B: find the proper lighting source for color and function, and lastly C: find the best way to power these for daily use (3rd brake, license plate, or digging through the car to tap into the outer light wiring....
So I finally started on the first part of my personal research in making this dummy tail light into a functioning light. I had a used, inexpensive test hatch back up lamp I picked up from eBay and I worked on how to get the plastic off the back housing.
Dremel with a cutting wheel and miter bit was the only way. I did end up cracking the red plastic in my haste but it can be done with some patience and steady hand. Looking as the inside, there's little room to make something really fit and look good.
My next theory / thought is to drill small holes (1 or 2) into each of those dummy tail light strips and glue in a single red LED bulb and wire it up. This would allow me to avoid having to try and pull the lens off and would cut down on labor / error significantly. Single LED bulbs are super inexpensive but wiring them up is not a simple mod as it will require some ingenuity to make it stay in place, light up clean and some basic electrical wiring / soldering / harness.
Dremel with a cutting wheel and miter bit was the only way. I did end up cracking the red plastic in my haste but it can be done with some patience and steady hand. Looking as the inside, there's little room to make something really fit and look good.
My next theory / thought is to drill small holes (1 or 2) into each of those dummy tail light strips and glue in a single red LED bulb and wire it up. This would allow me to avoid having to try and pull the lens off and would cut down on labor / error significantly. Single LED bulbs are super inexpensive but wiring them up is not a simple mod as it will require some ingenuity to make it stay in place, light up clean and some basic electrical wiring / soldering / harness.
This might help a bit,
Ken (@sugoi.xv) on Instagram did this mod on his Crosstrek. He said that he drilled the holes on the side and used an led strip inside. To help match the factory taillight, he used a dimming controller to adjust the brightness of the led strips.
I'm not experienced in microcontrollers or arduino, but you could probably use an Arduino to dim the LED strips by adjusting the PWM. You could probably use two different inputs into the arduino, 1 for the running lights, and another for the brake lights. So that it's a lower duty cycle on the PWM resulting in dimmer LED's to match the running lights, but when you hit the brakes, the PWM could be set higher or to full brightness to match the brake lights.
If you could find or make a thin enough light diffuser, you could diffuse enough to not see the individual led chips. Or go with a set of red COB LED strips.
Ken (@sugoi.xv) on Instagram did this mod on his Crosstrek. He said that he drilled the holes on the side and used an led strip inside. To help match the factory taillight, he used a dimming controller to adjust the brightness of the led strips.
I'm not experienced in microcontrollers or arduino, but you could probably use an Arduino to dim the LED strips by adjusting the PWM. You could probably use two different inputs into the arduino, 1 for the running lights, and another for the brake lights. So that it's a lower duty cycle on the PWM resulting in dimmer LED's to match the running lights, but when you hit the brakes, the PWM could be set higher or to full brightness to match the brake lights.
If you could find or make a thin enough light diffuser, you could diffuse enough to not see the individual led chips. Or go with a set of red COB LED strips.
I'm familiar with his attempt at modifying the inner dummy tail lights. I really just want the inner dummy lights to come on when the outer "C" light is on. I have the reflector LED lights to install that I'm gonna wire just for brake.
My wife has an '20 forester with the inner tail lights and am working on creating a similar look / effect. I'm in no rush to make this work nor am I willing to break the bank. The LED strips don't quite look right in my opinion. Thinking a single bulb in outer portion of each level may do it.
Finding the wires to tap into is going to be the biggest task as I'm probably going to have to remove panels and go hunting for the running lights wire for the taillights.
My wife has an '20 forester with the inner tail lights and am working on creating a similar look / effect. I'm in no rush to make this work nor am I willing to break the bank. The LED strips don't quite look right in my opinion. Thinking a single bulb in outer portion of each level may do it.
Finding the wires to tap into is going to be the biggest task as I'm probably going to have to remove panels and go hunting for the running lights wire for the taillights.
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Initially, when I tinted my tail lights, I thought about making the inner sections light up. Therefore, I tried to pull them open using a heat gun, but it didn't work out. It looks like the housings are glued. I've read online that you could fit a 194 bulb from the side on the top section, but it doesn't look like there is room on the bottom. Consequently, I also am not sure how the light would reflect since it isn't designed to be lit. Now I am trying to put together the interior car led lights. Does anyone here have any experience with it?
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I'm not sure why they made the 2018 Subaru impreza sport sporty but you can't find anything cool for it for people that can't afford a wrx or sti sure would be awsome if the people with the impreza or impreza sport could find things like sequential tail light or halo headlight or anything it's hard enough finding rain gaurds seems like Subaru needs to get there shit together
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