Depo LED Taillight too bright?

[Reborn996]

Okay, I bought the Depo LED tail lights that a lot of others seem to like... but I noticed that the LED brightness for the parking/tail lights is the same as the brakes. Has anyone else noticed this? Are there any simple ways to reduce the output on the parking LED's?

[Couper1]

I have no idea but doubt that there is some kind of adjustment within the tail light to reduce the output. You should contact the company you bought them from.

[Gary H]

If it's the same brightness, are your brake lights on?!

[Reborn996]

Yeah, tried contacting Depo but no reply... I do know these tail lights are pretty popular so I figured others have dealt with this before.

No, it is not the brake lights. The brakes use a different section of the tail light and come on with the third brake light. This is the parking light section that is too bright in my opinion.

[JFP in PA]

Your problem is most likely related to circuit resistance; the OEM setup has much more resistance in the circuits due to the incandescent bulb. The reason LED’s are so bright is because they have very low internal resistance, which is also why they do not get hot. Removing the resistance when replacing the bulb with an LED often results in all kinds of issues because the circuit does not see the resistance it expects (turn signals or brake lights that don't work, etc.), including some lights being intensely bright. Adding a resistor of the correct to the circuit will improve the situation, but then the outcome is no different than having left the original bulb in there in the first place............

I’ve never understood why people want to replace functioning incandescent bulbs with LED’s, particularly when they end up rewiring half the car so the can……..

[kabel]

I know we are talking about the Depo LED lights, & I'll have to double check, but I am pretty sure my Option Racing LED lights are two stage in that brake lights use the same LEDs as the parking light but are brighter. The back-up light and turn signal are still incandescent, and they plugged right into the existing harness.