Full led tail light swap

[fox986]

I had a brake light bulb burn out on my newly acquired 986, so I swapped all the rear bulbs with leds.
Porsche bulbs are the reverse of normal polarity (+ and -), so normal leds won't work, unless the polarity is reversed, or the leds are not polar sensitive.
Superbrightleds.com has a selection of polar non-sensitive bulbs.

I used these for brake, turn, and reverse bulbs:
https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/tail-brake-turn/1156-led-bulb-18-smd-led-tower-ba15s-retrofit-car/163/

I used these for tail/running lights:
https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/miniature-wedge-base/194-led-bulb-5-smd-led-tower-miniature-wedge-retrofit-car/206/#/tab/Specifications

I used these for rear and side markers:
https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/miniature-wedge-base/194-led-bulb-5-led-miniature-wedge-retrofit-car/199/#/tab/Specifications

I used this adapter to use the mini wedge style bulb for my tail/running:
https://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/vehicle-bulb-sockets-adapters/filter/Base_Type,BA15S,1,4681:

And I also used this flasher to eliminate hyper-flash:
https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/flashers-load-resistors/cf13gl-02-led-bulb-electronic-flasher/782/836/



I didn't need to remove the whole tail light assembly in order to change the bulbs, there is a release to slide the bulb holder out.
In my case, the drivers side didn't want to come out easily, so I removed the housing.


Here with the new leds in: I did not change the fog bulb because I never plan on using it (it works).


Here is the reverse light in comparison, the new led is on the left (drivers side), old halogen on the right.
The leds are not noticeably brighter than the old halogens, but more pure to their color. In this case, the reverse leds are in cool white.


Here is the tail/running lights in comparison, led on left (driver). The pics aren't the best, the camera and lighting are poor, but you can see the difference in color.


Here's a close up of the tail/running and the rear marker lights. The led is on top.


Here is the brake lights in comparison. Since I couldn't press the brakes and see the lights, was just me, I took a picture of the brake lights reflection on the garage door.
The led is on the right in the picture (drivers side). Not much brighter, but red-er.


Here is the turn signal in comparison. Led on left (drivers). The led turn bulb flashes instantly, as the halogen flashes with more of a delay in brightness.


I also swapped the front side marker bulbs to amber leds. The leds hide the amber color in the clear lens, looks cleaner.


The top pic is the halogen, note the amber hue.

[Coaster]

Thx, the flasher is a plug n play swap? Where does it plug in (under drivers side footwell I assume).

[jb92563]

No diagnostic codes thrown?

Some have reported that the lower current draw seems to trigger some error codes.
Something about the computer thinking tail lights burned out or malfunctioning.

It will be encouraging to hear that no codes are thrown with these bulbs.

What did it cost in total to go LED?