Aftermarket LED tail lights - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

jkfarrugia · 11-25-2008, 02:54 AM

Hi guys,

I have aftermarket LED tail lights fitted to my '00 boxster which developed a strange fault recently. Each time I press the brake and the brakelights go on, the driving lights go out!?

I had the current voltage etc which is coming from the car's harness checked and its fine. So I switched back to the OEM tail lights to check and they work perfectly fine.

Any ideas?

Btw these are my lights (manufactured by Depo Auto Lights):

jmatta · 11-25-2008, 06:40 AM

Does the term "aftermarket" do anything for you? Not to be facetious, but I wonder how well engineered some of these products are that are being sold out of Asia.

Wingnut2u · 11-25-2008, 09:11 AM

I don't have any answers or suggestions for you but I can tell you that I have the same tail lights and I have not experienced any issues.

Good luck, I hope you find the culprit.

Kirk · 11-25-2008, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wingnut2u

I don't have any answers or suggestions for you but I can tell you that I have the same tail lights and I have not experienced any issues.

Good luck, I hope you find the culprit.

^^^ +1, I've also got the Depo Auto Lights (they sell them but they don't make them BTW) with no problems. I've actually got mine re-wired so that the brakes also activate the rear fog lights on both sides (which are red, and bright) since I feel these lights are useless otherwise.

Honestly if they don't work, either go back to stock or throw them out and buy some new ones... They're cheap, chances are that they're not really repairable unless you want to get into the LED circuitry and try to trouble shoot the root cause of the problem. You've already identified that the root problem is inside the light itself (and specifically inside the black box that's probably a transformer for the LEDs).

Kirk

Jaxonalden · 11-25-2008, 08:11 PM

Man, that's a good one. You step on your brakes and your headlights go out? I'd love to see what's causing that since the LED's pull milliamps of power over the incadescents. I haven't looked at the wiring schematic but I can't think of a scenario where the brake circuit and headlight circuit are tied together. If they were and the new brake lights were shorting out you would think the fuse would blow.

When you find out what the problem is please post the findings. BTW, I'd love to get a set of those lights.

jkfarrugia · 12-16-2008, 10:45 AM

Sorted out the gremlin - took the lights to be checked by a VW specialist who realised the fog lights and brakelights LEDs where inverted when compared to the OEM units - something I obviously didnt realise since I cant quite see my vrake lights while driving lol!!

So he just connected them as per OEM units and hey presto everything worked perfect...

btw I am an avid fan of everything OEM but the lights IMHO really need updating and those units bring the 986 so bang up to date esp at night!

My two cents worth

Jaxonalden · 12-16-2008, 04:50 PM

Rock on brother! Congratulations. I love those lights, nice thing is is that their brighter, pull less power and illuminate faster that regular bulbs so their safer. I need a set.

Jeph · 12-16-2008, 08:13 PM

This comment is only partially related, but my "aftermarket" LED center stop lamp recently burnt out. The whole thing just stopped working. I figured it was my shotty wiring I did, but sure enough, the old center light worked fine. I guess it was just my light's time to go to light heaven... or heaven light.

I haven't decided if I want to buy another LED center light. I love how the LEDs look, but I don't want to put $100 into something that I'm trying to sell.