How do I install a set of tail lights?

How do I install a set of tail lights? Unlike installing headlights, most tail lights are usually pretty easy to replace. Most trucks are especially easy. With a few tips though, you can make an easy installation even faster and more painless. Is it hard to install tail lights onto my vehicle? A good way to tell is to check your stock tail lights to see if you can get to all the screws from the front. If not, check to see if you can access the area to the rear of the taillights without undoing too many clips. In the unusual case where you don't even see any clips to undo the carpet or the panel behind the tail lamp, then the installation will probably be difficult. Tools generally needed to install tail lights Socket wrench set or Phillips screw driver (depending on lights) Painters tape to prevent scratches to your vehicle (Rare) Torque wrenches, etc. General tail light installation procedure Inspect the new set of tail lights to make sure you can complete the installation with the tools you have available. Disconnect your car battery's negative battery terminal. If your stereo requires a key in order to reboot, please be sure you have it before disconnecting the battery. Also, be aware that you will probably have to reset your clocks, etc. after reconnecting the battery later. Please note that some vehicles (such as newer GMs) have extremely sensitive electrical systems. In these cases failure to disconnect the battery before attempting installation may lead to blown taillamp fuses or other damage. Apply painters tape on the vehicle around the edges of your taillights to prevent any scratches that might occur while removing and installing taillamps. If uninstalling your rear bumper is required, make sure you have a safe surface to place the bumper on and that the working surface below the vehicle is also safe in the event the bumper falls down. This step is particularly important because tail lens, unlike headlights, often require a little force to come loose, leaving many people to inadvertently scratch their vehicles in the process. Without touching the glass, uninstall the stock brake, signal and reverse bulbs (as applicable). For bulbs with flat rectangle harnesses, you just pull the bulb firmly outward. For bulbs with round bases, you usually just push them in a bit, and then turn a quarter turn to release them. Once the bulb is removed, place them in their original container (if available). If they are cold, you could also store them in a ziplock type of bag. Please note that if your tail lamps have a harness that can be separated via a main harness that leaves part of the harness with the bulbs inside the tail lights, you will still need both parts of the harness since the aftermarket tail lights are designed to either re-use the stock bulbs (altezzas) or to connect directly into the bulb harnesses (LED taillights). Unscrew the taillamps from the front or use a socket wrench to undo the tail lamps from the back. Be aware that the tail lights might fall immediately once the tension of the bolts is removed. For this reason, it is best to lightly hold the lights in place with your free hand as you unbolt or unscrew them. Remove the old taillens and store in a way that the lens will not be scratched. Install the new tail lens and bolt / screw in place. Altezza Tail Lights: Reinstall the old bulbs into the new taillights. Be aware some taillights might make use of a conversion harness that connects into one of your stock harnesses and splits the function into two separate bulbs. In these cases, the new bulbs should be included. LED Tail Lights: Some of your stock bulbs, such as the reverse lights, might be re-used in your new LED lights. For the rest, the LED lights will come with male plugs that should be identical to the ends of your stock bulbs. Connect these into your stock harnesses. For plug in type harnesses, please try to install the plugs in the opposite orientation if they do not work. LED Tail Lights: Since LED taillights operate at a lower wattage than your stock bulbs, they include a resistor in order to regulate the current being passed to them. While sometimes this box is internal, more often it is external and connected via a plastic plug. In the case of an external resistor box, it needs to be mounted somewhere (they usually have double sided tape on the backs) where it will be away from heat and moisture. Reconnect your battery and turn on your taillamps and check for proper operation and blinking speed. If any functions are not operational, try flipping the plugs the reverse orientation and double checking that the resistor boxes are fully connected. Reconnect all connections and tighten all bolts in place. Taillights FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Are these tail lights sold by piece or as a pair? All our taillights are sold in the full pair. When you pay the listed price, you receive the complete set including both the right and the left sides. Are these tail lights street legal? As far as we know the Sonar and KS brand taillights on our website are all street legal as mandated by federal law in the United States. This basically means that they are designed to the specifications set forth by the DOT (United States Department of Transportation). Occasionally, DOT might test models for compliance. If any taillights fail (rare) DOT will have the companies issue a recall. For those tail lens, you can return them to us for a refund. For any other brands besides Sonar and KS, we can not guarantee DOT compliance. Also, please be advised that your local laws that may disallow these sorts of taillights to be used. After I installed LED tail lights my front signals are blinking fast. What do I do? Your front and rear signals are connected, so when you have a problem with one you will have a problem with the other. A fast blinking signal usually points to too much wattage going through the system. This can be caused by three different situations: 1) a dead bulb in the front or the rear, 2) the appropriate plug on the LED taillight being plugged in upside down, or 3) the resistor box not being connected or malfunctioning. Dead bulbs can be examined by eye for blowouts. If one of the wires is broken and/or you see a burnt part of the bulb, then it is probably dead. For the LED plugs, this would only be the case if they were ALWAYS blinking fast. To remedy that situation, just unplug and replug the bulb in the opposite orientation. For a defective resistor box, check the connection. Worst case, try the resistor box from the other side to isolate the problem. How can I prevent my tail lights from fogging up? During the first few days of operation, it is normal to see some moisture appear in your taillights. This is due to the small amounts of moisture in the plastic and coating that are evaporated when the taillights are first warmed up during use. This sort of moisture is normal and should disappear within a few days. To be sure that no external moisture gets into the tail light though, it is a prudent idea to silicone seal the edges. Clear silicone sealant can be found in any hardware store (and some auto part stores), and can be applied to the seam along the taillights where the clear lens meets the rear housing. Also, even if a bulb has died, make sure to keep it installed in the tail light until you replace it to prevent moisture from entering through the bulb hole. Can I smoke my tail lights? While smoking your taillights (tinting them) is certainly possible through the use of carefully applied spray tint (use light even coats), doing so may make them too dark to be legal. Please check your local laws as well as smoked taillights of any darkness might be illegal in your area.

Advantage and Dis-Advantage of Automotive LED Tail Lights

Traditional taillights use light bulbs, which produce a continuous beam of incandescent light. The light is produced when electric power passes through a resistive filament, producing sufficient heat that the filament becomes "white-hot." LEDs, or light emitting diodes, are semiconductor devices and not light bulbs, though they do give off light through atomic transitions. Power (considerably less than that needed for light bulbs) is provided to the semi-conductor device, which then gives off light, but very little heat. Advantage of LED Tail Lights - Brake Time Semi-conductor devices are like switches. Throw the switch, and power comes on pretty nearly instantly. Light bulbs receiver power just as quickly, but it takes time to heat the filament to white-heat, so light appears more slowly. Although the difference is only a fraction of a second, in a taillight of a vehicle trying to avoid an accident, it can make an important difference. The driver of the car has that amount of time more to apply his brakes, and the car has that much more time to slow down and stop. So rapidity of response is a real advantage of LED taillights. In fact, Cadillac estimates that at a speed of 60 mph, the difference is 17.6 feet of travel time. Advantage of LEDs - Lifetime Not having heated filaments to burn out, the life expectancy of LEDs is considerably higher. Some LEDs even last for decades. In addition, since very little heat is produced by LEDs, efficiency is greatly improved. Since a taillight is made up of many LEDs, it is very unlikely the entire taillight will ever burn out. Which is a good thing from a safety perspective, but also from that of... Cost - A Decided LED Disadvantage LED taillights, per pair, can easily cost well over $100. Some brands can cost $300 - $400 and more! Most likely these costs will drop considerably as mass manufacturing techniques improve. Since they do not burn out as fast, however, manufactures may not be in too big a hurry to lower prices. Flickering and Increased Brightness - a Safety Problem? The website Fun-LED-Light discusses a problem noticed by the author, that of distraction. The site says, "When you try looking at a bunch of tail light LEDs...your eye will be strongly attracted to the light-you will see a kind of a strobing effect through the involuntary saccadic movement of your eyes." An additional complaint is that some LED taillights are annoyingly bright. LEDs that are much brighter than those used as taillights are a potential safety hazard. Will any of these three difficulties prove to be a safety hazard as well? Doubtless time will provide the answer to that question.

Why Use Wheel Spacers? Appearance. You want to push the wheels out for a better stance and more aggressive look. This is totally subjective to your personal tastes. And we can't tell you what to like... Clearance. Many wheels are not compatible with big brake kits. The spoke of the wheel will scrape the new brake caliper and you need a wheel spacer to push the wheel spoke away from the caliper. Correction. You may have bought a set of wheels that don't have the correct offset for your car. The offset may be too high, resulting in the wheels sitting too far inward. This is both ugly and incorrect as the tire can now rub on the inside wheel well, or on suspension components, etc. A wheel spacer will push the wheel out and 'correct' the offset. Handling. By spacing the wheels further apart, you can make the car more stable and corner better. You can gain a similar effect as adding a wider wheel without the added weight and expense. What Size Should I Use? Knowing why you need spacers leads you to the question of what size to use. The best way of figuring this out is to measure the gap between your tire and the inside lip of your fender. This will tell you how much space you have before the tire will make contact with the fender. Too big of a spacer will obviously give you rubbing issues. So the answer is - How much space do you have to work with? Measuring your wheel gap is very easy and we have provided some examples below. Turner Motorsport may be the biggest BMW wheel spacer dealer in the world. As such we have learned not to make assumptions on spacer size. Every situation is different and the best advice we can give is to measure your car. It's tempting to listen to what everyone else is running but unless they have your exact wheel, exact tire, exact suspension, and exact suspension settings, no one can tell you what spacer size to use. They can only guess... Please keep in mind that wheel spacers that have been installed and tested cannot be returned. This is to be fair to the next customer who expects new, top quality parts from us. Which is all the more reason to be precise about what size you can install. Wheel Studs and Washers For this method, you would purchase at least two wheel studs to thread into the hub and corresponding nuts to lock the wheel down. Remove your wheel and bolts. Thread the studs into the hub. Place washers down the stud to the hub. Slide the wheel over the studs. If it makes contact with the caliper or suspension, add more washers. Once the clearances are set, lock the wheel down with the nuts. Lower the car to the ground and roll - don't drive! - the car back and forth so the suspension will settle. Check your clearances again and also for tire-fender contact. Adjust if necessary. The end thickness of your washers will be your minimum spacer size. If you have space left over before the tire hits the fender, consider going with an even bigger spacer for improved looks.