So in looking around, I saw there is reflector replacements for the rear bumper to swap to red LED's. I finally got around to putting them in this past weekend, and also thought of another idea, to use red LED's and line the rear vents to glow with running lights on. If anything, helps with safety for people seeing the rear end. Atleast I tell myself that, lol. It turned out much better then I thought it would. I also am going to line around the exaughst pipes to glow red. But that will be next time. I didnt want to block the vent for obvious reasons, but wanted the LED's to face sideways to give a glow and not a direct shine back.

I am looking at designing a custom flex PCB with LED's direct and waterproof coating on it to make a plug and play kit that just plugs into the side marker harness with a T-adapter, and make it only about 1mm thick (if that). I could use RGBW lights and wire a controller to make a BT app so phone can change colors on it for car shows, or when you put in R, it shines white, giveing more white ground light to see in deak, but just some ideas as it wouldnt be difficult to do.

I did put the smoked Morimoto XB tail lights on when I first purchased the car back in Nov '22. I kept them set to sequential turn signal, I just like it. Brake lights are brighter for the tail lights and the third light in the center.

Pics below, but here are the steps I went thru.

• Remove rear bumper using sticky post on forums here. So simple to remove and takes less then 10 minutes!
• I ran all the wire in a wire sleave with waterproof heat shrink tubing. 3:1 shrink, and the waterpoof kind has a heat activated epoxy glue that both seals the wire and glues to it to protect it.
• Tied into the side marker lights to only come on when running lights are active. Used waterproof butt connectors and waterproof heat shrink tubing over it for extra insurance.
• Made a custom wire harness that plugs into the LEDs around the open air vent and one for the LED reflector replacement. This way if I need to, I can unplug/replace without a lot of hassel. I have my own crimp and connectors to make custom ends. I used just JST-XH connectors as that what I have on hand, but eventually I want to switch to a weather pac connector, but damn expensive.
• I cleaned the side of the vent outlets with isopropyl alchohol twice to make sure the surface was super clean.
• I then lined the vent with 3M 1/2" VHB tape (same brand/composition that is used to hold all vehicle emplems and parts on from the factrory)
• I used cut to length waterproof (silicone tube) RED 12v LEDs. Where I cut, I used heatshrink on and while hot, squezzed the other side together and bend over and place another piece over that to shrink and glue, sealing the tube. Take a rag and Isopropyl alchohol and clean the LED strip twice to remove oils.
• Then used a zip tie and a VHB backed bracket on the side and bent over the start and zipped it tight.
• Ran the LED strip adheiring to the VHB tape and pressed on being careful NOT to touch the back.
• Used some CA glue and fast set accelerator as a extra pracaution and glued the strip to the 3M along it. Made it super tight and not move at all when I flex the bumper or anything simulating abuse.
• Plugged it all back in and boom. They come on with the running lights only.
• The right and left side running lights are on different grounds and different leads. So, I did wire them on the correct side to ensure the final product looked and acted like factory.
  

On car during day/night.

Reflector replacement and new vent lights on/off.

After cleaning the LED strip back with Isopropyl, removed the red tape cover and stuck LED strips to the VHB tape. Sealed the cut end with epoxy glue heat shrink tube.

After cleaning with Isopropyl, applied VHB tape to the side surface.

 

The lights added to the rear fascia vent area looks really good. I too have the LED reflectors on my car and love the look.

 

Thank you. Yeah I wanted to somehow make the vent glow red with running lights. It looked good in my head, but wasn't sure how it would turn out. I figured the lights are bright enough to just line the entire rear bumper, lol, but glad I was able to mount on the side and not obstruct the vent and give the glowing effect.

I'm playing around with some designs and going to get some samples made up of a plug and play kit for it. And also working on a controller box too. Might do something like wire it into the break light harness. And when coming to a stop, have them flash a few times like some modern third brake lights, or when hazards are on, have them strobe/flash. (not like a police strobe, just a faster "hey see me!" Flashing) and when reverse, have them turn white. And then have a phone app to connect to Bluetooth At car shows and change colors to match a theme. (easy to creat the controller for me as I build lots of custom led projects and home lighting projects using an esp32/esp8266 mcu that gives me the ability to create local connections on BLE.

But also worried about temps above the exaughst, so I need to sit idle and running and take temp readings. To find a safe spot for lights. Also, looking at creating a high temp PCB and something to protect it for that lighting. Again, looking for glowing and now direct bright shine.



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Looks Great! Much like Vetteman with his Soler unit, my Corsa pipes and rear led reflectors are still in boxes.. of course he finally got his installed... Thanks for the detailed pics, like to see folks do their own work.. good job

 

I loke the idea of a plug and play kit. Would be interested in one if you develop it.
Fred

 

I am designing and seeing how much a small batch run would be for me to put together as a plug and play kit. I am looking to have the T harness as part of it, so OEM plug from the side marker into a male (with female ouside sleave) and then plug the other end into the side marker light. and have 3M VHB backing on the controller and LED boards. So installer would just prep serface with included alchohol pads and then pop on. true plug and play with no wireing or chopping up needed.

One question, does anyone know what the OEM parts are for the connector? The clossest I'm able to find is the part number on findpigtails.com, but $79 for a single female and $79 for a single male is insane. The part number they list seems to be their own part number? looking for the OEM weatherpack/whatever they use for connectors to buy a bulk of them and crimp my own. I can't seem to find the numbers/connector name anywhere. Does anyone have a shop manual handy that might have an exploaded view of it?

These are the OEM connectors here, but looking for the actual connectors to buy a bulk order of them. This connector is used for decades from A/C compressors to side marker lights to vehicle sensors to Temp sensors, to IAT, to Fog lamps, etc... Finding hundreds of vehicles this connector is on. So this has to be readily available somewhere. Anyone who can help me, I'd be GREATLY appretiated!!!
https://findpigtails.com/connector/l64a2/ - Shows part number as L64A2
https://findpigtails.com/connector/f23c2/ - Shows part number as F23C2

If it turns out this little project is liked and sells good, I will make matching ones for all the vents to set custom glowing colors and all go back to a single controller/app, so you can select which LED to change and set the RGB value to match your look and such. But obviously for only offroad use like at cars and coffee show off events . Finalizing the hardware/PCB design now and just looking for the connectors to make the kit complete and do a small 5-10 test batch of PCB's to test durability, weatherproof, etc..

 

And here I think I spoke too soon... I have been digging around for like a week plus and cant find anything... I reach out for help here and I suddenly found it! hahahahahaha....

Found on Mouser & Digikey where I get most of my connectors/PCB componants from. Found the part number by doing some backwards lookups of various vehicle parts this connector is used for and used Google Lens to do an image search too.
Part Number: 1-1703498-1 (Bumper Harness Female shroud/Male PINS side to make the T-harness) $1.11 for 10+ MUCH BETTER, over the findpigtails prics of $79 highway robbery just because they crimped on two 6" wires and said CORVETTE in the name
Part Number: 4F0973702 (Side Marker plug-in side) But Digikey has another part that is not the OEM (KOSTAL), but appears 1-1718643-1 is equivilant and is the same, so I'll test it .

 

Thanks 4 the update.
fred

 

welcome to my world good job