DIY: front and rear LED turn signal bulbs

[jjdrivesajazz]

today we did an install on JR's FRS, using our Automation Lighting LED turn signal bulbs, www.automationLED.com

these bulbs are factory size, features 13 super bright 3cell 5050 SMD LED's per bulb, and are available in WHITE, RED or AMBER. the best thing about these, they look white when they're off, so you don't get that orange reflection in your housing

front turn signal - 7443
rear turn signal - 7440
turn signal inline resistors - 1 pair for each pair of bulbs

in the state of california, front turn signals must be white or amber, and rear turn signals must be red or amber, laws vary from state to state, and it's totally up to you to decide what colors to use for your car, this is just something i'm letting you know in case you had questions about the law

we also used turn signal load resistors, 50w6ohm to be exact, to correct the "hyper flashing" issue. basically when you install LED's, they have a lower resistance than halogen bulbs, and they will blink at 2x rate as normal. these inline resistors simply tap into the wiring and regulate that resistance and it'll act like normal again, very simple, $10/pair from our site under the turn signal category

ON TO THE PICS!!

FRONT TURN SIGNAL
factory 7443 amber bulb


optional step, but if you would like to find the (+) and (-) wire of the harness, simply unplug the bulb socket and probe the 3 prongs with a multimeter, turn the signal on and you'll see the voltage go up to about 10v, then you'll know which wire to tap into for the resistor, in this case, it's the RED for POWER and BLACK for GROUND




LED bulb installed


50w6ohm inline load resistors, sold in pairs, 1 for each turn signal bulb


use the supplied wire taps and tap into the appropriate wires for the load resistor, it does not matter which wire goes to what, as long as it's the power and ground for that circuit, so take one side and tap it into the red and one side and tap it into the black, warning: the resistors do tend to get hot, so do not use zip ties or double sided tape, i would recommend to zip tie the wires up and let the resistor hang, you'll cause no damage this way


white LED turn signal installed


amber LED turn signal installed


some of you might ask, "why would i change it to amber LED if the factory bulb is already amber?" well it's because when the factory bulb is off, it throw an orange reflection in the housing, and i personally find it a bit on the ugly side, using these bulbs will appear white when off, and you'll get this clean look, plus they're brighter than factory and look a lot better


6000k crystal blue HID xenon headlights with white turn signal lights


that's all for the fronts, ON TO THE REAR

the rear is pretty straight forward, pop 1 clip from the trunk liner and you'll see the bulb and wiring, twist to remove and follow the same instructions for the inline load resistor. the rear turn signal is a single filament bulb so the wiring harness only has 2 wires, power and ground, so you won't need to test with a multimeter. just simply tap the turn signal load resistor into one of each of the wires and install the bulb.

here's the factory bulb when off, throws that orange reflection similar to the front


here's our LED turn signal bulb installed and off, looks much cleaner


using a red LED bulb


using an amber LED bulb


that's all to it! pretty simple, hope this DIY helps you guys and answers some of your questions

[MrH]

Another forum member used 7440's for both the front and the rear on his BRZ. Any reason why you used 7443s in the front instead?

[Gen]

Originally Posted by MrH

Another forum member used 7440's for both the front and the rear on his BRZ. Any reason why you used 7443s in the front instead?

I believe 7443 are what you should be using. From my understanding, 7443s accommodate the third signal wire we have, whereas 7440s are designed for two wires.

[jjdrivesajazz]

Originally Posted by MrH

Another forum member used 7440's for both the front and the rear on his BRZ. Any reason why you used 7443s in the front instead?

7440 is a single filament bulb, with 2 wires leads, 1 for power and 1 for ground, so it can either stay on or it can only blink

7443 is a dual filament bulb, with 3 wire leads, 2 for power and 1 for ground, so it can stay on AND flash or be used for brake light bulbs

you CAN put 7440 in the front, but you'll lose the parking light feature of the car, it is NOT recommended that you do this

[MrH]

Great, thanks for the quick response!

[White64Goat]

BRZ & FR-S have different parking/turn light configurations.

[jjdrivesajazz]

Originally Posted by White64Goat

BRZ & FR-S have different parking/turn light configurations.

Yes, BRZ has the single filament turn signal with a separate parking light and the FRS has an integrated parking/turn signal dual filament bulb.