MamaBear2015

This is scary, folks! I found some cool looking super bright LED's on Ebay, to replace the tail and brake lights in our 1998 Civic LX. They even have a Cree LED chip in the end, with a lens, so they're super bright. But we started having weird problems as soon as I replaced them. ( covered in other threads here ) I was about to try the diode wiring fix, when the following happened today - it's a copy of my email to the seller.

We're just lucky that we weren't injured by these! I'd found a bulb size guide that said that the tail light and stop light in this vehicle uses a 7443 bulb, so I bought these LED's as a brighter alternative. They're spec'd at about twice the brightness. BUT here's my email to the seller, whom I'd already informed of the weird goings on with the cruise control, from these bulbs ( again, other thread ) :

Dear [seller name],

Ok, here's the deal. I haven't even had time to try the diode wiring modification yet, BUT these LED bulbs are an extreme hazard when used in the 1998 Civic for BOTH the tail lights AND brake lights, and here's why: I replaced all 5 lights in the back with these, in one of our 1998 Civics. ( tail lights, brake lights and the high mount center brake light )

We were driving today in a rain storm and I turned the lights on. So I stopped at a light and could see my car's reflection in the car behind me. The tail lights were on, but pumping the brake lights did NOTHING! There were NO brake lights, JUST the tail lights and the high mount center brake light. SO I figured out - here's why: The incandescent brake lights on the sides in the rear are DUAL filament. So when the lights are on, the small filament is lit, then when you hit the brake, the large filament lights very brightly. But with these LED's, they are not dual lights. So the tail lights light up when you turn the lights on, but THEN when you hit the brakes NOTHING else HAPPENS! These could get someone killed!

How I wound up solving half the problem: I took the LED's out of the tail light sockets and replaced them with the dual filament incandescent bulbs again. I left the LED's in the sockets that were ONLY for the brake lights. What this does, is that when I turn the lights on, the smaller filament in the tail light bulbs lights and when I hit the brakes, the large filament lights up much brighter, AND the brake light LED's light up super bright. This gives a powerful looking brake lighting effect, but unfortunately the dual filament tail lights that are ALSO used for the brakes CANNOT AND SHOULD NOT be replaced with these LED's, as someone could be KILLED!

You need to specify this VERY carefully and hopefully come up with some dual circuit super bright LED's for those tail/brake light sockets, so that one part lights up for the tail lights and the super bright CREE with the lens lights up when the BRAKE is hit, otherwise these are a HAZARD!