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Last week, I tinted my rear lights. The brake and turn signals look darker for sure, affecting safety. I thought buying some of those "brightest" LED bulbs would solve the problem.

Turns out, the LED(including High Flux ones) look much brighter in my hands allright, but when I inserted them back into the housing and looked from outside, they DIMMED ! In fact, it's so obvious when I put one turn signal with LED and the other one with good old incandescent.

My turn signal is 3156 and 7443 for brakes. Tried all of bulbs listed below:





I seriously wonder if '02 Civic has reflective cups in the housing.

 
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I had the same problem when i used LEDs in my stock taillights. The reason they appear dimmer is because the LEDS I used (similar to the ones in the second pic) only shine straight. They dont shine to the side like traditional bulbs do. Thats why they seem dimmer, because the traditional bulb light gets reflected off the taillight housing.

 
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yea get a super bright wide angle 3 watt led. www.superbrightleds.com

 
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even the highest power leds will not be as bright as a filament bulb. but, some are okay to use because they are bright enough to be seen. i think the brightest led bulbs ive seen put around 100 lumens, compared to filament bulbs at around 300-500 lumens. anyway, your problem i think is different. are you using white leds behind colored lens? with leds, you always use the same color led as the housing lens. red leds behind red lens, amber leds behind amber lens, any color led behind clear lens. since leds are only one wavelength of light, you must use the proper color if you have a colored lens. also, yes any kind of window tint or black spray tint will greatly reduce the brightness of leds. theres nothing you can do about that. ive seen cars with extremely bright leds from the factory that had their lights tinted and the brightness went way down.

 
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I have Osram LEDs that will give better results than the filiment bulbs but it will require some modifications. You can see my truck for example.



Here is how I modify them for corvettes, Evo's and STi's.



Here is the running lights, brighter than most brake lights.



Here are the brake lights, all LED, Way brighter than stock, and even lit too.

 
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The big problem is the tint, for starters. I'd remove it, or use one less dark. For LED bulbs, go to ebay and checkout the store for Vleds. They have LED bulbs that have more LED's firing off to the side, to fill in the reflectors better. Also make sure the LED color is the same as the lens color. They MUST be the same. White LED's through a red lens a too dark because the LED is nearly pure spectrum. The lens is meant to block all but the red spectrum of incandescent bulbs for your brake lights. White LED's will have their light mostly filtered out by the colored lens. You can have amber/yellow LED's behind a red lens, say for turn signals, and the yellow light will mostly shine through. That's one of the few exceptions.

 
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Good point! Thanks ! ordering the red ones.

 
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so you did get the white leds? lol oh well. yeah the red ones will be a ton brighter. and to answer your original question, no, the 02 civic tails do not have any type of reflector inside the light housing. its just a dull silver plastic back there. only the newer civics come with the chrome reflectors. if you find the leds are still not good enough for you, i would suggest the clear polarg "lens type" bulbs which has a built-in lens at the top to amplify the light intensity.

 
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dam jb7 how much for a set for my 04 2 door ???

 
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pm sent

 
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Actually no, the real problem is the LEDs you are using.

A customers truck, that I sold him tail light LEDs.

Black tinted tail lights...


With my LEDs (running lights only)


With my LEDs (brake lights)



And they fill the Entire reflector, during the day.

It all has to do with angle of attack.

 
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What brand/type of LEDs are those, and where can I check them out?!? That's one of the brightest aftermarket bulbs I've seen!

 
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its oem osram joule led bulb. used on mercury mountaineer, chevy malibu, new mustang, and few others. it has four hi power red leds inside and an optic piece to direct the light back and to the sides. has 80 total lumens. how well it works will depend on how good your filament bulb reflector is. you need a roundish style with chrome plating. otherwise they will barely look bright at all. the new mustang reflectors have the best designed joule optics ive ever seen. if youve ever seen a new mustang you wont believe how bright it is. they also use 3 joule led bulbs per side tho.

 
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I do them in STi's, EVO's, Vettes & Rangers. Always excellent results.

I have been working on a HUGE led mod on my Evo all day (for 14 hours) and this is after working on it for 20 last weekend. Just to tease you guys..

 
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I do them in STi's, EVO's, Vettes & Rangers. Always excellent results.

I have been working on a HUGE led mod on my Evo all day (for 14 hours) and this is after working on it for 20 last weekend. Just to tease you guys..