Rear spoiler brake light - any ideas?

[flyingsniffer]

I picked my car up from Norton Way this morning. As the bloke brought it round, I noticed that the rear LEDs in the spoiler brake light were more off than on! At home, daughter pressed the pedal while I took the pic11727

Typically, it looks like water has got inside - it's a sealed unit. I hate stuff that doesn't work, so either:

Anyone got a new/good one lying about?

Anybody know anyone who can repair it? The seal will need to be broken to get inside but it looks like a fairly basic soldering job.

Otherwise I suspect it may be a winter project for me, but I'm not the best solderer in the world. Or the most patient!

[flyingsniffer]

None? OK, I shall proceed with plan a and update you as it comes together - or otherwise! High risk/low cost.

If it all goes wrong, plan b might include:

- Straight replacement with new. The Lings price is...wait for it...£647.63.
- Swap out for an NSX-R copy spoiler. Is a Procar one at £2k-ish that much better than a Seibon at £450-ish? The latter looks flat/for show where the former is a pretty exact copy of the OEM version.

Anyway, onwards and upwards!

[NSXGB]

Good luck.
Looks like the chap on eBay has recently sold his, bad timing...
As far as I know the brake light cluster is a simple line of LED's and a few resistors, that should be fairly easy to fix (may just need drying out?), the hard bit is probably going to be getting it apart without breakage and back together weatherproof again.

[scottg]

Britlude has experience with LED's and has a very informative thread on his project making LED driving lights that should help. I am sure some of the parts guys such as Dirk at NSXPARTS are worth a try to see if they have a used one available. Honda's new prices are just crazy.


Good luck.
Looks like the chap on eBay has recently sold his, bad timing...
As far as I know the brake light cluster is a simple line of LED's and a few resistors, that should be fairly easy to fix (may just need drying out?), the hard bit is probably going to be getting it apart without breakage and back together weatherproof again.

[kingsley]

I picked my car up from Norton Way this morning. As the bloke brought it round, I noticed that the rear LEDs in the spoiler brake light were more off than on! At home, daughter pressed the pedal while I took the pic11727

Typically, it looks like water has got inside - it's a sealed unit. I hate stuff that doesn't work, so either:

Anyone got a new/good one lying about?

Anybody know anyone who can repair it? The seal will need to be broken to get inside but it looks like a fairly basic soldering job.

Otherwise I suspect it may be a winter project for me, but I'm not the best solderer in the world. Or the most patient!

Hi Flyingsniffer,

Not sure if this is any help. There is a company call Online LEDs www.online-leds.com (http://www.online-leds.com) they were at the NEC classic car show last year . They provide 12 volt LED ribbon tape lights in red which are very low voltage and are cool running. These are come either water proof or non water proof with self adhesive backing and sold in 500mm and 1000mm lengths which can be cut and connected with leads every 30-40 mm . If I remember correctly they were £15.00 for a waterproof set 2.0 metre strip.

Kingsley

Based in Hertfordshire. 01279 219175

[flyingsniffer]

Yeah, my idea is to attempt to split the two halves of the light (not easy, but I'm getting there). First off, I heated the glue with a paint strip gun on low setting, now I am halfway through using a Dremel to cut through the plastic that joins the middle bit (the holder) to the outside (the lens). Tomorrow night I should complete the job and then it will be deemed a success (or otherwise...)

Once apart, the plan is to rip out and chuck away the old LEDs and replace with a strip of white SMD5050 waterproof LEDs. Once back together, I will seal it with hot glue but as the lights are waterproof, it shouldn't matter too much (although, it might get condensation inside I accept). I suspect water has got into the existing unit: if you zoom in on this pic http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff74/flyingsniffer/20130407_141735_zps26528b28.jpg you can see where several of the connections have gone bad.

Kingsley, thanks for the link. i found a guy on good old ebay that will make up a strip to my length spec, but the guys you sent are pretty close to where I live so it might be handy having a local contact.

[scottg]

You could try a bead of clear silicon to join the two parts Rob once you have the new LED's, you would need to clamp it while it sets but should be water tight and avoid condensation

[NSXGB]

There is one for sale on Prime for $250 + shipping if you get stuck.

EDIT: There are a few to choose from actually...

[Sudesh]

Just remember that, the USA spoiler brake light is a different color from ours, so won't match the tail lights; if you don't mind that, then the USA is the way to go.

The UK dealer price for the light has come down in price, from memory is was more expensive than what's quoted above, a little while back.

[flyingsniffer]

OK, so I ploughed on - everything takes longer than anticipated (not helped by a trip to the Alps!).

First of all I removed the glue from the outside of the rear of the light. I did this by heating it gently with a heat gun and using a narrow screwdriver to remove the glue

11746

This left me with the plastic behind to do battle with

11747

A Dremel narrow grinder was perfect for the vast majority of this part of the exercise. The only problem was the heat this generated, so there was a little bit of collateral damage to the edge of the lens, but I have a plan for this later on.

11748

I did start to worry about how to how to deal with the bottom corners, then decided to go straight across, which was fine. I then used a small drill as a makeshift router to get into the top corners

11749

[flyingsniffer]

Now came the moment of truth - separating the two parts. Fortunately, this worked fine

11750
11751

It was quickly apparent that water ingress was indeed the culprit that caused the failure of the LEDs

11752

Next step was to prise out the LED bars. These were 10mm wide. I used a feeler gauge to help tease out the bars

11753

And the units came out with ease

11754

[flyingsniffer]

The water damage is clear - see area behind the LED bars

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Then snipped the wires where they joined the board and separated.

So now, the challenge moves onto building back up. A guy on eBay built me a 1050mm long waterproof (just in case water gets in again...) '5050' cool white LED strip (avoiding 3528 as this will be too dim in situ) with 1m long tails. Connected up to a 9V battery I learned my first LED lesson: if you connect them the wrong way round (ie black to +ve) the LEDs don't work.

11757

Next, I cut three formica strips 10mm wide (fortunately, the new LED strips were the same width as the old but floppy. The formica is just to give it some rigidity). And overlaid on the inner part of the brake light assembly, with the tails through to the trusty 9V battery

11758

And because I wanted to get a feel for the brightness - albeit, only 9V not 12V - I'm pleased with the progress

11759

I'm really pleased how it's progressing so far.

A question though: can someone with a working light check if theirs has a white 'shadow'? Looking at the last picture above, you can see that there is some white light showing out of the bottom of the lens - I'm wondering if this is the same on the original configuration, or not, as the old bulbs stuck much further into the lens depth? If not, I'll have to run a line of tape or similar inside the lens.

Anyway, that's where we are so far. Tonight hopefully I will progress further, using Mrs. Sniff to press the brake pedal on the car so I can double check the set up.

[flyingsniffer]

Anyway, a late night in the garage and barn and the light is back in place. Not worth taking any progress pics but here's the final installation. It looks a little more orange than OEM when on, but hey, it saved me about £600 and I've ended up with a Dremel I never knew I needed! Obviously many less individual LEDs, but the new ones that are in place are much brighter

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Original at a decent size

11762

Would I do it again? Probably, and it would be a bit quicker next time as I spent a few hours on blind alleys.

Anyway, if any of you suffer LED failure, give it a go.

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

I have never opened the LED 3rd brake light so can’t confirm this but probably Honda used red LED instead of white one if the filter/lens was in red???
Otherwise, it won’t filter only the spectrum around the red wave resulting in slightly different colour such as orange.


Still, nicely done and useful info as it may happen on any NSX.

Kaz

[paulc]

Nice bit of work, many thanks for posting it.

[duncan]

Nice,
Anyone know whether it would be possible to fit a similar strip of LEDs to a UK non-illuminated bar. Or is the non-illuminated bar too opaque to pass light through?

[flyingsniffer]

Kaz,

Red/white...I'm not sure! I still have the original LED bars so will try and connect them to the 9V to see. I was convinced they were white but you might be right!

Duncan,

I seem to recall there was a thread on Prime about converting from a non-illuminated to an illuminated bar which was not too hard (electrics are available to tap into), but I'm not sure about the conversion you are thinking about but it might be interesting to see. I have a spare 1m long LED strip if you want to have a go.

[NSXGB]

Nice,
Anyone know whether it would be possible to fit a similar strip of LEDs to a UK non-illuminated bar. Or is the non-illuminated bar too opaque to pass light through?

I don't believe they are opaque at all...