[RandyHall]

Apologies if this is common knowledge; repeated searches of the forums on things like SRCK revealed nothing.

So, let me tell you a story...

When I bought my new (to me) 2006 toaster, I drove it home to realize that one of the brake lights and the 3rd brake light were smoked. "Great," I tell myself, immediately launching into an online search to replace the bulbs with LEDs. Buying an all-LED tail light is too spendy right now, so I searched for replacement vehicle bulbs, which lead me to V-LEDS.

Using their site, I quickly figured that I needed to get an LED replacement for the 3rd brake light 7443 tail/brake combo light replacement bulb. There was also something called a "7443-SRCK", which made off-hand reference to Scion and Toyota wiring, but I didn't pay close enough attention at the time.

So, today comes, the V-LEDS "bulbs" show up, and I quickly set about pulling off the tails to get at the burnt bulbs. 3rd brake light was a cinch, of course, so it was a plug-and-play.

Once I got to the tails, however, things got spicy...

I replace the bulb on the passenger tail, which had the bulb that burned out. I reconnected it, went to hit the brake and POP goes the fuse. I turned on the parking lights, and the lights light up. I picked up a box of 25 10A fuses and replaced it. Press on the brake...

POP.

Replaced it. Went back to the tail and flipped the bulb. Hit the brakes, nothing happens. Turn on the parking light.

POP goes the tail light fuse.

Anyhow, about ten fuses later, I pull out the new LED bulbs, thoroughly disgusted. I go back and read about the 7443-SRCK and think, "f--k, I bought the wrong lights." So, instead of doing the wimpy thing and sending them back, I choose to step into the ring and throw down on this LED bulb.

Being the electronics nerd I am, I brought out my test clips and a spare 9V wall wart power supply. After a few moments of experimentation, I find that the V-LED 7443 is wired as follows:

(Warning: crappy ASCII ART inbound)

  Gnd   High+
---|-----|-
-|-----|---
Gnd   Low+

Whereas the Scion is wired like this:

  Low+  High+
---|-----|-
-|---------
Gnd

(a.k.a. SRCK wiring, AFAIK)

So, the bulb had four leads, I needed three. So I bent the ground wire on the High side to the other side and snuggled it next to the other ground wire. Then I bent the Low+ wire to the other side and kinda angled it into position for the Low+ on the Scion socket. Here's more crappy ASCII art:

  Low+  High+
     \
------\--|-
-|/----\---
Gndx2

Plug the sucker into the bulb socket, and it WORKS.

I find that this helps me atone for many deficiencies in judgement, esp. the one where I bought the wrong damn LED bulb.

[NOTE: I have photos from my phone, which are terrible, but should illustrate this better than the ASCII art above. I just wanted to post this now and let people know that even YOU can recover from a stupid mistake at the cost of about ten 10A fuses. I'll make sure to post them, plus an action shot of the brake and tail light replacements. They are muy bueno now.]

[PCH]

Pictures would be a great help to understand this.

[RandyHall]

Well, I can't seem to easily edit the original post, so here goes with some really bad photos from my mobile phone. At least I doctored them up as much as I could and notated them with the important stuff.

To start with, here's a photo of the bottom of the "bulb". The trick to it is knowing which side is which, since if you flip the bulb upside down, it looks exactly the same. The way I overcame this was a little wall wart power supply with wire clips attached to the leads on the bulb and to the positive and ground wires on the power supply.

[RandyHall]

Next is a slightly different view of the same bulb. You'll note that I'll never make bucks as a hand model.

[RandyHall]

Once you've determined which side is negative and which is positive, bend the ground lead from the "high" side to the "low" side. Try to snuggle the interloper next to the existing ground lead as much as possible.

[RandyHall]

For the other side, take the "Low +" lead and bend it over to the same side as the "High +" lead, but angle it. You'll see why in a second.

[RandyHall]

Here's a photo of the bulb with the ground leads lined up with the side of the socket that has one terminal on it.

[RandyHall]

Here's the flip side, showing the High+ and Low+ leads (on the bulb) and terminals (on the socket) and how they line up.

[RandyHall]

Once you plug the bulbs into the sockets like that, you can stuff everything back together and have it look like this (parking and brake lights). FWIW, the third brake light is an LED replacement bulb too, also from V-LEDS.

All in all not bad, considering I dropped about $50 on the pair of bulbs. They are bright as all get out and it's cheaper than buying full LED tails.

[RCRat]

Is it illegal to replace stock bulbs with LED's? I thought as far as insurance is concerned they would penalize you if you were hit in the rear and had something other than stock bulbs....anyone know?

[TattooAl]

i wouldnt think so....theyre brighter= more visible= less chance of an accident

tinting yer tailights might cause problems in some states....