Brighter Tail Lights

[JayDarden]

Is there any way to make my brake lights, turn signals, etc. brighter? Things have come a long way in 30 years. I was testing them and my helper could hardly tell if they were on or off.

[kellzey]

I've seen some Halogen replacement bulbs with standard socket fittings in either Tweeks or Automotion catalogs...

But check here on the Pelican site. The gotta have 'em.

Regards,

[JayDarden]

Halogen for the rear? I got to thinking about it and I need to check to see if ground is good, and it is getting a full 12v. A third brake light would be nice, if it was not visible (noticeable) when not lighted. Inside the rear window maybe?

How close are you on the six? I would love to run with one of those!

[kellzey]

Someone had also posted on this group a thread rechroming lights and someone mentioned painting the reflectors inside the light assemblies white instead of the chrome. Said that it made for a brighter light.

Just a thought.

Karl

[Vaughan Williams]

I've also thought of converting my brake and turn signal lights to high output LEDs

[JWest]

Street rod shops have various levels of brighter bulbs - there are the limited use halogens (read melt the works if you leave them on too long) and they also have brighter tugnsten bulbs that will not melt the housings but will give more light. Pick up a Street Rodder magazine and you will see plenty in the ads.

[rfoulds]

I found just cleaning the reflectors and lenses REALLY well and putting new bulbs in made a huge difference.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Another thing that has helped: Cleaning all of the electrical connections. That includes the ones between the bulb and the socket, the ones where the wires plug into the socket, the ones at the ground connection, and all of that... And bulbs actually do lose some of their light-producing power over the course of many many years. This seems to be more of a factor on the instrument lights than the taillights, but still...

--DD

[Dave Bell]

Had a couple reflectors that were worn out... they had become "absorbers".... fresh piece of aluminum foil laid on top of reflector worked well..... Shiny side out of course.

- Dave

[pbanders]

When the bulbs, connectors, system voltage, lenses, and reflectors are in good condition, 914 taillights and back-up lights work well. A few suggestions:

1. Check the condition of your battery and alternator. Dim lights are an early warning sign of a problem here.

2. Check the condition of your headlight switch. Many of these switches are in poor conditon and have significant resistance. If the switch feels hot (reach up under the dash), it may be ready to go.

3. Check your fusebox contacts and fuses for corrosion. I've seen some that were so bad it was a miracle anything worked at all.

4. Check the conditions of the grounds for the lights. Many are totally corroded, loose, green corrosion gook on the wires, etc.

5. Use a contact cleaner like Deoxit to clean all of the bulb sockets and bulb contacts. Usually this is a white flaky corrosion.

6. Check your bulb ratings and make sure they're the right bulbs.

7. The chrome plating on the tail light reflectors is often corroded or completely gone. A cheap fix that works well is to respray with "chrome paint". I did this years ago on one of my reflectors and it is very difficult to tell from looking at the lights when on, which one has the paint and which one has the chrome finish.

8. Lenses - often incredibly dirty inside, due to the leaky seal. Clean them, and replace the edge seal with 1/8" foam "rope" you can get from Home Depot.

[jurhip]

the lights on my 914 are about as bright as on my 97 VW GTI-VR6 (rears that is) Try checking grounds and cleaning (see above replys)

Grassroots Motorsport recommended cleaning the lenses with toothpaste (white colgate) adn theirs came out really nicely.

good luck

Justin
74 914 1.8