# Converted the rear door cargo/dome light to LED



## bond007pr (Jul 10, 2006)

...as title says. Bought a "cool white" LED rigid-loop "festoon" type bulb from "superbrightleds". Not too happy with the light output, but definitely I will leave it that way, color match was great, and now all lights seem to blend in properly.


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## Air_Cooled_Nut (Mar 15, 2000)

Part number?


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## bond007pr (Jul 10, 2006)

Air_Cooled_Nut said:


> Part number?


http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-...category=CAR&Page2Disp=/specs/RL4410-xHP9.htm


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## Air_Cooled_Nut (Mar 15, 2000)

Is the poor light output due to positioning? An incandescent throws light 360-degrees whereas the LED is a little bit wider than 'point and shoot'. Someone else installed this type of LED and said they had to tweak the loops in order for it to shine more light. Something to check.


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## pefer (Apr 27, 2006)

I used 2 of these types, stuck side by side, purchased from ebay. 
Filled the entire "lens", light disperses very well. 
Very bright! 











many kinds on ebay... 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/48-SMD-Whit...996?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ebba69094


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## 58kafer (Jun 27, 2007)

pefer said:


> I used 2 of these types, stuck side by side, purchased from ebay.
> Filled the entire "lens", light disperses very well.
> Very bright!
> 
> ...


 I assume you just soldered the other pig tail on to the festoon adapter, right?


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## Air_Cooled_Nut (Mar 15, 2000)

Yeah, pictures of the mod are more important than a blob of light coming from the lens.


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## pefer (Apr 27, 2006)

I took it out of the van for a pic for you gents/ladies... 










Sorry, I wont peel the double sided tape to show more, so I will describe: 

58K, I actually did not use the feston adapters, I did cut the wires off the adapter and soldered the 2 pairs (a pair from each board) onto the metal tabs themselves where the oem bulb hooked onto. Check for polarity first. 

The metal tabs did have to be bent totally flat in order to clear and accommodate the led boards. 

LED boards come with 2-sided tape on back, so I stuck them on a piece of plastic along the middle to keep the 2 together and the whole 'assembly' stuck on to the back plastic of the light housing, in the pic you see points of adhesion, on bottom outer corners and along middle top. 

So far, so good, almost 10 months use. Open hatch at night, it is indeed very bright. 
The mod is reversible, peel, unsolder and spring the metal tabs back. 

One thing about the Caravan, inside the hatch area, runs a solid type of cable, I think is the hatch open release cable, when you put the light back in, make sure the cable is not directly behind the light assembly, or it will push the light to fall out and dangle by wires -when one closes the hatch.


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## Air_Cooled_Nut (Mar 15, 2000)

Good post :thumbup: That's how I like 'em!


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## Air_Cooled_Nut (Mar 15, 2000)

I took my light apart to see what it looks like inside. :facepalm: Who was the intern that designed that? The reason why it is a little anemic is that there's no reflector behind the bulb! :screwy: The whole light design sucks!! My 1972 VW dome light is better engineered than that POS.

I rummaged through our recycling bin and found a piece of glossy white paper from one of my wife's cosmetic...uhm...thingys ("Meaningful Beauty"). I cut a square out of the booklet and taped it behind the bulb but in front of the black plug. It does help reflect more light out into the cabin but not much. Is it noticeable? Yes, when you put it in place vs. removing it. Will it make a big difference? Hell no. Is it better than nothing there? Hell yes.

A smooth metal reflector is out of the question unless you want to put more 'engineering' into it because the numbskulls have the electrical paths fully exposed :facepalm:


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## MozartMan (Jul 31, 2010)

I installed two LED panels that I bought from Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005J3BPCK











Here are some pics:




















It is bright in the back!


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## pefer (Apr 27, 2006)

Mozart, Great job and photos too. :thumbup::thumbup:

:beer:


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## Air_Cooled_Nut (Mar 15, 2000)

Wow, that's helluva BRIGHT!  Looks like the sun rising back there. I wonder how just one of those panels would do the job. Nice work :beer:


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## accretian (Apr 2, 2012)

Hi... I'm from the Chrysler TC Forums.. RoutanSEL gave me the link of this thread since i want to put leds also on our rear cargo light for our 2012 tc.. 

@MozartMan how are those leds holding up? would u say they are 5000k or 6000k? the price in amazon is .01 but the shipping is like $5.. I was surprised to see the price at .01...

@pefer thanks for the ebay link.. i was just wondering what color temp are those? 5000k or 6000k? 

Any other suggestion for the best led panel that would fit for our rear cargo light?


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## MozartMan (Jul 31, 2010)

accretian said:


> @MozartMan how are those leds holding up? would u say they are 5000k or 6000k? the price in amazon is .01 but the shipping is like $5.. I was surprised to see the price at .01...
> 
> Any other suggestion for the best led panel that would fit for our rear cargo light?


 accretian,

One panel is holding ok, the other one is falling off probably because I put it on and took it off several times in the first place. The other reason is my panels are with 36 LEDs and smaller compare to the once pefer bought with 48 LEDs and those panels have more surface to stick on. So I ordered two of those from eBay, and these once will go back to my Azera. These bigger panels with 48 LEDs should stick better because of bigger surface.

I would say the color it between 5000 and 5500.


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## accretian (Apr 2, 2012)

MozartMan said:


> accretian,
> 
> One panel is holding ok, the other one is falling off probably because I put it on and took it off several times in the first place. The other reason is my panels are with 36 LEDs and smaller compare to the once pefer bought with 48 LEDs and those panels have more surface to stick on. So I ordered two of those from eBay, and these once will go back to my Azera. These bigger panels with 48 LEDs should stick better because of bigger surface.
> 
> I would say the color it between 5000 and 5500.


Thanks! so are you getting the 48 led panel in ebay? The one pefer ordered? I just emailed the seller and he said that the 48 led panel is close to 6500k... so daylight i guess.. Shipping takes long though.. he said it might even take up to 1 month...

Are there any other places or sites we can buy a reliable and decent 48 led panel for our rear cargo light?


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## MozartMan (Jul 31, 2010)

accretian said:


> Thanks! so are you getting the 48 led panel in ebay? The one pefer ordered?


Yes, I ordered those from eBay and they were shipped on 3/26 via Asia airmail.



accretian said:


> I just emailed the seller and he said that the 48 led panel is close to 6500k... so daylight i guess..


I was referring to my panels that I bought on Amazon when I said 5000-5500. These from eBay will probably have little blueish tint ("cool white" kinda), but it's perfectly fine with me, better than yellow.



accretian said:


> Shipping takes long though.. he said it might even take up to 1 month...


It's fine with me. I have one 36 LEDs panel in the light right now which will be spare for my Azera when I get these two and put them in.



accretian said:


> Are there any other places or sites we can buy a reliable and decent 48 led panel for our rear cargo light?


If you don't want to wait just buy these 36 LEDs panels from Amazon (shipping from NJ to MI took 4 days). Then when you install them put four drops of clear silicon at the edges of the panels where hey sit on those flat areas of the light case.


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## aeitingon (Mar 21, 2005)

Just did this with the eBay bulbs - they are stupidly bright and a pretty good match for the factory LED bulbs in the rest of the car. a minor tweak I did - I drilled two holes in the back of the housing so I could zip-tie the LED assemblies in - the sticky tape did not like the plastic (it was not sticking very well at all).


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## MozartMan (Jul 31, 2010)

aeitingon said:


> a minor tweak I did - I drilled two holes in the back of the housing so I could zip-tie the LED assemblies in.


Thanks for the idea.


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## accretian (Apr 2, 2012)

aeitingon said:


> Just did this with the eBay bulbs - they are stupidly bright and a pretty good match for the factory LED bulbs in the rest of the car. a minor tweak I did - I drilled two holes in the back of the housing so I could zip-tie the LED assemblies in - the sticky tape did not like the plastic (it was not sticking very well at all).


would u be able to show us a picture of how you zip tied it? Thanks for the info! i already ordered the panels from ebay as well.. did you get it from the same seller which is "dreambestbuyeu" ?


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## showtz (Mar 29, 2011)

This is a great upgrade from yellow stock light bulb. I purchased two of the Ebay 48 SMD LED panels for $5.58 shipped from seller: dreambestbuyeu
It took a few weeks for them to arrive from Hong Kong.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/200716750996?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

I soldered them on the same way MozartMan did in his pictures above.


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## Air_Cooled_Nut (Mar 15, 2000)

Do you think using only one panel would be the same lumens/brightness as the stock bulb? Or even with one panel would it be brighter? Cuz I'm thinking two panels are a bit too bright...


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## MozartMan (Jul 31, 2010)

Air_Cooled_Nut said:


> Do you think using only one panel would be the same lumens/brightness as the stock bulb? Or even with one panel would it be brighter? Cuz I'm thinking two panels are a bit too bright...


 I ended up installing only one panel with 48 SMD LEDs because like you said two panels was a bit too bright. And it is much brighter than OEM yellow halogen bulb.


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## Air_Cooled_Nut (Mar 15, 2000)

Excellent to know, thanks MM!


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## accretian (Apr 2, 2012)

aeitingon said:


> Just did this with the eBay bulbs - they are stupidly bright and a pretty good match for the factory LED bulbs in the rest of the car. a minor tweak I did - I drilled two holes in the back of the housing so I could zip-tie the LED assemblies in - the sticky tape did not like the plastic (it was not sticking very well at all).


Two panels is too bright? I have to see how it looks like.. I think mine just arrived at the parcel store couple days ago.. I will be picking it up tom and hopefully do the mods by tom as well! Can't stand the yellow stock bulb!


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## accretian (Apr 2, 2012)

I just got mine today and did it! It wasn't that bad.. only had a bit of difficulty with soldering iron ... the other side had a bit more iron cause i was having a hard time making the wire stick to the gold plating.. but it work anyways.. just a bit messy! not an expert when it comes to soldering iron! 

Good thing i ordered a couple extra of those panels! One of the panel i got had 3 burnt leds.. 

Hopefully these panels would last pretty long time ..


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