Reverse LED's
 

Finally got my Cree LEDs in today, and cant wait to install them.
They are 45 watt Cree LEDs made by Samsung.
They actually have some weight to them.
I searched this thread on how to remove the taillight, but it redirected me to the coupe tail lights and although the pulling/bolts is the same, its not as easy to get to by just pulling back carpeting. Im tackling this project tomorrow! It will be 43 as oppossed to 15 degrees tomorrow so at least the weather is on my side. I will post a DYI when finished. Wish me luck on not breaking anything! Lol

please do post the output difference if you can. I'm in the market to upgrade my reverse bulbs.

If you want my LED reverse lights you can have them for free. I'll never go back to using them. Stock bulbs are superior.

All done and nothing broken PART 1
 

Finally got around to it today. Its actually fairly easy. First I started off with putting down the separator, and lifting up the trunk to partially reveal the spare tire. This will allow the plastic brackets to unsnap later on.

Attachment 140156


Once that is done, start by taking out the trunk bulb housing completely and disconnecting the power. Next, take out the strap down hooks. Using a flat head screw driver, just pop them out. Last, unscrew the screw on the side of the clip that holds the separator on top.

Attachment 140157

The separator part on the drivers side has a power connector to it but the passenger side does not. Just disconnect the power on the the drivers side and place it aside. Both sides just pop out.

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Once the seperator panels are out, there are only two more tabs on the inside to be taken off. They are sort of hard to get out but with pliers, just nudge them out.

Attachment 140159

Part 2
 

Now that thats out of the way.... We can now pull that plastic piece out. It just snaps out, so i recommend starting at one side, then pull each side at a time until the whole thing pops off.

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Once thats off, you will need to unclip two clips on each side so that you can get the ratchet behind there to take off the screws on for the tail lights.

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Now get out a 8MM and take off the three nuts. One towards the middle of the bumper and then two more towards the outer bumper.

Attachment 140153
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Once the nuts are off, you will notice that the tail light has some wiggle room. Be very careful, because the way the tail light swoops at each end, it almost makes it impossible to get a good grip on it to pull without breaking or chipping a piece off. I used the back of the screw driver, put it against the back screws and just applied pressure until i heard them pop out. I did this to all three screws carefully. I would recommend using a GPS suction cup and getting the tail light out that way but I didn't have one handy.

Attachment 140155

Once the tail light is out, go ahead and change the bulb.

When it comes time to put the tail light back in, just make sure you align all the clips/screws then reverse install just have you took it out.

Part 3 - final
 

So now that its done, Im not as impressed like i have been with the same bulbs for my past cars, such as my 07 Maxima or my 09 Murano. The way the bulbs are in the car; the bulbs point up, the actually bright "Cree" part of the LED is facing up and not going where it is supposed to be going. On my other two vehicles, the bulb was pointing straight out and it looked awesome and bright. Not the case here.... but still looks better. As long as you have bright LEDs for the license plate that you fine. Those act as my reverse lights anyway as they light up the ground (Along with the bright break lights)

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Here are the close up pictures. Here you can tell how the halogen could be brighter and favor over the LED in this case... Only because of the way the bulb is positioned from the factory.

Attachment 140149
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thanks for the writeup. I was trying to do the same thing last fall. This should make it much easier.

Great write up - been looking for one for the Coupe.

Since the Coupe's reverse LED bulb faces upwards, would a LED design such as this one below work better versus the CREE design?


Appreciate any input.