Repair an LED taillight?

[any4xx]

My ‘14 started telling me my L-R turn signal is out. It turns out that my two inboard LED’s are out on the two top rows. They work fine otherwise so I’m not in a huge hurry here. I just find the rapid flash of the dash indicator and recurring message to be a bit annoying.

I’ve had good luck disassembling other car components over the years to replace lamps, but have never done so with LED’s. At $225.00 for a tail lamp I’m certainly willing to cut this one open and give it a try though. Since two are out, I’m expecting a bad solder joint, but who knows….

Before I jump in blindly, has anyone here done it? Or seen it done?? I searched around the ‘net but didn’t find anything. I’d like to hear from someone who’s done it before I go to work with my saw.

Thanks,
Tom.

 

[OC455]

I haven't seen anyone open up the tail lights to replace individual LEDs. Not saying it isn't possible, because I've seen custom painted tail lights that were opened up.

 

[any4xx]

Well Folks,

I just wanted to chime back in. I did end up just buying a new taillight.

The original one was pretty easy to disassemble though. Separating the lens from the housing was a bit nerve wracking, as the two pieces are glued together and it made a lot of scary noises while prying it apart with a pair of painters tools. But once apart the interior was easy to disassemble, as it was all screwed together.

All of the LED’s seem to be wired in banks of three. I’m guessing that when one of those banks loses continuity it tells the truck to give you the light-out code. In my case the top three inboard LED’s were out. But only intermittently. I’m no electronics guy, but from my bit of testing it looks like one of the LED’s bit the dust. Sad that a $0.03 piece forces the purchase of a $300.00 assembly. In the olden days when I had more time and fewer open projects a trip to a Radio Shack might have gotten me back in business. But for now it was easier to just order a new taillight assembly.

The original one is now in a box on a shelf in my garage waiting for the day that I feel like opening it up again and trying to put it back into service.