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Upgraded Reverse lights

Doc Banger

Doc Banger

New member
I'm going to tint my reverse bar, but with dark tint on my windows already I'm worried about further cutting my light output from the back end. I'm thinking about getting the dremel and fibreglass out and installing some rectangular driving lights in the housings. I'm comfortable with getting them installed, just unsure about the wiring; I'm not a big electronics guy. Is there a reason why I wouldn't be able to just snip the existing sockets off and just wire up the new lamps? Would I be pulling a ton more power and start blowing fuses? I'm not looking at HID or anything with a ballast, just a step up to a brighter halogen, maybe LED. Any suggestions would be great; like I said, I really have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to cutting and slicing, haha.
 


Doc Banger said:
I'm going to tint my reverse bar, but with dark tint on my windows already I'm worried about further cutting my light output from the back end. I'm thinking about getting the dremel and fibreglass out and installing some rectangular driving lights in the housings. I'm comfortable with getting them installed, just unsure about the wiring; I'm not a big electronics guy. Is there a reason why I wouldn't be able to just snip the existing sockets off and just wire up the new lamps? Would I be pulling a ton more power and start blowing fuses? I'm not looking at HID or anything with a ballast, just a step up to a brighter halogen, maybe LED. Any suggestions would be great; like I said, I really have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to cutting and slicing, haha.
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If you're pulling more current than the stock bulbs then you need a relay. The Relay input or trigger (pin 85) connects to the positive (+) wire of the reverse lights, the coil ground on the relay (pin 86) goes to chassis ground, the #30 pin goes to the (+) battery terminal and the #87 pin goes to the postive (+) wire on the driving lights.

RelayWiring---1.jpg


Visuals help.
 
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I want to get better backup lights for mine too. The ones in my sunfire are SOO much brighter than the gtp.
 
If you are using LEDs those will more than likely draw less power than your regular halogen bulb unless you go overboard and get TONS of LEDs (and when I said TONS I MEAN TONS).
 


Open my door to back up??? Maybe when I'm an 85 year old retiree crashing my way around my retirement community I'll open my doors to reverse. Until then, I'll use my mirrors. ZR1Vette, its good to hear the tint doesn't cut the light output very much, but like I said, with my window tint as it is, I'd like a little more light back there.

RedDawn, thanks for the illustration. I'm not going to add a seperate switch or a trigger, just want to leave them activated by reverse. The relay would still make sense though, right? Essentially #85 and #30 would be the same. I'd be looking for a 3 prong relay I guess? Power in, power out, and a ground? The purpose is still to protect the circuit though, not a a switching device, correct?
 
......but if your rear window is tinted too much to see out of, why are your side windows not as well? i made a valid point and what you said was pretty dumb.

i was giving you a cheap option. making the reverse lights brighter doesnt seem like an option to me considering ive NEVER used reverse lights to help myself see behind the car. i dont know how you even can, no car has lights bright enough to light up anything back there. when i had my tinted prix (15%) out in the country with no other lights besides the ones on my car i either opened the window to see the mirrors better, or just opened the door and looked back. why do you have to be elderly to do this?
 
Doc Banger said:
RedDawn, thanks for the illustration. I'm not going to add a seperate switch or a...
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The "trigger" is the reverse lamps. When the reverse lamps come on that will activate the relay coil which closes, connecting pin #30 to pin #87. You can put LED's in there, it would be simple and they are fairly bright and you wouldn't need any wiring modifications but if you're talking about adding some kind of halogen driving light you will need a relay or the smell of melted wiring is in your future.
 
Over on ls1tech, the guys there seem to like the sylvania silverstar bulb for the reverse lights. You could also use a 3457 bulb which is slightly brighter than the stock 3157 bulb.
 


Bio248 said:
......but if your rear window is tinted too much to see out of, why are your side windows not as well? i made a valid point and what you said was pretty dumb.

i was giving you a cheap option. making the reverse lights brighter doesnt seem like an option to me considering ive NEVER used reverse lights to help myself see behind the car. i dont know how you even can, no car has lights bright enough to light up anything back there. when i had my tinted prix (15%) out in the country with no other lights besides the ones on my car i either opened the window to see the mirrors better, or just opened the door and looked back. why do you have to be elderly to do this?
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Rear windows are all 10% and the front sides are 25% because thats the law here. People who can't drive with their mirrors open their door to back up; as a stereotype, old people are bad drivers so I made the leap. You're kinda proving my point; the lights aren't bright enough so why not fix the problem? Its kinda like if your interior door handles stopped working and you went with the "cheap option" to fix them by deciding to just roll down the window and open from the outside. Not really fixing the problem. What was the dumb thing I said? Something about opening the doors to reverse? That was someone else who suggested that.

So RedDawn, I'm looking at a seperate, heavier gauge supply wire directly from the battery (or fuse box?) to the #30 pin? The purpose of the original supply to the #85 is to act only as a trigger, correct? I'm powering the lights through the new line into the #30?
 
Bio248 said:
people use reverse lights? if it's really that dark, open your door.
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not so much. ever been in bum-f*ck on a new moon? good luck with an open door.. it works in lit area, and the city.. and for a little insurance, why not have reverse lights?

not really the ideal setup but it works:

goto walmart, buy a pair of cheap ass fog lights. (guess you could use both.. buddy and i only used the one out of the pair.)

mount the some-b*tch up under the rear bumper and splice it into the reverse lights. when you reverse.. you have light. make sure to tuck it up under the bumper good enough so it's not hanging. you only need to have about 5-6ft behind you lit up, unless you need more..

did this to a buddies truck, no pics but must say works pretty good. planning on doing something similar this spring to the gp.
 
oneil.GTP said:
not so much. ever been in bum-f*ck on a new moon? good luck with an open door.. it works in lit area, and the city.. and for a little insurance, why not have reverse lights?
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my parents live out in the middle of nowhere without street lights. their driveway is a weird angle, but it looks straight and it is very easy to drive off the side of the driveway into the ditch. i've had a few friends do it. ive found the easiest way to get around it was to open my door and actually look so i could follow the edge of the driveway.

oneil.GTP said:
goto walmart, buy a pair of cheap ass fog lights. (guess you could use both.. buddy and i only used the one out of the pair.)

mount the some-b*tch up under the rear bumper and splice it into the reverse lights. when you reverse.. you have light. make sure to tuck it up under the bumper good enough so it's not hanging. you only need to have about 5-6ft behind you lit up, unless you need more..
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my brother did this on his GP. i dont know how often he has really used them, but it is a good option if you want something excessively bright to reverse with.
 
Never had reverse lights on any car be very helpful in actually seeing anything when backing up. Figure they're just there for the benefit of others so they know you're about to do something stupid...errr back up. I'd say if it looks even close to what ZR1Vette09 posted you don't need to mess with anything.
 


Doc Banger said:
So RedDawn, I'm looking at a seperate, heavier gauge supply wire directly from the battery (or fuse box?) to the #30 pin? The purpose of the original supply to the #85 is to act only as a trigger, correct? I'm powering the lights through the new line into the #30?
Click to expand...

Yeah, think of the relay as a switch. When the coil is energized it closes the switch, meaning power from the battery will travel to the auxiliary lights that you are adding. The #85 pin would be wired to the reverse light's (+) positive wire so when the reverse lights come on the relay coil comes on which turns on the auxiliary lights. The whole concept is to pull power straight from the battery, not the reverse lights themselves so that you don't fry your wiring.

Almost all auxiliary lights use 55 Watt H3 halogen bulbs so if you tried to wire them right to your reverse lights without a relay you would be pulling 110 Watts or about 9.2 Amps (that's provided that you are using TWO auxiliary lamps with H3 bulbs). I want to say the stock reverse lamp bulbs are something like a 3057 bulb which only pulls something like 27.5 Watts each so 27.5 x 2 = 55 Watts or 4.5 Amps so you would essentially be doubling the amps on the stock wiring without a relay.
 
I know that ZZP has the brighter reverse lights but I do not have the part number. The upgraded bulbs just have two filaments that both come on instead of one. These bulbs can be made if you cant find them, to make them find one that has the same base and two filaments. There will be two sets of leads one for each filament you will need to modify the secondary lead so it is connected to the first one this will have both turn on and be brighter.
 
Phantom said:
I know that ZZP has the brighter reverse lights but I do not have the part number. The upgraded bulbs just have two filaments that both come on instead of one. These bulbs can be made if you cant find them, to make them find one that has the same base and two filaments. There will be two sets of leads one for each filament you will need to modify the secondary lead so it is connected to the first one this will have both turn on and be brighter.
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They are 3457's. They are dual filament bulbs. Both filaments turn on when in reverse, thus being brighter than the stock 3057. I use 3457's in my reverse lights with no issues. Here is a thread about the silverstar reverse lights.

Osram Night Breaker & Silverstar Reverse Bulbs - LS1TECH
 
I put HIDs into my reverse lights. You can't get any brighter than that. The only problem is that the HIDs take a while to warm up and get brighter, so I used the HID low with halogen high bulb (9007), and modified it to fit in the reverse light hole. Using a relay and switch, I am able to just put it in reverse, and have the halogen bulb instantly come on, and if I need extra light, I flick a switch in my armrest and turn on the HID bulb as well.
This is also good for tailgaters... LOL
 
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