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Led tail light and led brake light bulb

14K views 12 replies 8 participants last post by  lavarock  
#1 ·
My drivers side tail light is out and am gonna replace it with an led, this may sound stupid but do I need a red, amber, or white led bulb? Also since I'm taking the tail light off I might as well replace the brake bulb too to led. Is the brake bulb the same as the tail light led bulb?


Any help is appreciated!
 
#6 ·
owns 2005 Subaru Outback 3.0 LL Bean
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#10 ·
Normally you match the lens color when installing LED bulbs. Brake lights need a red LED. Use a white bulb and it produces a washed out color. You also need to know the difference between CAN bus and non-CAN bus LED bulbs so you don't use the wrong one. Vehicles don't necessarily have all their lights on the CAN bus, so you need to know. The best place to get all that info is from a company that specializes in LED bulbs. They'll know which bulb you need for each application.
 
#11 ·
I speak from experience, follow the instruction to match the LED color to the lens color. Otherwise it washes out and looks really bad. Also, I'd recommend finding one with LEDs that shine out onto the reflector. I tried some that were just flat pointed towards the lens, and the output was so dismal I had to scrap them.
 
#13 ·
I had a brake light burn out on my 2012 3.6R Outback.

The Sylvania Automotive website listed a 7440 for the Outback.

I tried the 7440 Sylvania and it set a flashing brake light on the instrument cluster and a solid traction control light.

I was not sure what caused the lights as it had been a couple days between replacing the lamps and when I next drove the Outback that fault lights showed. Thus I did not make the connection between the fault lights and the LED Bulb.

Had a Subaru dealer pull the codes and they informed me that LED lights often cause problems with Outbacks.