RX8strakes / rotaryfx LED taillight bulb kit
 

I just installed the bulb kit and *nothing* works. Brakes don't engage the brake light, reverse doesn't engage the back up lights, turn signals don't engage the turn lights. I've removed and reinstalled the OEM halogen brake lights (swapped back and forth a few times) and the halogen bulbs continue to work.

Question 1: is there any reason that all of the lights would likely be defective?

Question 2: I need to drive in a couple hours, is there any good way to disconnect the turn-signal load resistor without having to cut wires and resplice (possibly several times if I need to try again, then swap back to drive again, etc.), or do I even need to disconnect to swap back the factory bulbs?

I've read the threads about V-Leds being solid and I may end up attempting to return these and buy from V-Leds if I can't get them working. (rotaryfx, are you listening here?)

Any help will be appreciated.

have you tried plugging your oem ones back in to see if they work? it's unlikely that ALL the bulbs are defective.. i bought my interior bulbs from rotaryfx a while back and they lasted a long time

Yes, I've tried swapping the originals back, they all still work, except I haven't tried the factory turn signals again because I don't want to resplice the resistors many times.

Guess what I would do is leave all the LED's in the rear except the third brake light.
Put it back to a normal bulb and then see if everything else works(in the back).
If I remember right, the third brake light will screw things up unless you have a load resistor and it better be the right value and wired in right. I'm not totally sure about your kit, but I know just using standard LED's the third brake light can give you issues.

Let's get the rear lights working, then we can tackle the turns. And you are talking about the turns and not the corners right? Sorry, but gotta be sure.

There is no LED in the third brake light, the kit is only main brake lights, back up lights, and turn signals. On another note, by third brake is currently burnt out - it doesn't affect the OEM bulbs, but I suppose that could be a problem for the LEDs.

Possible I guess. Do you have a good bulb you could stick in there?

Try swapping out 1 brake light, turn signal and reverse LED at a time with an OEM bulb. In other words when one of your LED brake lights isn't working neither will light up. Try switching them with an OEM that you know will work one at a time. You may just have gotten single bad LEDs I would find it hard that a whole set is defective.

Looks like the whole thing was caused by the burnt-out 3rd brake light. I swapped one of the 3440s from the taillight into the 3rd brake light and everything lit up (except for two that I had to turn around).

Yepper..........it seems it's always that damn third brake light in one way or another!
For some reason, that area is way more sensitive than any other!
Glad your up and running!

well, they look a little dim, but it is daylight and with snow on the ground, so ambient light is high. I'll have to look at them at night and re-evaluate.

I might have to swing by and take a peek at these sometime. I was interested in doing the same thing.

you should have taken pics!
you know, like a before and after

JMC, yeah, definitely come see them. the color looks great, but they still do look a little dim; not much dimmer than factory, but not the brightness I was hoping for (I'll be contacting rotaryfx about this one). Aside from the little hiccup in this thread, the install was easy.