So I just got the Helix red/clear tails, fit great and look awesome. Put em on in a hurry before my night class... On my way home I noticed the red bulbs aren't getting brighter AT ALL when I brake... with the headlights/parking lights off they aren't coming on when I press the brake pedal either.

So since I can't really diagnose the problem in the dark , any idea what the prob might be? Are the bulb sockets not turned enough in the housing? Or maye the backup/stop bulbs are switched (not likely)? Can't figure it out.

Another strange thing was when I turned on the car twice since I put the tails in, some of the warning lights were on (I think VSC, trac off and some other one) and when I restarted the car they were off again. Odd.

Any help/advice is appreciated

 

Another thing is that the lights came with dark orange bulbs that i didn't use.. I assumed they were for the turn signals, which worked fine with the OEM bulbs. Were they for the brake light bulbs instead?
There were no instructions of course, haha.

 

the orange bulbs are for the turn signals, white bulbs are for reverse, and reds are for brake/running lights.

**Make sure that your bulb is properly seated into the socket, and make sure your socket is inserted correclt, and tight. I had an issue with mine.. sometimes one of the brake lights wouldn't light up, or the blinker wouldn't work, causing the blinker to be twice as fast like when a bulb is burned out. just had to make sure everything is nice and tight!

 

check to make sure the bulbs are all the way seated in. so any pics?

 

The top bulb is clear... the OEMs and Helixes both have red lenses covering them.

I'll mess with the bulb sockets and take some pix tomorrow... can test out my new camera

 

I wonder why it does that.

 

Cant wait to see these pics

 

helixes are just crazy dim. everybody that has them has the same problem

 

Do the leds work good thogh like what they Are sayin

 

if they dont have the load resister they will burn the foils. if they have the load resister it should be ok, as far as brightness im not totally sure...

 

As stated above, check the tightness of the sockets & also make sure the taillight is bolted down nice & tight to the frame. But of course not tight enough to break the plastic.

I can't remeber from when I did mine if the frame is a ground or not on them, but my experiance in home security is that a bad ground can cause crazy stuff to happen.

I had issues with mine too & after a half hour of playing with them, they were fine.

Good luck

 

if you want to bring it into the shop tomorrow call me. we can look at it together and figure this puppy out.

 

UPDATE: Working fine now. I uscrewed and rescrewed until the magically started lighting up properly. You can see from looking thru the housing lense to where the socket is seated that it doesn't turn all the way like the OEM housings do. But if you torque em hard enough they just make enough contact in there to work. This is all sounding vaguely kinky so I'll stop now.

Bill- got my cathodes, maybe you can lend some expertise. Sub is STILL not here yet... Scosche bastards

 

Here's a pic.

 

(ohhhing and ahhhing)
looks good! so what did you do with the old ones?

 

I still have em...

 

ginourmous pic-

 

boxer did you have a problem with the reverse lights? Mine don't work and I don't know what I did wrong

 

Mine work fine... try reinserting the bulb sockets a few times.