Replacing the interior lights of your Jeep Wrangler TJ with LEDs

moab said:
Hey @Chris - Is it possible to start another thread or use this thread to also cover "external" LED replacement?

I'm about to replace my front and rear lights with LED's. I ordered what I thought I needed a year ago from superbrightleds. But I lost the reverse projector lights and that flasher relay someplace. And I'm a bit unsure as to which bulbs go where. Unless I cross reference the SBL website to what I have bought.

If you run your vehicle ('99 Jeep TJ) thru their search function it comes up with several lights for the rear tail light housing that seem to overlap. I really don't know what I bought. I think I just need to tear into a tail light and see what works.

Anyone have a list of what they used? And any issues you ran into?
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I bought most of my led bulbs from superbrightleds and when you look up your vehicle I think the first one in their list is usually the best choice. You need a 1156 bulb for the backup lights. I did buy this bulb from Amazon due to another member’s recommendation, a iBrightstar Newest 9-30v super bright, low power 1156. For the brake light/turn signal you need a 1157 dual function bulb. Superbrightled recommends a red one but I wouldn’t put a red one on the drivers side because it shines down for your license plate light. The flasher that they recommend will not work, you need a EP26 flasher, I got mine at Oreillys or you can get it from Amazon.
 
moab said:
What's the issue with the front exterior lights? Don't you have to use normal bulbs or it will blink fast or something?
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For the front turn signals you can use LED bulbs as long as you have an LED flasher relay. However, if you use LED bulbs in the side markers, it screws up everything.
 
moab said:
You mean driver and passenger side will blink at the same time? Are there brighter incandescents to put in there?
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No the front turn signal and the side marker on the same side. I think if you would put an incandescent in the side markers and a led in the front they will blink normally
 
TDB55 said:
No the front turn signal and the side marker on the same side. I think if you would put an incandescent in the side markers and a led in the front they will blink normally
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@Chris - IS this a solution to "LED's in the front screws up everything ..."? MEaning if you alternated like that with incandescents in the side markers and LED's in the front?

My Jeep is black and hard to see at night. Just trying to upgrade everything lightwise that I can.
 
moab said:
@Chris - IS this a solution to "LED's in the front screws up everything ..."? MEaning if you alternated like that with incandescents in the side markers and LED's in the front?

My Jeep is black and hard to see at night. Just trying to upgrade everything lightwise that I can.
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It means if you want to run LEDs, you can basically put them everywhere except the fender flare side markers without your turn signals going haywire.

Thats a moot point though, as those bulbs are so tiny even LEDs don’t make them any brighter.
 
Thanks guys for the talk today about the fender flare lights on my 2000 I had them every where and other than needing to swap out the blinker relay every thing was fine but today on my 2001 I all the front bulbs to LED and the fender flare lights weren't working right.

If I put a standard bulb in the front turn/parking light socket the flares worked fine and were super bright like expected. But if I put LED in both the flare light would just almost light up but was clearly not working right. And with the standard bulb in the flare wouldn't light at all if a LED was in the turn/park. I thought maybe I had some wireing issue but maybe not.

Chris If I am tracking you right you are saying that we should be OK with LED in all but the front fender flares? If that is the case I will try again I just figured it was a wireing issue because there are a few of those on this rig.

Thanks
 
I think he's saying LED's in the front of the metal fenders, but incandescent bulbs in the side of the flares.
 
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Shawn of the farm said:
Thanks guys for the talk today about the fender flare lights on my 2000 I had them every where and other than needing to swap out the blinker relay every thing was fine but today on my 2001 I all the front bulbs to LED and the fender flare lights weren't working right.

If I put a standard bulb in the front turn/parking light socket the flares worked fine and were super bright like expected. But if I put LED in both the flare light would just almost light up but was clearly not working right. And with the standard bulb in the flare wouldn't light at all if a LED was in the turn/park. I thought maybe I had some wireing issue but maybe not.

Chris If I am tracking you right you are saying that we should be OK with LED in all but the front fender flares? If that is the case I will try again I just figured it was a wireing issue because there are a few of those on this rig.

Thanks
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So have you changed the flasher yet? I changed mine to a Tridon/Novita EP26, bought mine at Oreillys or Amazon has them.
Tridon EP26 Flasher https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000JZ79NC/?tag=wranglerorg-20
 
TDB55 said:
So have you changed the flasher yet? I changed mine to a Tridon/Novita EP26, bought mine at Oreillys or Amazon has them.
Tridon EP26 Flasher https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000JZ79NC/?tag=wranglerorg-20
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It was my understanding that even if you left the side markers incandescent - you still need a flasher relay to get the front turn signals to work right. But I have not done it yet. And am not an expert for sure.

I think I also recall Chris saying that the turn signal bulb is so small that there is little difference between the incandescent and an LED. IIRC. SO maybe it's not worth doing the fronts in the first place?
 
Novita Technologies 37420 LED Compatible Flasher for 97-00 Jeep Wrangler TJ (EP26)

this is the one I got and it works just fine
 
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TDB55 said:
Here are some pictures of the footwell lights in my 98 Sahara. They are at the bottom edge of the dash where the dash panels end. Mine took a number 67 bulb, I bought cool white. I didn’t put the yellowed out covers back on over the led bulbs. The way the bulbs are made you don’t really need the covers in my opinion. In the dash I used warm white. My sound bar light cover came off with a small screwdriver, it was tight and creaked and popped some!

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Thanks for helping me find them!
Busted bulb, cracked housings but all there!
 
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moab said:
I couldn't get the shifter light to come on except for one led of the five. And then I broke the shifter plastic underneath:

So I thought I'd just do a couple LED upgrades tonight on my '99. I got the light cover on the soundbar off. POP! It went flying. lol. But I got it all together. Not sure the incandescent bulb was any less bright(?!). I used 194's as outlined in this thread. Then I did the footwells. And then I should have stopped.

Or maybe it wouldn't have mattered. I broke the AT shifter plate that shows you what gear your in.

The problem I had was that only one of the 5 led's were lighting up on the bulb. I tried flipping it and putting it in and out a few times. And then I said the heck with it. I'll just put it back in with the one led bulb. And fix it later. But then the LED bulb wouldn't go into the housing. It's just too big at the led's - not at the plastic base that I could file down. But on the led's themselves. I'm sure I can't file on the leds' themselves. Any ideas?

Then I couldn't get the bulb to come on at all. So I went to put it back together without a bulb in. And the clear piece of plastic got stuck in a fitting. And in trying to get it unstuck the very brittle white plastic near the bulb holder broke off. See first pic below. The white plastic part has obviously been sitting in the heat of the transmission way to long. I barely pushed on it to get it loose. and it split a big hunk off just above the light bulb socket.

How much of this do I have to replace? The white piece or the whole thing? And what is it called officially?

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I had this same exact problem when i replaced my console with a Tuffy Security console. I looked online for a replacement and they run as high as $352 just for this piece! I ended up superglueing the heck out of it and i'm going to try to fit it all back in tomorrow (with a new bulb). It's really fragile underneath. The name for the part from Mopar is "Console Gearshift Lever and Dial" if you want to google it. You could probably find some used on ebay or parts sites for much cheaper.
 
Well that was a fail on my part. Tried to replace my blown out bulb for the gearshifter and I ended up breaking the new LED in the process. I knew I should have ordered two lol

Not sure what's wrong with it though, I tested it before and it worked fine. After I shaved it down and got in the opening I heard weird "pop" and now it won't work
20200328_175339.jpg
 
THEREALJIM said:
Well that was a fail on my part. Tried to replace my blown out bulb for the gearshifter and I ended up breaking the new LED in the process. I knew I should have ordered two lol

Not sure what's wrong with it though, I tested it before and it worked fine. After I shaved it down and got in the opening I heard weird "pop" and now it won't work
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My problem was that the led wouldn't fit into the white plastic piece. Before you buy another. Have you tried fitting it into the socket in the white plastic piece?
 
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