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Vehicle Parts / Vanagon / Body / Lighting / Exterior Lighting / Bulbs & Sockets
Vehicle Parts / Vanagon / Bundles and Kits

Exterior LED Bulb Kit

Part #: GVW-LED-EXT-VANO

Works With: 1980-1991

Weight: 1.00 lbs

Manufacturer: GoWesty

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Price Range: $159.95 - $177.40

Final Price: $159.95

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Description
Videos
Fitment/Function Notes
Specifics
PDF Instructions

This exterior LED bulb kit will have you grinning from ear to ear for a variety of reasons. Some of the general benefits:

• Longer bulb life
• Lower power consumption (more on that below!)
• Brighter lights—especially the reverse, tail lights, and brake lights
• Faster response—which is extremely important for brake lights! LEDs offer an instant response, which gives a full intensity signal 200 milliseconds faster than incandescent. Sound insignificant? At 65 mph, that time translates to almost 20 feet.

Our primary objectives when sourcing and R&Ding this kit were: improving the dismal tail light performance without ruining the tail/brake contrast, obtaining the best possible front marker light performance, vastly updating brake light response, and truly improving the reverse lights. Happily, this kit achieves all of these objectives!

Kit includes:
- Two (2) LED front turn signal bulbs
- Two (2) LED rear turn signal bulbs
- Two (2) LED tail light bulbs
- Two (2) LED brake light bulbs
- Two (2) LED reverse light bulbs
- Two (2) LED side marker bulbs
- Two (2) LED license plate light bulbs
- New turn signal relay (necessary for LEDs to function properly)*
- Installation instructions

A note on turn signals: We have found that roughly 90% of the time, our Exterior LED Bulb Kit for Vanagon functions as designed. However, some vans exhibit funky turn signal behavior, but fear not— We have a fix! We have put together this resistor kit to remedy the turn signal issue a small percentage of folks might experience.

In order to keep the cost down for most customers and eliminate waste, we have opted to provide resistors at an additional cost to only those who need it (rather than adding it to the cost of the regular kit).

Fitment note: If your vehicle has factory-installed cruise control, a minor modification to the cruise control wiring harness is required. There is a RED/BLACK wire that runs from the cruise’s main control unit, through the foot pedal-activated canceling switches (one at the brake pedal of all vehicles, and an additional one at the clutch pedal of manual-shift vehicles), and then up to one of the brake light pressure switches on the brake master cylinder. Cut the wire between the switches and the master cylinder (on manual-shift vehicles it should come from the clutch pedal switch) and ground the end coming from the switch locally—the screw that fastens the bracket for the canceling switches to the body of the vehicle is a convenient location. Be sure to tape, or otherwise protect, the end of the wire coming down from the master cylinder and secure it out of the way to prevent a short, as this wire receives power when the brake lights are activated. This step is necessary because the canceling switches get their ground signal through the brake light bulb filaments, which is not possible with LED bulbs. Your cruise control will not work without this modification, as it will always think that the clutch or brake is being depressed.

Function note: Due to the design of the LED drivers that power the bulbs, some radio frequency interference is inevitable. In our experience, this interference is only noticeable when the radio reception is marginal—and the brake, turn, or reverse lights are engaged. At this time, there is no "fix" for this issue. In practice, we have not found this to be a big issue; however, if you happen to listen to the radio a lot in an area with poor reception and you are turning/braking frequently, this could bug you a bit.

Function note #2: Many non-powered trailer wiring converters are not compatible with LED tail light bulbs. If you are experiencing both rear turn signals flashing concurrently, along with your rear running lights illuminating dimly, or other tail light oddities, the issue is likely a bad converter. The converter we sell has proven to work reliably. Alternatively, any powered style converter should be compatible.

Techy stuff, for those of you that care:

Comparing current draw (in amps) between the stock bulbs and our new LEDs.

Bulb	Stock	LED
Reverse	3.50	0.38
Tail	1.67	0.24
Brake	3.50	0.24
Rear Turn	3.50	0.186
Front Marker	0.83	0.046
Front Turn	3.50	0.024
Side Marker	0.67	0.05
License Plate	0.67	0.39
TOTAL	17.8	1.56