Like most, I find the standard reversing lights poor at illumination, mainly as they are inboard rather than at the extents of the vehicle. I've tried LED replacement lamps, pretty underwhelming to be honest - they illuminate the area the camera covers OK but there's barely any spill to the areas you can see in the door mirrors.

I've recently been experimenting with some LED small strip lights to supplement the high beam for 'instant on', which has worked well so I thought I'd have a go at the reversing lights. I didn't end up using the same LED units as they are not built to be stripped down, they're also a bit marginal in terms of fitting inside the original units - one of my 'red lines' as I really don't like the look of the 'powerful' alternatives.

These are the LED units I chose to use for the reversing lights https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07SS81MTM
I also bought another reversing light from fleabay to experiment with without having to worry about damaging it.

First job was to split the two mouldings, surprisingly easy enough, a good bit of flexing at room temperature with some gentle persuasion from a trim tool overcame the ageing adhesives grip, next stage was to sneak into the dishwasher for a good clean in & out.

Stripped the LED light, the PCB is printed onto a strip of aluminium so has a built-in heatsink, should be ample for the amount of time the reversing lights are on. I used one of the tungsten lamp caps as a power adaptor, soldered a couple of wires onto it, screwed the PCB to the reflector of the lamp housing - the screws do protrude but they're inside the area covered by the seal. With the wires soldered onto the PCB, I used a white 'scrapmans pen' (paint pen) on all the dark parts & markings on the PCB (after I took the photo below).

After a functional test, I re-assembled the lamp assembly using Unibond 2 part epoxy for plastic (which is clear)

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That looks very neat, and still looks original from outside, nice write up as well.
I bought the 2 LED bulbs fix for mine, but find its still very dim when reversing at night. the tinted windows dont really
help either.

Thanks - here's a couple of photos from the back, even off-centre there is a better light output.

i put 2 boards of 50 which gave me 100 LEDs in mine a lot better also the bottom reflectors were replaced with reverse lights in them as well as turn / and brake .

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They look neat, what is the rating of them? - not sure if the reflector replacements would pass an MoT - but I'm not a tester so.....

oggy wrote:

i put 2 boards of 50 which gave me 100 LEDs in mine a lot better also the bottom reflectors were replaced with reverse lights in them as well as turn / and brake.

Phoenix wrote:

They look neat, what is the rating of them? - not sure if the reflector replacements would pass an MoT - but I'm not a tester so.....

hi, phoenix not sure about the rating. she went straight through her mot last December the inspector never said anything.


hi ramblin man . yes got them from aliexpress took a couple of weeks. you will need 4 boards I got 8 some for spares just in case. some soldering to do and you will need to split the lens I found to run a Stanley blade around they will split easily. join the 2 boards together with a glue gun and in place put some on the wires on the board to stop them from pulling and breaking off.
glue lens back same as phoenix explains leave to set overnight. when you put the connectors together put some heat shrink over the hole connecter this will keep them together if you need to remove them just split them with a blade and replace the

heat shrink again. i no my rear end looks different than most peoples but i like it

 new vehicle purchase
2007 supercharged 4.2 java black .sand leather vogue se trim
previous cars .
range rover classic 200 tdi
discovery 1 200 tdi
freelander 2 2008 hse
discovery 1 300 tdi
p38 4.0 ltr man r380 ex royal support vehicle on v5c
discovery td5 man off roader

Do you have a link to the replacement reflector lights (turn/reverse/Brake) I wouldnt mind a set of them.

Do you have a video of them working too?  2012 TDV8 Autobiography Baltic Blue
Previous
2007 BMW M5 E60

hi the item number is ebay eBay Item No. 222932856670 seller r zoro . no vid but I will do one she has been put away for the winter at my workshop to much salt on the roads and I can't power wash still have a hose pipe ban in place . as stated it does need to have the red reflectors some wear on the rear bumper put back in place something else for me to work out and do you can't get away with anything on this site  new vehicle purchase
2007 supercharged 4.2 java black .sand leather vogue se trim
previous cars .
range rover classic 200 tdi
discovery 1 200 tdi
freelander 2 2008 hse
discovery 1 300 tdi
p38 4.0 ltr man r380 ex royal support vehicle on v5c
discovery td5 man off roader

Thanks for the AliExpress link @Oggy; much appreciated. TDV8 4.4 2012

I got around to modifying the other reversing light, the difference is 'night & day' 142 Lux at 3 metres from the rear bumper and a good amount of light visible in the door mirrors.