[TexBolt]

We have been very pleased with our 2019 Bolt, with a few exceptions. One sore point is the rear turn signals. I believe they are poorly designed and located. The low mounting position in the rear "bumper" makes them hard to see, especially if the following drivers are all driving big trucks and SUVs (as is the case in Texas). To improve this situation, I have added LED repeater lights mounted on the rear hatch.

I used 250mm amber TruFLEX strips with 75 LEDs per strip. Appear to be very high quality. https://www.customdynamics.com/amber-led-truflex?cat=320

I believe the near 100% increase in light output, plus the more visible mounting position, will make it much easier for following vehicles to see my signals. Link below to some short videos showing the "before and after" light output. Sorry for crappy video quality, but I was trying to keep the file size small.

iPhone Videos - Chuck

Daylight, Stock Left Turn Signal

cja.smugmug.com

 

[NY-Rob]

Wow!!!

1000% better Tex, and something GM should have done in the first place.

Can you share some detailed photos vs. the videos?

Great job!

 

[Digi]

Sry but I don’t see a difference.

the issue is not the light positions. The issue is that people wrongly get too close to each other at intersections. The correct way is at the VERY LEAST a full car’s length away from the car ahead of you. If you cannot see the ENTIRE CAR INCLUDING THE REAR TIRES then you’re simply too close.

Remember older cars have the rear lights that low....they had no issues.

 

[TexBolt]

I took a few photos during the installation. Running the wires is actually pretty easy. Opening the hatch and looking down at the right and left corners you will see a screw securing the rear bumper cover. There is a gap between the body parts right next to that screw big enough to pass small gauge 2-conductor wire. LEDs don't pull much amperage, so small wire works fine. First photo shows the wire exiting the hollow rubber weather strip through a existing hole, and ready to push through the gap. 2nd photo shows the wire (insulated with some black heat shrink tubing) passed through the gap. The wire continues on down to connect to the stock turn signal wiring.

The wire runs up through the hollow rubber weather strip up to the top corner of the hatch opening. There it exits the weather strip through a handy existing hole. The led wires are also passed through some small heat shrink tubing, and the tubing passes through a existing gap behind and above the black plastic window edge molding. Its kinda hard to describe the opening, but if you look closely with a bright flashlight you will see it. After the wiring comes out from behind the black plastic trim piece it simply folds back behind and under the edge of the hatch cover. There it is connected to the wires coming out of the rubber weather strip, and the circuit is complete. The other photos try to show how the LED wires pass behind the black plastic piece.

I'll take a few more photos today when it warms up. Will give a closer look at the actual LED strip, which is amazingly small. Each one is barely thicker than a plastic soda straw, yet contain 75 LEDs.

 

[GJETSON]

Sry but I don’t see a difference.

the issue is not the light positions. The issue is that people wrongly get too close to each other at intersections. The correct way is at the VERY LEAST a full car’s length away from the car ahead of you. If you cannot see the ENTIRE CAR INCLUDING THE REAR TIRES then you’re simply too close.

Remember older cars have the rear lights that low....they had no issues.

The problem is too many cars. Back when people left a car length between cars there were far fewer people driving.

 

[TexBolt]

I can't change the way other people drive, and I can't change the number of cars on the road. What I CAN change is how visible MY car is to other drivers, in the hope that they will look up from their cell phones in time to avoid hitting me.

 

[5Bolt]

We have been very pleased with our 2019 Bolt, with a few exceptions. One sore point is the rear turn signals. I believe they are poorly designed and located. The low mounting position in the rear "bumper" makes them hard to see, especially if the following drivers are all driving big trucks and SUVs (as is the case in Texas). To improve this situation, I have added LED repeater lights mounted on the rear hatch.

I used 250mm amber TruFLEX strips with 75 LEDs per strip. Appear to be very high quality. https://www.customdynamics.com/amber-led-truflex?cat=320

I believe the near 100% increase in light output, plus the more visible mounting position, will make it much easier for following vehicles to see my signals. Link below to some short videos showing the "before and after" light output. Sorry for crappy video quality, but I was trying to keep the file size small.

iPhone Videos - Chuck

Daylight, Stock Left Turn Signal

cja.smugmug.com

Great job. Exactly what I was thinking of. Did you need to do anything with resistors or just wire in parallel with the existing signal lights?

 

[TexBolt]

No resistors. Just connected directly to the existing signal light wires. Everything works correctly and no "codes" being thrown, so I guess the car is happy.

 

[quiddity]

That's great. These days with high sitting larger cars everywhere, the Bolt's low signals always seemed puzzling, and I bet they're mostly there because of cost. "Most" drivers should still see them, but we don't care about "most" drivers, we care about the bad ones that are going to plow into you unless they see a shiny that's shiner than their cell phone.

Also, I bet you could be seen a mile back if you had to pull over on the side of the road or something with your hazards on -- probably much more visible than stock. This is win.

 

[5Bolt]

No resistors. Just connected directly to the existing signal light wires. Everything works correctly and no "codes" being thrown, so I guess the car is happy.

Did you order clear or amber tubes on the LED lights?

 

[TexBolt]

Did you order clear or amber tubes on the LED lights?

Amber LEDs in amber tubes. As I understand it, same color lens as LED allows the most (brightest) light to pass through the lens (tube). They are VERY bright.

 

[TexBolt]

Before I installed these LED tubes, I tried a different solution. I thought if I installed a jumper wire between the rear turn signal wires and the backup light wires, then both turn AND backup lights would flash making the signal twice as bright. (If it had worked, I would have replaced the "white" backup bulb with a amber bulb) So I rigged up temporary jumper wires on one side to try it. Well, in one way it DID work - both bulbs flashed and the total light output was much brighter (but still low down on the bumper). However, there was one other unintended result: each time the turn signal flashed the backup camera would turn on. So the backup camera image was flashing ON and OFF along with the turn signal. Rather distracting...

It would perhaps be possible to avoid camera activation by some clever wiring modification, but that is above my skill level. So I gave up on this idea and went instead with the LED strips.

 

[gern_blanston]

Nice mod. REALLY nice!

 

[RickyFish]

Very cool! I'm definitely doing this... So, what do I buy exactly? I'm not afraid of some wiring, but most of my experience is with dashboards, not tail-lights. The site you linked to offers a lot of add-ons, is anything necessary? I don't know what a 'dual converter' or 'quick connects' are... I would assume I just buy 2 strips of 75 LED, affix them to the hatch, and run some wires to existing turn signal wires, splice and connect to the existing wiring. Is that about right?

 

[TexBolt]

I would assume I just buy 2 strips of 75 LED, affix them to the hatch, and run some wires to existing turn signal wires, splice and connect to the existing wiring. Is that about right?

You got it! That is exactly what I did. Nothing tricky about it. I just bought the 2 strips...everything else (extra 2-conductor wire, crimp connectors and shrink tubing) I had laying around my shop.

 

[AC/DC]

We have been very pleased with our 2019 Bolt, with a few exceptions. One sore point is the rear turn signals. I believe they are poorly designed and located. The low mounting position in the rear "bumper" makes them hard to see, especially if the following drivers are all driving big trucks and SUVs (as is the case in Texas). To improve this situation, I have added LED repeater lights mounted on the rear hatch.

I used 250mm amber TruFLEX strips with 75 LEDs per strip. Appear to be very high quality. https://www.customdynamics.com/amber-led-truflex?cat=320

I believe the near 100% increase in light output, plus the more visible mounting position, will make it much easier for following vehicles to see my signals. Link below to some short videos showing the "before and after" light output. Sorry for crappy video quality, but I was trying to keep the file size small.

iPhone Videos - Chuck

Daylight, Stock Left Turn Signal

cja.smugmug.com

 

[AC/DC]

Great idea a videos clearly shows the benefits. How difficult was the installation?

 

[TexBolt]

Great idea a videos clearly shows the benefits. How difficult was the installation?

Not difficult. Scroll back up to Reply #4 to see how I did it.

 

[ZoomZoom]

Great modification.

 

[Pvillerob]

Nice idea, and implementation.
Do the LED strips just stick to the window?