HOW TO: Convert to Escalade LED Tail Lights

[Goodinblack]

Okay thank you.

I am looking into getting a set..... maybe...... not sure yet

 

[THE YETI]

Ok, Sir.

 

[dcfmjr]

Whats the turnaround time and current price 4 set of v3 harnesses

 

[THE YETI]

$120 shipped. $130 for overnite delivery.

24-hour turn around.

Will need your stock harness and escalade harnesses to do the project. $120/130 price is for the rest of the parts needed and labor.

 

[jseekin]

Still selling harnesses

HARNESS PRICING
-V1.0 Harness as pictured in the how-to - discontinued
-V2.0 Harness discontinued
-V3.0 Harness $120.00 shipped*
*You will need to send me your Escalade harness and your stock harness, everything else is included!
*Please note: I guarantee these will work upon arrival, however I do not warranty anything afterwards. as all you are paying me for is the labor to put them together for you. If your harness fails at some point, I will gladly rebuild them for you. These harnesses are used at your own discretion.
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I'm sure there has been a few write-ups on this topic, but I figured I'd give it a shot at an all-inclusive "how-to" that actually has pictures and won't disappear on us! I'll be combining some pointers from some previous threads to make this one the "Ultimate HOW TO Thread!"

NOTE: If anyone is interested in one of these harnesses, I would be willing to build them, PM me for details. I can make them shorter if necessary, but I think these served their purpose. This write-up is for my first version of the plug and play harness, V1.0, I am working on a badass V2.0 harness that is completely 100% plug and play, no mounting of resistors needed at all!!

I got the option to score a set of these badboys from a local friend. Since we already had the Escalade 3rd Brake Light, it made it a no brainer to stick these on. This mod is time consuming if you do it the way I did it. Of course, there are short cuts, but I wanted this to look as OEM as possible and be completely plug and play, so I opted to splice the Escalade harness into an existing Tahoe/Suburban/Yukon harness, while soldering all the wires, heatshrinking the connections, and wire looming it all together. All in all it took me roughly two hours to do the first harness and about 25 minutes to do the second (once I got everything measured out so they looked identical).

TOOLS NEEDED FOR THIS PROJECT (What I Used):
-Phillips Head Screwdriver
-Soldering Iron w/ Solder
-Butane Heat Torch or Heat Gun
-Drill with metal drill bits
-Wire Crimpers
-Wire Cutters
-Wiring Schematic (attached to this thread)
-Rivet Gun (not needed, but for my install it is, you'll see why!)

PARTS NEEDED FOR THIS PROJECT (What I used):
-Escalade Tail Lamps, Right and Left Side
-2qty 5 to 4 Trailer Harness Converters (Hopkins #48845)
-4qty 6ohm/50 watt Power Resistors
-2qty Dual Power Resistor Mounting Plates
-2qty OEM Tail Lamp Harnesses (So you don't have to cut your stock ones)
-1Qty 15262791 2007 Escalade driver side quarter panel upper appliqué
-1Qty 15262792 2007 Escalade passenger side quarter panel upper appliqué

Escalade Tail Lamp Harness (if you need it) is: 15803483 x 2qty

And on to the install....

Remove your stock tail lights by using a Phillips head screw driver and unscrewing the two screws you see in the pic below. With gentle pressure, the tail light will pop out towards you after the screws are removed. Follow the harness down under the truck and you will see where it is attached to bottom. Unclip it and remove the tail light and harness assembly. Set aside.


Remove the Light harness from the Escalade Tail Lamp. Pictured below is the Escalade Harness on the bottom and the Tahoe Harness on top, you can see the obvious difference.


This is a shot of the plugs of the Escalade lights and Tahoe lights. This is why you need the Hopkins Trailer Harness Convertor. Escalade has 5 wires and Tahoe has 4.



Before we get into the harnesses, let's go ahead and mount those resistors to their mounting plates. Due to them getting extremely hot, it was recommended by v-leds.com to mount them to an aluminum plate to dissapate heat and then mount those to a metal surface (we'll get to that). So, me being OCD, I bought the resistors and plates and used a rivet gun from Harbor Freight ($5.49) and riveted them to the plate, as pictured.



Aren't the pretty??


Also in this picture is the Hopkins Trailer Harness, shown above the resistor plates. We'll hack that harness up shortly...


We're going to start modifying and splicing the Escalade Harness first. Peel back the wireloom until you get right about to the reverse lamp bulb. Cut the actual harness off about 4" behind the main plug, as pictured. Set the harness aside.

(pic below are both Escalade harnesses to show you how far to cut back)


Using this schematic, you are going to want to make connections between the Escalade Harness and the 4-wire side of the Hopkins Harness:


I cut the wires labeled "not used" till they were about 3" long, wrapped the tips with electrical tape, and kept them hanging loose until it was time to finish the harness, like so:

Trailer Harness


Escalade Harness


Taped Tips:


Now, on the Escalade harness, there are two black wires that are crimped down into one. I cut the crimp off to expose both wires, yanked about 1/2" of plastic off to expose the wire, and twisted them together while matching them up to the appropriate colored wire on the trailer harness.


I put the black from the Escalade harness with the White of the trailer harness, and the blue of the Escalade harness with the Green of the Trailer harness. Twisted them together like so:


Then Soldered them together:


And Hit them with the heatshrink:


Now, time for the Tahoe harness. I pealed back the wire loom off the tahoe harness as far back as I could until I got to the first light, that's where I cut.


I left the brown and green wires as long as possible for now, and cut the remaining three wires (red, blue, and black) down to about 5" or so. The green and brown wires from the Escalade Harness get connected directly to the green and brown wires on the Tahoe Harness (do not wire through the trailer adapter!). Twist, solder, wrap, done.


Do the same with the remaining Red, Blue, and Black wires on the Tahoe harness. Utilize the schematic I posted above to show which wires those get attached to from the trailer harness. Twist, Solder, Wrap, Done!

Are you still selling harnesses?

 

[THE YETI]

I can, yes.

 

[caddmus]

I liked a lot this mod, but in order to do it I would like to use the escalade rear upper apliques, can some one point me to where can I buy te esky rear upper apliques?
Thanks.

 

[Hoe_14]

I liked a lot this mod, but in order to do it I would like to use the escalade rear upper apliques, can some one point me to where can I buy te esky rear upper apliques?
Thanks.

http://oempartsdirectinc.com/accessories/

 

[caddmus]

Thanks for the info Hoe_14

 

[GalaxyBlackEsky]

Also I have OEM Escalade tinted tails for sale.