GMC Envoy Quad tail lights w/ or w/o soldering

Gerbil21

Original poster
Member
May 28, 2014
839
ok i recently just finished doing this mod to have quad tail lights for the gmc envoy and it works perfect
i followed this thread from the os
http://forums.trailvoy.com/showthread.php?t=63013

With soldering

parts:
plastic epoxy (No you cannot use rtv as i thought it just made a mess :no: also crazy glue dosent help either :frown: lol)
solder
wire

Tools:
5/32 drill bit & drill
Phillips screw driver
pliers
soldering iron
a knife

1. the first thing you will need to do is remove the tail lights (two screws), then remove the circuit board (three screws) and remove the bulbs
IMAG0602.jpg

2. put the knife in between the plastic tabs of the board (the ones that stick out) and pry them apart, make shure the knife gets pushed all the way down to the board, after doing this a few times you should hear popping that is a good sign keep going till the board starts to separate then just pry it apart from there

3. now take the drill with the 5/32 bit and drill on the 4 plastic welds around the middle socket, it is very easy to drill them out, after you do so you will see the bottom plastic pegs you DO NOT need to keep drilling with a smaller bit as i did and drilled thought the board :no: lol

4. after you finished drilling the hard part starts, you have to really man handle the sockets to get them out since the tabs of the board seem to stick to the socket and never let go. you really need to have someone else help since its kinda hard to pull the socket and push the contacts down

the board after socket removal
IMAG0595.jpg

these leads dont touch
IMAG0596.jpg

the single lead on the right is the ground that you will have to work with, the other two are power from the park and brake light circuit, i guess they decided to give the envoy quad brakes but they never grounded the brake side of the socket idk why :confused:
IMAG0597.jpg

5. after you get the socket out all you have to do is solder a jumper wire across the tabs (i know it looks bad lol)
IMAG0609.jpg

then push the socket back down (mines never fully sat flat again) then epoxy the board and hook everything up again and enjoy :biggrin:


Without soldering

if you don't happen to have a soldering iron you could get bare wire and make a jumper or use a paper clip, just make shure to turn the board upside down so the jumper wont fall out from turning the socket upside down instead

as said above i never got the socket to fully sit right so dont think its wrong that is just how it is
IMAG0591.jpg
IMAG0594.jpg

then reattach everything and enjoy the added safety :biggrin:
 

Gerbil21

Original poster
Member
May 28, 2014
839
dmanns67 said:
Nice :thumbsup:

Any pics of these bad boys in action?
i will have to take some tonight i thought i had but i didn't here are some in daylight

IMAG0636.jpg
IMAG0635.jpg
both.jpg
 

Gerbil21

Original poster
Member
May 28, 2014
839
x0duke0x said:
I awtup my quad reds with the VLED without the solder. Thanks again!
looks good nice to see it worked did you follow the thread from the os for leds or did you use srck leds? also which ones did u get?
 

x0duke0x

Member
Feb 17, 2014
108
I got the CK VLED 3157 Red. I just got a wire about an inch long and wrapped it on the ground side of the 4 terminals inside the socket. I used the bulbs firm for to secure the grounds touched. I only needed to do this to the middle socket and not the bottom socket as the middle was the only one not coming on. But the vled lights worked well. I am going to buy all my ambers next, my question is do these vled 3157s need the resistors?

The link for the Reds.
http://www.vleds.com/3157-red.html

These are the ambers leds I am looking at for front and rear turn signals.
http://www.vleds.com/3157-amber.html
Again, I am not sure if I need the resistors for hyper flash.
 

Gerbil21

Original poster
Member
May 28, 2014
839
Thanks for the links as far as I know you would need resistors for any led that flash
 

SirRobin53

Member
Apr 27, 2014
118
Nice mod. I would like to do it as well. I am wondering if it would be possible to just drill from the back side to install the jumper and then a dab of RTV instead of disassembling the entire unit and having to epoxy back together?
 

Gerbil21

Original poster
Member
May 28, 2014
839
SirRobin53 said:
Nice mod. I would like to do it as well. I am wondering if it would be possible to just drill from the back side to install the jumper and then a dab of RTV instead of disassembling the entire unit and having to epoxy back together?

Unfortunately no you have to open it completely in order to get to the tabs on the socket, there are plastic "mounts" where the socket sits and all of that would have to get drilled out. But if you were really determined to do it then yes you can just basically cut all around the socket and put the jumper on and then cover it up since the sockets do sit on top of solid "rails" for there ground and power but before you do cut into the board you need to get a good sealant, I thought clear rtv might work and it didn't I also used black rtv and it was worse then I used crazy glue and it didn't help either right now the boards look messy but they do work so for now its OK but not correct.

Also this is only for GMC envoys, trailblazers are missing pins and require more work but there are other ways to do it for trailblazers

http://gmtnation.com/forums/index.php?/topic/11821-GMT-360-Quad-Tail-lights-Modification.
 

NavyDave219

Member
Apr 22, 2019
5
NW Indiana
I used the no solder method, I placed twisted wire as a jumper and placed the socket back but the lights still do not work as brake lights. Was that the only jumper or was there a step I missed?
 

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