2017-2018 CX5 Touring Taillights

Its depends on the country. All CX-5 variants here come with full led taillights
 
It's almost as Mazda said, how do we make the non-GT model rear tail lights looks as pathetic as legally possible by DOT laws? Then they design the Sport and Touring tail lights for the 2017 & 2018.

That's the first thing I changed on my Touring. LED tail light bulbs and LED license plate lights.

Exactly! I already ordered the LED lights and let you know how they look installed next week.
 
Bought these ones in the Netherlands where i live.
€ 1.00 p / piece no canbus needed.
Not TO bright !

Greetings Karl

Thanks karl. They are very cheap in Ebay UK. 2.5 pounds for four. Are they any good? I suppose the time will tell.
 
I wonder if making the bottom red reflectors light up would be easy to do?

Just observed a Lexus and the bottom reflectors lit-up.
 
I pulled the existing bulbs from my 2018 CX5 Touring and they are dual filament incandescent bulbs - one filament for the tail lights and one for the brighter brake lights.

For those of you who have replaced these with LEDs:

1) Did you use dual LEDs (that support two brightness levels)? Maybe I missed it but it doesn't appear that the Diode Dynamics bulbs are for dual use.

SuperBrightLEDs.com sells dual 7443 LEDs for around $10 each - maybe not as bright as 500+ lumens but still bright and much less expensive...

2) Since we're replacing incandescent bulbs with LEDs, did you get the diode unit to prevent fast flashing? If not, they work fine without these?

Thanks.

Jon W
 
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I pulled the existing bulbs from my 2018 CX5 Touring and they are dual filament incandescent bulbs - one filament for the tail lights and one for the brighter brake lights.

For those of you who have replaced these with LEDs:

1) Did you use dual LEDs (that support two brightness levels)? Maybe I missed it but it doesn't appear that the Diode Dynamics bulbs are for dual use.

SuperBrightLEDs.com sells dual 7443 LEDs for around $10 each - maybe not as bright as 500+ lumens but still bright and much less expensive...

2) Since we're replacing incandescent bulbs with LEDs, did you get the diode unit to prevent fast flashing? If not, they work fine without these?

Thanks.

Jon W


1 - The Diode Dynamics ARE DUAL FILAMENT LED's so they will light up at 1/2 power (255 Lumens) when the headlights are on and then go full power (510 Lumens) when you apply the brakes. With Diode Dynamics, those are high-quality LED's. A lot of the other LED's out there are actually LESS BRIGHT than the OEM bulbs, which defeats the purpose of swapping them out. As the saying goes, Lumens matter and you get what you pay for.

2 - One doesn't need the diode since these are not turn signal LEDs but just brake light LEDs.
 
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Look at the before & after pics I posted below. Big difference in brightness and redness. OEM bulbs are clear white and they use the red lens to get the red color. These LED's are RED to begin with so they really pop on the red spectrum when turned on.
 

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Just installed the Diode Dynamic 510 lumen red led taillights on my 2018 Touring and its much brighter now, thanks for your help!
 
Just installed the Diode Dynamic 510 lumen red led taillights on my 2018 Touring and its much brighter now, thanks for your help!

No problem.

Makes a big difference, plug & play, plus a quality LED
 
Installed one of these in one taillight - was no brighter than the stock filament bulb. Looks like ~500lumen bulbs are the way to go.

OEM bulbs are around 300 lumens. Diode Dynamics 500 lumen RED LEDs is the way to go.
 
Does it make sense to replace the incandescents with the OEM LED bulbs that are used in the GT. Would it not be plug and play? Does anyone know the Mazda part number and cost?
 
Does it make sense to replace the incandescents with the OEM LED bulbs that are used in the GT. Would it not be plug and play? Does anyone know the Mazda part number and cost?

The GT uses a totally different tail light lens assembly. It's a whole special LED unit, not just LED bulbs.
 
Can we switch the brake light and turn signal light? Since the brake light has already used red led, it will still be red if put in the turn signal light location. (evil)
 
I know this is a totally noob question, but my tail light got hit by a car, the whole enclosure is cracked though the lights still work. I have a replacement part which looks like it really only needs to plug in but I can't figure out how to get into where the plug is. I've taken the two screws off and can unlatch the old enclosure but how to I get access to the plug?
 
I know this is a totally noob question, but my tail light got hit by a car, the whole enclosure is cracked though the lights still work. I have a replacement part which looks like it really only needs to plug in but I can't figure out how to get into where the plug is. I've taken the two screws off and can unlatch the old enclosure but how to I get access to the plug?

A photo of what you're looking at would help. If you're swapping the housing only you shouldn't have to swap any harnesses (unless one is bundled with the new housing and you want to keep it).

Undo the 2 x screws. Whole housing slides out / unclips towards the rear of the car.

Then you should be able to remove the bulb holders and bulbs from the original housing. The wire harness could be snipped loose if it's tied to it.

The other end of the tail light harness goes through the metal body structure and into the inner trunk area where it connects to the main vehicle harness behind the plastic inner panels on either side of the trunk. It's pretty simple to get in there, but is a bit involved. This is why I'd say keep your original harness if the lights themselves are working fine.
 
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