First, excellent forum for Santa Fe owners, lots of great info.
I have a 2007 3.3 Ltd Touring (Arctic White), first Hyundai coming from a Honda family.

Yesterday I noticed first-hand the incredibly poor visibility of the Santa Fe's red turn signals, especially w/ the brake lights on.

The Euro Taillights (non-LED) offered at koreanimportparts seem like a good replacement choice and straight forward to install? Any good tips/tools for installation and/or pics?

Also, I'm interested in the bumper light conversion. Other posts in this forum recommend connecting these to the pre-wired trailer harness, but I still want to be able to install and use a hitch in the future. Can I have both?

TIA

The bumper lights from KoreanAutoImports.com are easy to install and connect to the existing tail lights. I wired them into my parking and turn signals. I got the clear lens and amber turn signals, so they stand out more than the factory turn signals.

The euro taillights are supposed to be Hyundai OEM parts so they will fit fine. Be advised that you will lose the red side markers which are required in the US, so they technically may not be legal.

Thanks for the info about the Euro OEM taillights.

Do you have any pics of the clear bumber lights w/ marker and turn signals in-action?

maseace, that's pretty well exactly what I plan to do, except use the marker lights for extra brake lights but like you use amber bulbs for the signal lights. I do have the clear lenses already. I'm curious how you wired them. I probably won't install them until spring.

The marker lights are only the small 194 bulbs, so I don't think they would be very effective as brake lights. I think the brake lights are already very bright in my SF, which has the LED bar in the spoiler.

I wired the clear bumper lights to the outer taillights where the wires come out behind the lens assembly. You just have to remove the 3 10mm nuts behind the plastic door on each side in the rear cargo area, then the light housing comes out to the rear. Be careful not to drop the nuts inside the body panel since they are impossible to find (I learned the hard way). I used some Scotch-lock connectors to splice into the factory taillight wires. I used LED bulbs which I listed on this post: http://www.hyundai-forums.com/index.php?sh...ndpost&p=133619

The stripe at the bottom is a strip of red reflective tape I added so there would still be reflectors on the rear bumper after changing to the clear lights. They work surprisingly well when light is shined on them at night.

Marker light only:

Turn Signal On:


This post has been edited by maseace: Feb 9 2008, 03:37 AM

thanks for the photos maseace. I didn't think the red bulbs in the clear housing would produce such a nice red color. Looks like the brighter/large amber bulb effectively washes out the red while the turn signal is on.

I'm reconsidering the Euro taillights b/c you're correct, they don't include a rear-side marker light.

I'm thinking my Arctic White Santa Fe would look better w/ the red vs. the clear bumper lights. I will wire the smaller bulbs for running/markers and the larger for turn signals.

You're right about break lights, already very prominent.

My rationale was more along the lines of helping the visibility situation when I have the bike carrier loaded with 4 bikes. I've noticed that reflectors remain completely unobstructed but all of the taillights end up behind wheels to varying degrees. I was hoping to find a fairly bright red 194 LED.

Thanks for the photos and post.

maseace, you mentioned the Euro taillights do not include the red side markers (technically illegal in North America) b/c of the amber turns signals, but it appears that if you installed the bumper lights w/ red markers, they seem to wrap around the edge of the bumper just enough to act as the rear markers (trekker's pics):
see side profile pic
From Post #37:
previous post
asking about the 4 pieces, inside and outside lenses from KAI...what does the $195 get you and what exactly should I ask for?

Appreciate the list for the LED bulbs you've upgraded to as well.

My bad for all the questions, just a newbie looking forward to mods this spring.

TIA

That's true, you probably do get enough light from the sides of the bumper lights. But you will lose the side rear reflector as well. I think this is there to help other drivers see the car parked at night (I wouldn't want someone hitting my parked car!). I just wish the Euro taillights had a side marker and reflector like the American version, since I really like the clear/amber turn signals.

KAI sells the outer 2 Euro taillight pieces (not the lights on the rear hatch) for $195. Not sure why you would want all 4 pieces since the inner lights (on the hatch) are the same.

So I ordered my bumper light kit from KAI last week so they should be here soon (red lenses), up to $90 now. I'm going to stick w/ non-LED bulbs, and wire to have red marker/parking lights and red turn signals.

maseace,
I'm fairly handy w/ tools and DIY things, but this will be my first autmotive lighting install, so I'm wondering if you had any tips/suggestions before it get started.

#1, is a battery disconnect needed, and if so, what if anything needs to be "reset"?
#2, scotchloks seems like a no-brainer way to go, do the KAI kit have sufficient length of wire to make the connections to the taillights? Any need for shrink tubing?
#3, what did you end up grounding to?

Other owners have done similar installs using the trailer wire harness, but I plan on using it for its intended purpose w/ a hitch this summer.

Thanks. Once I'm through, I'll post some pics of the install and results.

I used extra wire (about 2-3 feet each wire), splicing into the rear outer light cluster. I scotch-locked each of the 3 wires. The ground is the ground wire from one of the tail lights. You do not need to disconnect the battery - just keep the lights off while you're working. Once you remove the rear tail lights, it's easy to see which wires you will tap into.

I was concerned with not having any side light from my Euro tail lamps too.

So I installed amber bulbs in the clear sides and wired them for run/turn.


I used them this way for a couple of months but I began to dislike the look.

It just looked like there was too much going on with the rear. And since I was using LED's, the "turn" flash wasn't much brighter than the "run" mode.

After some thought, I disconnected the "run" option from the rear signals. After this, I was actually surprised at the amount of side light from the red lamps that was still visable from the sides.

Here are a couple of pics taken of the side with the headlights switched on. I used a flash in the second pic so I could actually see the vehicle.

Since the change, I've studied other vehicles rear side lights and mine seem to be just fine.
watch out for the tree :57:


I love the look of the Euro lamps. IMO the stock lamps had too much red.

Hope this helps.

thanks for the pics trekker, very nice.

I too like the Euro light look, but just thought I had to do SOMETHING about the dead bumper reflectors. I think the older Land Rover Discovery did it right w/ the bumper turn signals (although most of the ones I see on the road aren't functioning, typ. electrical issues with them ;)

I don't mind all the red in the back, especially against the Arctic White paint.
I recall one magazine writer describing the rear break lights of the Santa Fe to a pair of glowing nuclear reactor towers. With the red bumper lights, I hope to achieve a full melt down :grin:

Anything to highlight the turn signals is an improvement vs. original.

Otherwise, the new Santa Fe's are pretty flawless in my eyes (minus interior map lights - getting fixed, and mileage - winter/city driving).

I have never liked red rear turn signals. They all but disappear with the brakes active; the current Acura TL has this problem. When I get a new SF this will be my first mod but that day is probably still a year out.

maseace, I ended up wiring the bumper lights the same as you did. Red 194s for the running lights and some amber bulbs for the signals. The wiring tapped off nicely from the leads of the trailer wiring harness to leave the original harness alone.

You mentioned losing side reflectors on changing taillights, but the only reflectors at the rear were the bumpers. I just finally noticed that the other night. The rear taillights don't have any rear reflectors. Did you add any rear reflectors to compensate for changing the bumper reflectors?

I added some red reflective tape at the bottom of the clear bumper lights - works great. You can see the outline of it in the photos in post #5.

OK... I'd have never noticed without the tip. Thanks