The lights are indeed built by DEPO but exclusively for Dectane Germany. It's their name that's being harmed by OT, that's why I informed them about the situation. I didn't ask for a refund.
In my opinion though, they should have taken some actions. At the end of the day, it's their brand (Dectane) that's being affected.
I got in touch with Master Card and they seemed willing to help. Hopefully I'll get a refund.

 

250F 20 minutes, but the outer casing is very fragile.

 

anyone do this with any success?

 

you may want to check out this thread

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...-lights-6.html

surprised you missed it, it's one of the top posts

 

The fix is straightforward, inexpensive DIY 2 hour job.
Following the instructions I left in the forum referred to above.
Starts on page 5 or 6.

 

I tried it out this morning and it didn't work for me. In fairness, my poor result could be due to either:
- taking a shortcut on the 'fix'
- possibly a different failure scenario in the first place

First - my failure scenario: My passenger rear taillight from Dectane (Orange) seems to be causing the problem. When both Dectane lights are connected, the passenger rear does not illuminate when the headlights are in the on position. Also, there's a fast blinker on the right side. I have the front LEDs and the right front turn signal illuminates solid when the headlights are on. When I swap the left and right Dectanes, the same failures move to the other side. Is this a similar problem to what others are seeing? Is this the problem that the resistors are supposed to fix? Does anyone have a suggestion of another possible fix? I swapped the bulb for the reverse light (I think that's what it is) and that didn't make a difference.

Second - I did try the new resistors. I bought them from Amazon, and they look very similar to the other ones posted - gold in color. I metered them and they are 6 Ohm each and I connected them in series and see 12 Ohm on the meter. I removed the Dectane resistor, patched my 12 Ohm kit into the Dectane connector, measured again at 12 Ohm on the connector blades, and connected it to the light. I tried it on the car and it didn't work - ie - same failure scenario. The only other thing I metered was the Dectane connector and that looks like 30 Ohm. Also, I only messed with the passenger side. The driver side has the Dectane resistor on it and still seems to work fine.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
Jack
btw - I cross-posted this to the other thread in the turbo forum (I thought one was in the std 997 section)

 

It's most likely that you inadvertently made an error in doing the fix. I have fixed more of these lights than just my own car & no problems.

Your issue might be more complicated, however from what you are describing your removal of the Dectane resistor is most likely the problem.

Go back, remove the "resistors in series you installed", re-connect that Dectane resistor as before. It's that resistor which when removed causes the fast R blinker signal. Just leave it connected. I never suggested this be removed & the only reason I know is that I disconnected it while metering & labelling the connections & saw the "fast flicker" for myself.

Make sure things are labelled correctly & try again. Don't put everything back together until you're sure it's working right & not triggering error codes.

Let me know what happens.

 

Thanks for trying to help!

Unfortunately, I'm still not there yet. I put the Dectane resistor back on, and patched the 12 Ohm series to the solid green wire and a black ground. I tried it for about 5 mins and I have all the same symptoms, except that fast blinker is now gone, and it's back to normal speed.
I checked the resistors and they are pretty hot.

The only thing (I think) that I haven't done is to verify that the tail light is the solid green wire on my car, too. I have a meter, but don't really know how to use it, so I was hoping to just skip it. I did figure out the ohm thing on the bench, that was easy enough.

I have 6 wires coming out of that one hole on the tail light, two sets of three wires. One set is black, green/yellow, and green/red. The other set is black, green/white, and solid green. Again, I'm working with the solid green and a black.

Btw - within the 5 minutes of running, I didn't get any error codes. The lights were clearly not working properly, but there was no indication to that effect on the dash display.

Please let me know if you have another suggestion.
Thanks again!
Jack

 

It is crucial to meter the wire you are connecting the "in series" resistors to. That wire must correspond to the error message that's on your display.
The meter isn't hard to utilize, just penetrate the green wire with the tail light on before the error code appears & then the light going off. This way you make sure you have the right wire. Fasten the resistors to the metal on the back of the light housing. If connected right, they shouldn't get that warm. The metal on the car dissipates the heat. Take your time & do this right. Don't F%#* with wiring if you don't have time to check things carefully!

 

I still think I may be experiencing a different failure scenario. My light is off all the time. It doesn't come on, and then go off. I also don't seem to get an error code unless I don't connect the Dectane resistors.

 

i cant believe perone never shared how it was done, what a jerk! lol

 

I think I have to clarify a few things here:
1. CarLightPro is the ONLY authorized importer for Dectane lights in North America.
2. Dectane in the inventor and only producer of these 997 taillights (they are produced from Depo for Dectane).
3. There are copies of these lights on the market, that look the same but are NOT.

That means: When you did buy the lights from other sources than CarLightPro in the US, you have a counterfeit or a gray import. Even when you did buy from a Dectane dealer in Europe, Dectane will not honor the warranty when the lights where shipped to the US, you have to deal with your European source..

We (CarLightPro) sell these lights since almost 3 years now, we NEVER had problems like these described here....

 

Well...Dectane may be the 'inventor" but I know that Dectane does not "produce" the taillights. They are produced (manufactured) by Depo. Which begs the question about pricing since it looks like CarLightPro is a distributor just like Dectane so Dectane is the so-called middleman here. Manufacturer (Depo) makes a profit on the sale to Dectane; Distributor (Dectane) makes a profit on sale to CarLightPro; and another distributor (CarLightPro) makes a profit on sale to me. Now having said this you need to know that I am a CarLightPro customer. I bought my LED taillights from them in May, 2011 and have never had a problem. I was willing to pay their inflated price in order to deal with a domestic distributor in the event of any problems.

BTW, you can tell if you have "genuine" Depo lights since the name is stamped in the plastic around the interior edge of the lights.

 

Sorry jhbrennan, but this is not true. The counterfeits have the Depo stamp as well (like every faux Louis Vuitton bag has the LV mark on it). As I did say, the lights are manufactured by Depo FOR Dectane, so they are the Dectane product, like Apple products are build by Foxconn in China, but they are Apple computers, phones etc..

Regards,
Sascha CarLightPro

 

That's why I put "genuine" in quotes. I bought my lights from you - they are marked as Depo lights and you buy from Dectane. As you've said, others (like FVD) sell Depo lights (maybe unauthorized). Since FVD is a German company maybe they also have a Dectane source and then provide the lights to FVD US to sell to US customers so who's to say their Depo's are counterfeit?