HOW TO: Convert to 07+ OEM Escalade LED Tail Lights

[THE YETI]

HARNESS PRICING
-V1.0 Harness as pictured in the how-to (requires you to do some extra splicing) $160.00 shipped
-V2.0 Harness (see post #38) $185 shipped
*You will need to send me your Escalade harness, everything else is included
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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!! :Handshake:

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:

 

[THE YETI]

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!

 

[THE YETI]

Now, you should have a completed harness, except there are wires everywhere! Time for some organization! Use the wire loom and cut to appropriate lengths and tuck the wires away from sight. You should end up with this:

OEM looking, eh?

NOW.... The schematic above shows that the resistors needed to be wired into that harness. No worries, I did this in steps. Once I had the harness complete, I went ahead and connected it to the Escalade Tail Lamp, ran the harness down under the truck, and screwed the tail lamp in. I knew that these resistors get hot, so the best place to mount them would be to the metal underneath the truck. I found a spot near the stock wiring harness where the tail lamps connect. I drilled a hole and mounted the aluminum bracket there as pictured. This gives them plenty of air to cool off and not affect anything around them.

I then pulled a few inches of each wire that the resistors needed to tap into, and spliced them into them. I did shorten the wires quite a bit on the resistors, I hate slack wire just bundled around. The exposed wires were wrapped in wire loom for an OEM look (Pic coming, I forgot to take one!).


With that said... Here is your BEFORE:

And here is your AFTER:

NOTE: As you see, the Appliques above the Tail Lamps do not match up with the stock Tahoe ones. You need to purchase the Appliques from an Escalade and mount those in place of the Tahoe ones. I will be adding more to this thread as soon as I locate a set and install them. Until then, the tail lamp will stick out a tad past the tahoe applique, but it is hardly noticeable until you get close or physically look for the flaw.

I'll also be modifying the parts list to include hyperlinks of the exact parts I used.

6/4/11: UPDATE... Appliques are on and painted. Very easy to install, not even worth a HOW TO.... So, adding it to this thread. Completes the look!

Applique Part Numbers:
Qty (1) 15262791 2007 Escalade driver side quarter panel upper appliqué
Qty (1) 15262792 2007 Escalade passenger side quarter panel upper appliqué

 

[ohmslaw]

I got mine! I did these on my 07' Tahoe when it was new!

The tailights were no simple task but well worth it!

 

[Timothy]

I would like to purchase your converted tail light harnesses

 

[Timothy]

I am interested in the converted harness

 

[Analicia Montenegro]

Also interested in the wiring harness. Let me know!