I just bought a 996TT this past week. Will do an introductory thread later tonight. My car came with blacked out tail lights, which are good quality OE tail lights, but I don't like the look on my car. It doesn't look like they have removable tint, so I will pull them out and put them up for sale.
I want to do clear tail lights and I like the updated look of the LED lights offered by Del Ray Customs in this thread:
https://rennlist.com/forums/996-turb...ht-thread.html

I would like to hear from people who have actually used them. Looks like they are the only game in town for wide body 996 tail lights. Since they are a sponsor, I don't want to dump any negative opinions in their ad thread. But I would like to hear both the good and the bad.
Thanks.
Pic of my car with current tail lights below.

 

I Know this doesnt answer your question, but the look of the aftermarket led tail lights from my perspective takes away from the Porsche look! I would put the original back, and use led bulbs?

 

i remember chatting with you before .. welcome to the dark side forum and congrats on the car!

i have the delyrey led's and wouldnt trade them for anything beyond the one in which a few of the orange led's decided to fail within the 2nd or 3rd month of having them.

but i am fortunate, in that delrey is an hours drive for me and the guy is a fair chap, and had a set of red/smoked on hand and simply swapped the defective lamp out n/c and no questions asked.

your car looks great, but i'm not a fan of the blacked out tails. the red/smoked led's will be a vast improvement, in my estimation and i can highly recommend them if the aesthetic of a non oem look isn't an issue for you. it certainly isn't for me, as any possible thing i can do to my car to help differentiate it from a stock 996 turbo, i can and will, continue to do. led's do that nicely, and i am 100% certain are safer than the dingy oem's are at night, especially when paired with the 3rd taillight in led.

... but again, congrats, looks like you've chosen very well!

add: it appears we have the same set of wheels. lucky for you, if you scratch them? it isn't a 4k wheel lol

 

I bet that tint comes off, have you removed the lights to see if there is an edge to the tint you could pry up?

 

I was hoping it was tint that I could just peel off, but it sure doesn't look like it. I haven't pulled them out yet, though, to be 100% certain.

 

Car looks great, I'd lose the black tails. OP, KS, cool I grew up in PV,KS.
C

 

IMHO, too dark. Go with either with the red/clear or red/smoke.

There may be a good chance that someone posted up pics of a red car in the 6Speed forum using the LED lights.

 

I've been looking at pics this evening from DelRay Customs website and the thread on 6speedonline. I think for a guards red car, the red/clear look best. I'll change the side markers to clear also. Even if the current ones are tinted, I think I will switch over to the LEDs. I am convinced it will look much nicer with the LEDs, it is just the reliability of them that I'm concerned with.

 

And I just picked up my car last week in Long Island City. Spooky, eh?

So, Prairie Village, so I'm guessing Shawnee Mission East?

 

Congrats on the turbo! Just a thought but I wonder if you could use a headlight restoring kit to remove tint and polish those back to stock.

 

Interesting option. I had interior, frunk and engine bay LEDs in my '99 996 and it really made a difference. I wonder if anyone has pics of the original housings with LED bulbs.

Agree it's too dark. I see a lot of good info on 6speedonline. Thanks!

I was thinking about that when I was trying to figure out if they are tinted with a film or not. I will probably just sell them as is to someone who wants the black out look and then most likely go with the Del Ray Customs units. Thanks!

 

Thanks '02996ttx50! I'm not a fan of the blacked out taillights either. Initially, when viewing the car's ads online, I thought it might be OK, but seeing it in person, I just think it is too aggressive of a look - makes the car look a little ragged out.
I actually like the non-OEM look on the Del Ray Customs lights, with the caveat that I don't think they look like aftermarket tack-ons. I think that someone who had never seen the original lights might not pick out that the Del Ray lights are not OE given that most people don't think these cars are 14 or so years old. Most, if not all, of today's high end cars have LED lighting, so I think it's more of an "updated OE" look.
I am very interested in your experience with the burnt out LEDs. That's my biggest fear in buying these - that 2 years from now, I'm trying to replace them. Any other thoughts on the reliability would be greatly appreciated. After reading all of your posts in the 6speedonline thread, you clearly have a very good understanding of these lights.

 

my experience with finding that a few of the bulbs had gone out was a shock, and had to be pointed out by my gf while helping me back up out of a tight spot, as I might never have known! believe me I was not too happy, but I will say again, that it has positively ( to my eye ) improved and updated the look of the rear dramatically. particularly since I've been running a clear led 3rd lamp red/smoked for years and was mismatched with the dingy oem tails! so red/smoked would be the way to go with your car ( imo ) as the red/clear will leave the very odd three reflector row at the bottom of the lamp visible for all to see, and they look very strange. not so, if they are red/smoked.

again, I'd buy them again in a minute. as to whether or not any of the led's fail again? I sure hope not!

again, nice to chat with you again, and congrats again on the car. it looks sweet! ( - the smoked tails lol )

 

Deff go red smoked, but pull the lights off easy enough to see what you are dealing with.

 

Well, thanks to all of the helpful info shared on here, I felt comfortable enough to order the LED taillights and a set of Depo LED sidemarkers to match. With the help of my 7 year old daughter, I installed them tonight. Easy peasy install for sure. Here are a few bad pics from my cell phone, both before and after. I really like the changed look. The smoke black was just a little too aggressive for me. After pulling the OEM taillights and markers, I discovered that the black was painted on, so I couldn't have just peeled the tint off. So, they'll go up on eBay and in the RL marketplace as they are (blacked out). Let me know if anyone is interested in the set - I'll make you a great deal.
Thanks again to everyone here who posted the helpful info and thoughts: "02996ttx50, Atrox, z06801, 996twins, TT Surgeon, Kevinmacd

Before:






And after:
















Now I've just got to replace the 3rd brake light. Not sure if I will go red or clear for that one. Any thoughts?