I have the standard red taillights and want to upgrade to smoked and it looks like I have two options (see below). I'm leaning towards the cheaper option of sticking on the covers over replacing the housings, but wanted to get some feedback from the forum first.

Rear Smoked Taillight cover kit - $68
Deep smoke Tail Light Kit - $499

 

I'd go with the covers. Easier to install, cheaper to buy and they don't look out of place. Also, Lucky8 is a reputable company that makes quality aftermarket parts and have excellent customer support. They have also worked with JLR North America to outfit the TReK edition Defenders.

 

I purchased some of the Chinese replacements. They look identical to OEM “X” taillights. Just be aware that most of them are universal rather USA spec or ROW. US spec uses 4 wires and ROW uses 5 wires. The universal will work as plug and play if you don’t have any of the additional reverse and turn signal accessory lights hooked up. Mine worked fine until I reconnected my accessory lights then the brake lights would not illuminate. Fortunately the brake light function returned when I disconnected the accessory lights. It appears that the microcontrollers for the lights don’t play well together. I decided to run the smoked tailights and drop the extra accessory lights. They looked sharp until they lit up. The quality was just not there. The outside “ring” did not light up properly. I ended up returning them to the vendor.

Chinese Lights

Genuine JLR

 

I have the smoked tealight covers I got from amazon, they look good but the little square light covers get loose after a while, you have to press them in to make sure they stay. I rather oem smoked taillights.

 

Don't bother with the stick-on junk unless you want to re-tape them with 3M tape. They'll inevitably become loose and fall off (I know.) Go for the clears, you'll be happier long-term.

 

Thunderbob, were the lights you purchased from Lucky8? I'm looking to do smoked tail lights but between OEM and aftermarket. I asked Lucky8 directly, they claimed no difference.

 

@Adams10 First, Welcome to the Forum! Lots of good information here.

I purchased the taillights via eBay. Although the lights were defective (at least in my opinion) the vendor was very responsive and fully refunded me to include return shipping. I would not hesitate to order a set from Lucky 8 as I’ve had great service from them. I would check with them for their return policies on defective items-just in case as they normally charge a 20% restocking fee.

I ordered from this vendor on eBay.

 

@ThunderBob Thanks! I'm just starting to sift through the wealth of info. I saw your name reading through the screen upgrade thread on Defender2. Appreciate all you do for the community!