A self-powered, heat-activated LED exhaust tip assembly (10) that is comprised of three major elements: a cylindrical enclosure (12), a heat conducting sub-assembly (80) and an electronics circuit (130). The sub-assembly (80) consists of an external heat conducting plate (82), and an enclosure-internal heat conductive horizontal structure (110) that is attached to the plate (82) through a heat conductive vertical rod (98). When heated vehicle exhaust gases pass through the enclosure (12), the gases heat the structure (110) and the heat is then transferred to the plate (92) via the rod (98). The heat from the plate (82) is transferred to a peltier device (132) that interfaces with the plate (82). The heated peltier device (132) produces a first d-c voltage (11) that is applied to a DC to DC converter (134), where a second d-c voltage (13) is produced. The output of the converter (134) is applied to an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) (136) that produces a set of LED control signals that illuminate a set of LEDs.