LED Bulbs for Rear Lights in a Wagon/Sedan

[Legacy4Life]

Here's a question for anyone who has tried this already.

I have often thought about trying those new LED replacement bulbs for 1156 and 1157 forms. But I hate to spend the money and then find out I'm not happy with the results.

I'm aware that in some cases you might need to put a resistor in series to mimic similar current draws and not have your flasher think a bulb is burned out. But what about light dispersion? It might be a neat effect!

Has anyone else already tried it? Did it work or not? Would they recommend it? Thanks!

Michael

[Plays_with_Toys]

I'd be interested in how they look as well.

[Wiscon_Mark]

The only ones I've seen are the APC ones that flash and stuff so they're not street legal :x

I'd be interested to see how LEDs look, and I think they'd be really cool, and much more efficient :D

What I'm REALLY waiting for is LED headlights :D

Leave em on 2 weeks and the car will still start 8)

[galek_98gt]

dooooo eeeeeeeeettt

[Reason]

I had LED tails for a little over 2 years. I took them out for regular bulbs (red) and 2 are burnt already (since the meet) I will put my LEDs back in they work great, and give a rich red color. Yes they ARE APC and they work great. I bought a set that I thought would be better than APC because, well they are APC. Well I had them in for a few weeks and some of the LEDs wouldn't light up. The APC LEDs work the best from my personal experience.

[galek_98gt]

i just ordered some PIAA's to replace my tails/brakes/turn signals. only thing i didn't get was for the upper brake light. i'll get to experience this myself now.

[jdmconnected]

I changed all of the stop and turn signal bulbs in my last car (Wagon R Wide) to LEDs.
I think that swapping LEDs to the brake bulbs may be a good idea, since the illumination time is faster than filament bulbs, and the angle of illumination is not as critical. Viewed from directly behind the car LED units are very bright.

Changing to LEDs on the turn signal bulbs though, requires more thought. You have to consider the field of view, and usually you can buy LED units with different illumination angles. A little more on a way to correct this later.

For the rear of the car, it depends on the design of the turn signal lights, sometimes the turn signals are visible from sharper angles. If you don't care about this, then go ahead and swap to LEDs.

The front of the car though, I don't really recommend changing the turn signal bulbs to LED units. This is because the angle of visibility is critical to those who make decisions based on where you are signaling. (if you are one who uses turn signals) In an attempt to correct the narrow visibility angle I ground and polished the lenses off of the the LED units I put in my front turn signals, but I still don't think the results were satisfactory, but it was an improvement.

YMMV of couse, because it depends on the design of your vehicles lights and the type (if any) of diffuser.

Regarding the in-line resistor, I feel that it defeats part of the purpose of installing LEDs. LEDs use much less current than filament bulbs and the power saved can start to add up if you replace all of your 1156/7 bulbs. A resistor just wastes this power savings by coverting it into heat and thereby fooling the failed bulb detection system into thinking the bulbs are OK.
The problem is that one would have to modify or defeat the bulb failure detection system, requiring knowledge of the "black box" that does this in the car.
For most people its just easier to slap on a resistor and call it a day.

BTW, I bought my LED units from superbrightleds.com more than a year ago.
I used 6 1157 (two modified to 1156) and a few wedge types. A few of the wedge types have failed over time, but I haven't had problems or any burnouts with the 24 LED units.

[galek_98gt]

this is the LED unit i chose for teh turn signals:
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2005/10/1156115718wcolor-1.jpg

and these load resistors:
http://home.comcast.net/~velocityusa/load_res.jpg

[Wiscon_Mark]

Shane-I was commenting that the only APC ones I've seen are the ones that flash, and do patterns and stuff, and therefore are not street legal. I didn't say APC was all crap...

[Legacy4Life]

All of the input has been appreciated. Nice to know that others tried it and thought the effect was worth keeping.

I've gone ahead and made the investment. Incidentally, the site I had been researching on was superbrightleds.com too.

I've ordered their 24 LED version that has 18 forward facing and 6 radial mouted for a wider disperion. I've ordered narrow field for the brake lights and wide fields for the signals... we'll see! I also tried some for the side markers.

I especially like the PIAA's that galek_98gt ordered. That is the coolest design I've see yet.

Once I get them, try them, and evaluate them I'll let everyone know and send some before/after pics. Perhaps the rest can do similarily.

Michael

[Plays_with_Toys]

Perhaps the rest can do similarily.

Michael

Group buy! How much did the setup set you back?

[Legacy4Life]

I was just refering to the fact that there were others who also bought (or were interested) in replacing with LEDs.

The "do similarily" referred to posting before/after pics!

M

[supra90turbo]

galek
do me a favor, if you could:
can you please measure the resistance across those resistors?
it would be incredibly awesome if you did.

thanks,
kurt

[galek_98gt]

galek
do me a favor, if you could:
can you please measure the resistance across those resistors?
it would be incredibly awesome if you did.

thanks,
kurt

alright but it may be some time before i get the results posted up. i've moving to a different house this weekend and then going to Texas for a week. but i'm gonna try and remember.

[badbasser98]

I have long been debating this, but could never find the proper LED replacement to fit the OEM socket... Never really looked online though, maybe i'll do that now :P

-BB98

[supra90turbo]

galek, it is, of course, at your leisure. good luck with the move, man. hope you get somewhat comfortable before christmas.

and if you do happen to remember, thanks. :D