LED bulbs - pics & video

[FiveFreshFish]

I saw a Caddy with factory LED tailights a few years ago and I just had to get something like that for my car, so I bought these LED bulbs for my tail lights.



In the pictures below from top to bottom, the 4 bulbs in the tail light housing are as follows:
- Rear fog is regular 1156
- Signal is LED 1156
- Reverse is regular 1156
- Park/brake is LED 1157


Pic1: All lights off.


Pic2: LED park lights.


Pic3: LED signal, LED park lights.


Pic4: Regular fogs, LED brakes.


Pic5: Regular fogs, LED signal, LED brakes.


Right-click and save as
LED video clip (4 megs)

Notice the on-off characteristic of the LED bulb? It's faster than the regular bulbs I have in the front and the side marker.

[lammer]

looks nice man.
nice job!

[Fluidic]

Originally posted by lammer
looks nice man.
nice job!

I believe, "he" is a women lammer! LOL

Peter

[[GaGe]]

so bright... my eyes are starting to hurt.

[BKS8]

Do the LED's make the light brighter?

[RickDaTuner]

Originally posted by BKS8
Do the LED's make the light brighter?

not particularly, they just use less power and creat less heat

[eur0]

all you need is an led and a resistor right?

[Pete92SL]

Cool Pics!

Pete

[szw]

So those 'led-bulb' are meant to replace the regular bulbs completely? I mean, rather than finding some way to mount them into your tail-light??

Where do you get them, and how much do they cost?

Thanks

I love LED bulbs. Everytime I get stuck behind a city bus I admire them

[got M]

Nice nails, pics taken on a tripod, now thats attention to detail.

[szw]

Originally posted by got M
Nice nails, pics taken on a tripod, now thats attention to detail.

a woman's touch!

[lammer]

Originally posted by Fluidic Digital


I believe, "he" is a women lammer! LOL

Peter

haha oh god. sorry for my mistake. a little too much of that coffee.

[EstoMax]

how much do those led bulbs cost(in us or cad)? was it hard to set em up?

[turboMiata]

Originally posted by FiveFreshFish

Notice the on-off characteristic of the LED bulb? It's faster than the regular bulbs I have in the front and the side marker.

The reason why your LEDs blink so fast is because the LED has a higher resistance than the factory incandescent bulbs. The factory bulbs are 6 ohms . I've heard people are wiring 10 Ohm resistors in parallel to fix this problem.

BTW, where did you get the LEDs? Can you get the white ones that blink yellow?

[FiveFreshFish]

Thanks for the compliments and having a look at the pics and video. I'll try answer all questions in one reply and not be a post whore!

Just want to clarify that I'm a dude, but I know you'd prefer to see a pretty pair of hands showing off the goods.

The LED bulbs I use are direct replacements for the "regular" factory incandescent bulbs. They plug right in, directly replacing an 1156 or 1157 bulb. Here are two more pictures of the bulbs.


You will only need a resistor if the blinker rate goes super-fast or if your car's sensor shows that you have a bulb out. The super-fast blink rate is how some cars tell you a bulb is out. The reason for this is an LED bulb draws so little current compared with a regular bulb, so the shunt resistor allows more current to satisfy the sensors. If you like the seizure-inducing blink rate, then you don't need a resistor.

I bought the LEDs from LEDtronics for US$48.50 each! However, they've recently dropped their price to a "mere" US$37.50 apiece! Outrageous price still, but I've found nothing on the market compares in terms of quality. Way better than the cheap $10 ones you can get here.

Amber LEDs are available. I thought about doing this in the front to have completely clear corners, but LEDs have a relatively narrow viewing angle so I only run them in the tail lights. I believe you need wider visibility in the front.

In the video, the LED bulbs in the rear are out of sync with the front because of their instant on-off characteristic. Regular incandescent bulbs take a few hundredths of a second to get to their maximum brightness, and again the same amount of time to fade to off. It is the filament inside the bulb that takes time to heat to a glow when power is applied, and takes time for the glow to go away when power is removed. You normally don't notice this until they're put side-by-side with LEDs. LEDs react instantly and that's what I love about them.

[RiceCake]

Man that's pretty sweet!

[Rydog]

i've had my rear signals as red LEDs for like a year now. I love them too.
mine were only 12 bux each from Canadian Tire. i bought some for the brake lights too, but for some reason they didn't fit properly, so I took them back. those ones were 17bux each. But like I said, i've had the signal LEDs for a year (at least) and they still kick ass. I've actually had people ask what type of bulbs they are cause they do look quite different when they are on.

The best part is cause my 2000 Civic has clear lenses for the turns, they are perfectly white when the light isn't on. Before, you could always see a bit of the orange bulb that comes stock. Also, they are perfectly legal and are the the way that all cars will be eventually due to the fact that they are (generally) brighter and come on faster allowing more time for people to react to a braking situation (i read a report on them a while back).
it's all good!

[BKS8]

so you are saying that the white turn signals are legal?


I am sure that they aren't. i got pulled over in Seattle when i had them white, and my friend also got pulled over and ticketed in Calgary for having white signals.

Or are you talking about the LED's being legal?

[szw]

He's talking about them being legal because they light up amber, but look clear when not being used.

Anyways they are nice but not worth 40US each IMO.

[Speed_RaSiR]

Oh thank god, for a second there I thought this thread was about LED washer light installs....

Looks Nice