Looking to replace car tail light bulbs with LED

I don’t know of any bulbs that are bright enough to be good replacements, that also don’t get too hot. Reliability and high output just don’t go hand in hand with pnp bulbs, and the fill is terrible. None of the bulbs have enough effective heatsinking for the desired output. I found that I could only be happy with a custom install. Over the last 3 years of messing with LED flashlights, mostly because of this forum, I found it easy enough to fab my own. Just like HID swaps (retrofits really are needed), I wouldn’t just drop in a bulb in place of a stop lamp or signaling lamp (the others can run fine though).

Of course, as with flashlights, you also can almost never have enough backup lighting:

Compared to stock 27W incandescent bulb. All stock bulbs were 27W - backup and stop.

60W of backup lighting, 40W of brake lighting and they stay under 40C above ambient when running for hours, without airflow. You know you want to go all-out - LED’s run cool, use quality drivers, and are of a desirable color temperature. :bigsmile:

There is a resistance sensor in the turn signal lamp circuit. An open circuit triggers the high rate of flash. Retrofitting LEDs is a great idea if the light output is a good match. Dim or super bright running lights, turn signals and back-up lamps are just as illegal as one that does not function in NAFTA and EU countries. And maybe some more. The best LED retrokits that I’ve seen include a lamp assembly, driver and replacement lenses but they aren’t cheap. Nice if you have a need to replace the lenses anyway.

Look at some of the new lamps on the road - the best way to get them to work properly is an array of emitters.

thanks, I didn’t know that!

In my experience LED tailight bulbs typically last less than a year. The wires in their bases have been the weak spot on the ones I’ve bought from lightingnext

That said, I just replaced them again. Maybe this batch will hold up better.

Why do I keep replacing them with LEDs when I’ve had such poor luck? LEDs light up a split second before incandescent brake light bulbs do. When you see that split second difference in real life you’ll see how significant it is. Even at 30mph you go over 4 feet in less than a 10th of a second.

Incandescent bulbs burn out often, so they are usually easy to reach, apparently intended for owner replacement with possible exceptions. This will probably change as leds become integrated.

this is why i want to go with LED, but i would want better then or at least equal to incandescent bulb life, and decent quality, i won’t risk a car fire due to cheap dangerously made bulbs

I tried some T10 LED bulbs for instrument light and reading light, till now they works well. The light brightness is good.
But I for headlight, have no plan to switch to LED now. Will go and see for a while.

Replacement LED bulbs are unsafe when used in a light fitting designed for incandescent bulbs, they also will not meet the lighting requirements of nearly every civilized country.

I wasn’t aware of that. Why is that, do they catch on fire or explode or something?

The specification for light output and how that light is dispersed are quite strict, by changing the light source from a filament to a LED changes those specs, the light will no longer conform as designed.

Seems there are a lot of people prepared to ignore such matters, or think they will get away with it. But tell that to a good friend of mine whose vehicle was written off in a rear end shunt and a sharp eyed insurance assessor noted his non compliment LED bulbs in his tail and stop lights, the claim was refused as the vehicle no longer met the manufactures specs. He’s out almost £7000.

Regardless of safety reasons, have you never encounter on the road someone just ahead of you and turned on the rear fog light when I there us no fog (worse, when it’s raining)?

But for interior festoon, I highly recommend some festoon that use Cree XR-E Q5. Just search “Cree festoon”. It could be too bright for rear license plate.

I hate to be a downer here but…………………check out the link I have provided dealing with Federal automotive lighting. Get caught putting in a non D.O.T. certified light no matter what you think about them or claims made by the manufacturer, and heavy fines are involved if said lights are not D.O.T approved. Get into a night time auto accident with unapproved lights, lamps or bulbs and it gets even worse. Don’t take my word for it. Read the document. It’s very real.

http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regulations/administration/fmcsr/fmcsrruletext.aspx?reg=571.108

[heavy sarcasm] i love the people that slurp up freedom hating regulations like a baby guzzles mothers milk…. its so refreshing. [/heavy sarcasm]

Brian

old school leds bulbs with 5050 or 2875 leds are garbage, newer with cree leds, sitting on chunk of aluminium should be better, one would think, but the problem is, heatsinking still, is crap, no where for heat to go, if they only drove those leds at 350ma or less, that there would be no problem, they would be still bright, but last a lot longer. but they drive them at close to 1A, and often, there are more than 1 led there.
i used such bulbs a lot, but not in cars, actually mine were used most of the time in open light fixture not in closed tail light, but they still fail.

if someone wants to build led tail light, it needs to be done from a scratch, not just replace bulb, but an array of leds, inside tail light, not an easy task to do.

as for leagl part, well you take a chance, you might get in trobble or you might not. your choice. i personaly don’t care for changing anything in my car, i lease brand new cars, give it back 3 years later, and could not care less how lights in the back look. but that is just me.

also, regarding fast light up time of leds, it is true, however, in reality, it did not affect accident rates in any way.

I did a fair bit of research and settled on some 5050 based led’s in 1157 format. They turned out to be bright enough so I was happy for a while but after about one year half of them aren’t working anymore. I was trying to conserve power on an older goldwing that are known to have weak stators. With brake, accessory brake, and signal lights I flushed over $100 down the toilet. I did use an led taillight assembly (princess auto) on a bike trailer I built and it works well. Like others have said, skip the bulbs and buy a rated assembly. At least they have to pass some kind of standard to get a rating not like the crap bulbs.

i never had to replace a single bulb, in at least 7 cars my family leased over last 10 years. neither headlight nor tail, nor interior. none failed in 3 years lease term.
i’d say lifespan of regfular bulbs is way longer than of those led retrofit bulbs. even thou they supposed to never burn out, lol.

for real. :slight_smile: i just replaced one of the original tail light bulbs in my 1997 plymouth neon. the car has 190k miles on it.

Brian

That’s odd. When I converted my brake lights it was after reading the results of a study like this one, release last year by the US Gov’t. It seems to have some interesting results. For example, if you drove a Honda Accord or Cadillac Deville that was the model year that was tested, you had a significant safety advantage by switching to LED, but other models such as the Infiniti M45 the stats got worse. At least this study seems to be a bit more germain to the discussion in terms of their (LED’s) effect on cars anywhere in the world, rather than quoting laws (or fabricating antidotes), that only apply to certain jurisdictions (or seem rather specious in nature).

The link I posted are Federal laws. They do vary a little from State to State but Federal law trumps State law every time in court. The law is the law. Thumb your nose at it if you like. Violate it at your own risk. NO sarcasm here. :slight_smile:

Or to rephrase that somewhat, “The law where you live is the law where you live, and not the law where I live”. Helps to bear in mind that the members of this forum are not necessarily under US jurisdiction (at least not yet).

If however you want to make your post more helpful for your fellow countrymen, you may want to paraphase the appropriate relevant parts rather than demonstrating that you are adept at using the copy and paste keys.