Backup lights

[Robteesit]

Does anyone else find the backup lights on the Rogue to be a bit dim? I've had my 09 since July and since it has been getting progressively darker in the mornings when I leave for work, it has been harder to see IMO, when backing out of the driveway. (yes my eyesight hasn't changed). Does anybody know if you could put a brighter bulb in the backup lights with out harming the lens. I don't think there is any good place to add another type light back there with out making it look tacky? Would a backup camera with the existing backup lights work when it is dark? Also have to pull in to the driveway can't back in - don't ask - too long of an explaination.

[Leo2005]

Yes, a few people(including me) were complaining about back up and that was discussed earlier. You can replace stock bulb with led(just get the 921 led bulb which has more leds). Here's my set of LED vs. Stock halogen bulb:Even some people on this forum are very skeptical about led license plate lights but I'm sure they will add some extra light output and that would be the easiest addition to the reverse lights: http://www.v-leds.com/Exterior....html

[Nick 568]

I installed these: http://www.v-leds.com/Exterior....html on my Rogue, and I can say that they are certainly more dim than stock. Most people would find them intolerable compared to stock, but I can get by well enough, and I like the look of the LED light vs the Halogen light.However, the ones Leo linked you to are high power LED's. The ones I got were not high power LED's. So I would imagine with the high power LED's, it would be indeed brighter than stock like Leo reported his were.

Here's a comparison between Halogen and LED. LED on the right. (Oops, when I first viewed the thread, Leo's pic didn't load for me, but oh well, I'll leave mine up anyway)

[Pescakl1]

Please remember that back up lights are not there to see but to be seen.That is why the lens is like the front turn signals, with waves to spread the lights instead of focusing it.

There is somewhere a thread from Elton Noway about the "back up lights to see" problem.I am working right now on maybe a solution with homemade high power leds hoping to solve this problem. I have almost all the parts (still waiting for the heatsinks) but will do the cooking (reflow of the leds on a board) tomorrow.

As for a back up camera, I believe it is one of the best solution to your problem since rear viewing is limited on our car.There is also a thread on that(zer...stall): what you will have to look for is a CCD camera (instead of the usual CMOS camera) as there are more sensitive in low luminosity (infrared waves less filtered). Member kots found what seems to be a real good one.
Modified by Pescakl1 at 8:18 AM 11/13/2009

[Elton Noway]

Does anyone else find the backup lights on the Rogue to be a bit dim? I've had my 09 since July and since it has been getting progressively darker in the mornings when I leave for work, it has been harder to see IMO, when backing out of the driveway. (yes my eyesight hasn't changed). Does anybody know if you could put a brighter bulb in the backup lights with out harming the lens. I don't think there is any good place to add another type light back there with out making it look tacky? Would a backup camera with the existing backup lights work when it is dark? Also have to pull in to the driveway can't back in - don't ask - too long of an explaination.

Hi Robteesit...I Feel Your Pain!

As Pescakl1 pointed out I posted the same question a couple months ago. I live in the country and have a loooong dark driveway. Ideally I'd mount headlights on the back of my car but it might look tacky. Check out this thread. Lots of good ideas:

zerothread?id=427770

[Leo2005]

A little bit off the topic but I guess Elton was right about dimmed leds on license frame from vleds lighting. I just installed the most expensive led lights from vleds for license plate which 194 type for $25 and should be the brightest on the market.Yes, they're brighter than stock lights but for $25 I was expecting something a lot better. Right now it doesn't look any better than new lexus and a few of my friends have those lights for $5 off ebay. Here's the photo of stock vs. led:Of course the picture always looks better than real stuff:

[zengshengliu]

Leo, Just a little warning for youI purchase the high power light too for my inside map light, and after a period of usage, one of the led just fall off, probably because of the amount of heat it generated. And since it is a license plate bulb, you might have some problems too.Also, my sister bought a high power bulb from v-led too, and she use it on her G35 front side marker, and after like 2 days of usage, it melt part of the light housing so be aware

[Leo2005]

It did look kinda loose when I was installing it. Also I wonder how led could produce so much heat so the housing could melt. Led doesn't heat as much as halogen bulb and it shouldn't melt anything I believe.

[Pescakl1]

3, 5mm and superflux type of leds don't heat that much, high power (1, 3W and more) leds release A LOT OF heat.

If you don't stuck them to heatsinks, they will burn out almost instantly as with heat, they absorb more current which make them hotter allowing them to take more current etc... until they are overdriven and burn out. High power leds are really sensitive to current as you push the physics to its limits.That is why high power leds need to be current driven when you can only voltage drive the other small current leds (by controlling the voltage, you can, in a way, control their current). You can voltage regulate high power leds only if you are sure to feed them with less than 70-80mA, but what will be the gain compare to superflux in that case (and this is still risky to do that).

After, depending of the size of the heatsink and the current they are run at, they can become really hot, close to 200F. In an enclosed environment where you cannot evacuate the heat, you can melt a lot of stuff.

That is why, I don't want, for now, to use high power leds for constant use (sidemarker, tail light (even brakes)) but only for intermittent use (turn signal, back up lights). You can use them for constant use, but it would be better to underdrive them (around 150mA, but again, what is the gain of under using something) or use a PWM in order to control the heat (with the use of a sufficient heatsink too).