eBay LED bulbs - anybody tried them?

[Towncivilian]

I'm contemplating replacing my brake/tail lights, reverse lights, license plate, and front/rear turn signals with LEDs due to their inherent safety benefits (instant on/off), brighter light output, significantly lowered power consumption, cooler operation, and longer life.

eBay has bulbs significantly cheaper than anywhere else. I'm just wondering if they're of decent quality and will last relatively long compared to more expensive options such as SuperBrightLEDs, V-LEDs, or Autolumination. I converted my interior and instrument cluster bulbs to LED using SuperBrightLEDs and only had one start to flicker and eventually fail (I replaced it with another from SBLEDs, with a different, brighter bulb this time). Every other bulb is still working fine and I am happy with the quality, light output, and color temperature.

Of course, all bulbs I'd get would have a 360 degree light output angle to hopefully avoid "hot spots" and better imitate a conventional incandescent bulb for proper appearance in housings designed for incandescent bulbs.

Here is a tentative list of bulbs I'd get from eBay:

• 2x 7443 42 SMD LED red bulbs (tail/stop lights)
• 10x 168 20 SMD red bulbs (center high mounted stop light)
• 2x 1156 42 SMD LED amber bulbs (rear turn signal)
• 2x 921 25 SMD LED white bulbs (reverse)
• 4x 168 5 SMD LED white bulbs (license plate)
• 2x 7443 42 SMD LED amber bulbs (front sidemarker/turn signal)

This adds up to $59.04 shipped.

Of course, I'd need to obtain and install an electronic flasher unit to avoid "hyperflashing" turn signals, but this should be relatively inexpensive as well.

Any thoughts? Has anybody used eBay bulbs with success?

[zach7685]

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/webapp ... rom=header << don't quote me but the one without the pic is the one in my license plate lamp. It is very bright and I got it at advanced.

[Chuck Tribolet]

1. Will they fit? I'd order 1 and see.

2. Why do LEDs for anything but the brake lights? Yes they might be "cool", but my truck works for a living. Brake lights
are another story: the instant on is more than a car length at freeway speed.

3. Not all SMD LEDs are created equal. What's the lumen spec?

Chuck

[Alfredo24.pr]

I have only tried white corner LED bulbs
here's a video that shows them turning on and other stuff..by the way I was looking to buy some white license plate bulbs on ebay, just dont know which ones

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrsi3TIN0tM&feature=plcp

[carnal_c30]

I've tried LED replacements in my cars, I honestly say to do so is more for looks than performance.
I have yet to find 7443 or 1157 bulbs that are significantly brighter than the factory bulbs no matter what is advertised.
Also remember that LED bulbs in the signals will cause them to "hyperblink" unless you run resistors on them.

I sell HID and LEDs all day long and avoid putting them in brake/turn signals because of the limited benefit and the troubles with running resistors.

Best way to go is LED retrofit with panels in the taillights but it is not so cheap.

[Chuck Tribolet]

I ordered
7443-R45-T 45HP-LED 16mm Wedge Base 7443 Tower bulb| $ 24.95 |
From SuperBrightLEDs.com

They are at least as bright as a 7443 incandescent bulb.

But LED brake lights aren't about BRIGHT, they are about FAST. At freeway speeds it takes an incandescent bulb
about a car length to heat and glow. LEDs take zero time.

Chuck

[Towncivilian]

I was seriously considering ordering a pair of those bulbs for the brake lights, and some 168 bulbs for the license plate bulbs from SuperBrightLEDs. If you're happy with their performance Chuck, I'll get around to ordering them at some point! Did you use red or white bulbs?

[Chuck Tribolet]

Red bulbs. If you have a colored lens, you use a bulb the same color as the lens. If you use a white bulb, the
lens will filter out 2/3 of the photons. Plus white bulbs are more expensive.

I'm still looking for a bulb I'm completely happy with for the CHMSL.

And when I had all LED brake bulbs, every time I hit the turn signal, the cruise control would shut off like I'd
touched the brakes. Putting one incandescent bulb back in the CHMSL cured that. There's some minute
leakage current from the turn signals to the brake circuit. The incandescent bleeds it off. With all LEDs,
the leakage isn't enough to push past the forward voltage drop of the LEDs, but is enough to make the
cruise computer think you touched the brakes. YMMV.

Chuck

[Towncivilian]

I ordered a pair of the 45-LED 7443 bulbs from SuperBrightLEDs. I also ordered 2 of WLED-WHP5 to try in the license plate bulb spots. Thanks for your input as always, Chuck.

[HG50]

not sure about those led tail/brake lights. seen some of those on cars and its just a red dot. doesnt fill the taillight houseing as it does with a regular light bulb. be carefull

[Qxxx4]

I'm currently switching all my LED's in my QX4 back to incandescent.

I used ALL bulbs from Ebay, tried replacing pretty much every single bulb to LED. In the end LED was just not meant for Exterior lighting, at least the ebay stuff. It looked snazzy on but just didnt look safe or visible in bright daylight.

Interior I switched everything:

-Dome lights both had a white 16x16 SMD board which was way too bright and by the time I removed them half the SMD'd did not work or flickered. I now installed GE nighthawk incandescent bulbs
- I converted the dash lights to blue, but the LED's kept blowing right away. I ended up using my own 3mm blue LED's with 0.25W resistors (i forget the resistance I used though)...These have worked for 2 years, but they just are not as bright as regular bulbs and the red needles are very dim. I will be switching these back to regular bulbs soon.
-Transmission shifter had a blue LED but this blew right away, and thanks to the LED protruding a bit much, it got stuck and broke my P R N D placard, which I still am trying to find a replacement, once i do a regular bulb is going back. The blue LED was barely visible when it worked
-My 4WD switch, this was easy, I used a red LED on the dial portion and blue LED's on the selections again my own 3mm LED's with same resistor config as the dashboard, the blue ones blew within a year, the dials red LED still works and looks great.
-Climate control LED's.....a total of 5 hours converting this. Under the "AUTO?MODE" buttons there is a clear plastic piece to spread the illumination, i ended up drilling a hole to insert 2 of my 3mm LED's, blue...they looked spectacular. BUT once I did the other buttons, i could never get an even intensity. These bulbs ALL blew individually within a year.
-The green Dot matrix displays on the HVAC and Compass/Thermometer I simply put purple cellophane to convert them to blue to match my pioneer head unit, these look amazing but in daylight are very dark. I will be removing that cellophane when I have time

So, the verdict? LED's rule, in some applications, but my QX4 is a 1999.5, and all parts were designed without the intention of LED, which has very linear light patterns and the opacity of gauges and dials were meant for incandescent. It looked cool for a while but the damn things kept blowing. I refused to pay dozens of dollars for LED's from a reputable site, maybe those would have lasted, but I really played around with resistances and LED's and they simply were not reliable. The DC voltage in a car is very dirty, to really get reliable LED's you need proper voltage regulators/diodes before the LED.

I've got a 2012 mustang with ambient lighting, LED taillamps etc, and the dome lights are regular incandescent. It hit me then that everything is designed to have a certain bulb, just keep it that way!
-

[Towncivilian]

I did a complete interior LED conversion using SuperBrightLED bulbs and have not had any qualms with the quality of light. One bulb started flickering on me, the one for the transmission shift indicator, but I replaced it with a different bulb that had one more LED in it. Your issues are no doubt caused by lousy eBay bulbs.

I received the LEDs in the mail today. I will swap one side tomorrow to compare brightness during the daytime and nighttime and probably post some comparison pictures.

[Towncivilian]

I installed the license plate and tail/brake LED bulbs today. I used NAPA Syl-Glide (silicone grease) on the bulb wedges.


(no flash, just tail running lights)

In daylight, both tail and brake are brighter than the 7443 bulbs I had installed. And of course, they are instant! I'm quite happy with both sets of LEDs. The camera makes the license plate bulbs seem overpowering and making the decal sticker unreadable, but it's fine in person.

[zach7685]

This is what i need to get through my tint
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOX0Rtpq5O4[/youtube]

[Camelfilter]

I installed the license plate and tail/brake LED bulbs today. I used NAPA Syl-Glide (silicone grease) on the bulb wedges.


(no flash, just tail running lights)

In daylight, both tail and brake are brighter than the 7443 bulbs I had installed. And of course, they are instant! I'm quite happy with both sets of LEDs. The camera makes the license plate bulbs seem overpowering and making the decal sticker unreadable, but it's fine in person.

Thanks for posting, I might convert mine. Do you think the 5 LEDs would be too bright for the high mount break light?

I checked, and I would only need to replace 5 (or 4 if it does the wierd cruise control shutoff).

[Towncivilian]

I am not sure to be honest. I'd say anything larger than the 5 bulb might not even fit in the center high mount stop light housing.

[Camelfilter]

Thanks, I'm not sure which I'll do in the high mount then. When/if I do I'll post back here.