LED brake lights?

[mvalpreda]

Are there any replacement lights that are LED opposed to bulb for the brake lights/turn signals/etc? I would be interested in swapping all my rear bulbs for LED as long as everything works the same.

I seem to go through brake lights quite often and it's getting a little old!

[Moghedian]

I threw these bad boys in.

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/ ... -x45-T.htm

They are super bright when on the brakes and last for 30,000+ hours.

[mvalpreda]

Yikes! Those are serious. Which model did you order? I am guessing the 1157-R45-T due to the voltage.....correct?

[Moghedian]

Yup, those are the ones. I really wanted the spider lights, but with only 120 degrees of view, it kind of defeated the purpose of being all bright and powerful imo.

[mvalpreda]

Wait....do I need to get red or white LEDs? I can't remember the color of the bulb in there now.

[pavouk]

I tried accomplish the same thing as you are trying so I've ordered LEDs all around the car, I ended up exchanging bunch and returning a lot of them too. The most successful were these : http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1157-Red ... ccessories but in comparison to the original filament bulbs they weren't bright enough and that defeats the purpose for me. So I ended up with only reverse light LEDs: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... MEWNX%3AIT and with license plate LED's: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... MEWNX%3AIT. For turn signals it is nearly impossible to use LED unless you have resistors on each bulb since it flashes rapidly without appropriate current draw and there is no way to replace the relay since it is all in the integrated box under your dashboard. Front marker lights were also so faint that I had to return them. I added HID lights for my headlights: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SLIM-XEN ... 45f3edaaa8 and I'll be putting white LED DRLs from Advance Autoparts: http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/webapp ... _A|GRP2027____ (after I re solder original weak LEDs for these: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... ESINDXX:IT
As my dome lamp replacements I've used them: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... MEWNX%3AIT they barely fit (you have to bend the metal strips holding them) but they they put out a lot of light also as interior lights I used for foot wells this strip wired to ECU: http://www.ledshoppe.com/Product/led/LE5017.htm

[mvalpreda]

So the brake lights on eBay were no good? I just want to get some LEDs for brakes lights that do the running light and are nice and bright when I hit the brakes. Sounds like easier said than done!

[pavouk]

So the brake lights on eBay were no good? I just want to get some LEDs for brakes lights that do the running light and are nice and bright when I hit the brakes. Sounds like easier said than done!

Yes they are OK, but not same brightness as the originals. And that is whats important to me. I'd say about 20% weaker. Nice difference between running lights and breaking though. I've tried these before http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... MEWNX%3AIT but with same result, weaker than original and almost no difference between breaking and running...

[Moghedian]

Ok maybe the average LED light isn't as bright, but these got that problem beat. They are normal luminosity under driving conditions, and VERY red and bright when on the brakes. It all has to do with...
Type of LED (these are SMD and mean serious business)
Amount and size of LEDS (45, c'mon how could it not be brighter)
Matching the color of the LED to the color of the lens. (Red lens, red LED)

These units are plug-n-play, they require no extra equipment to operate successfully.

I'm not sure what gave pavouk such a bad experience with his brake lights (68 LED's, why isn't it brighter?) but I know mine worked well and I am very pleased with the results.

[pavouk]

Ok maybe the average LED light isn't as bright, but these got that problem beat. They are normal luminosity under driving conditions, and VERY red and bright when on the brakes. It all has to do with...
Type of LED (these are SMD and mean serious business)
Amount and size of LEDS (45, c'mon how could it not be brighter)
Matching the color of the LED to the color of the lens. (Red lens, red LED)

These units are plug-n-play, they require no extra equipment to operate successfully.

I'm not sure what gave pavouk such a bad experience with his brake lights (68 LED's, why isn't it brighter?) but I know mine worked well and I am very pleased with the results.

Mine were SMD, more LEDs and red, but I think that the problem is how the reflector is done in the main taillight assembly. Yours have same 6 sides as mine did, but from the picture it looks like you have larger LEDs soldered on the boards, also you have 9 forward facing and I had 8, maybe that's why my seemed to be dimmer. I purposely changed only one side and compared the light output during regular daytime hours and with direct sunlight with mixed feelings I could see regular bulbs lot better and my 3 brake light was brighter than my side LED light. When compared third brake light has about same luminosity as filament bulbs. I might try the bulbs from your source and see how they compare.

I found another eBay auction for similar bulb but has more forward lights which might help: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2x-RED-1 ... 2c55beb96e
But it is using SMD 3528 which produces less light output than SMD 5050 (120 vs 400 lumen) I guess I have to find one with SMD 5050

Here is one with 5050 and more total LEDs http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2x-1157- ... 335fd5a50b

[pavouk]

And here is the answer from the last mentioned manufacturer. It seems that their is the brightest on the market so far...:
Dear xxxx,

hi,thank you for your question and I really appreciate that you have this kinda question about brightness, please note firstly LED should be calculated in Candela(CD) but not in Lumimous, all you hear so far is totally wrong concept in LED, cause the lighting source of LED is directional but not whole surface like regular lighting,the reason many makers use luminous to measure the brightness because most of them are original from traditional lighting industry but not LED industry like us. There is NO testing equipment and standard existed currently in the world can measure LED brightness, but all makers don't want to educate and correct back this because they think once they write larger value, finally use the equipment and standard for traditional lighting to test LED, then no need to explain to the user. The product you ask here is 108cd(3.6cd x 36pcs), and the link you post to me was around 50.4cd(1.2cd x42 pcs), the link you post was 42pcs 1210 SMD LED, SMD LED was named by its size, in 1210 LED there is only 1 LED CHIP fits in the space, but 5050 LED is possible to put 3 chips, which means our product here is 90LED Chips, and the 42SMD you post has only 42 chips. Obviously there is big difference in brightness. I don't know if you understand what I am talking about here since I am not an English native speaker, if anything you still don't get it, please let me know, by the way, the 2 levels of the bulb is 1:3 and we have sold a lot in USA, you can find the difference clearly! Thank you very much!

- peraccurate

Click "respond" to reply through Messages, or go to your email to reply
Respond


From: xxxx
To: peraccurate
Subject: xxxx has sent a question about item #220660551611, ending on Sep-25-10 17:36:35 PDT - 2x 1157 Bay15d 30 5050 SMD LED Tail Brake Light RED
Sent Date: 2010-08-31 21??06?33?



Dear peraccurate,

Good morning ,
I'm very interested in your bulb, but before I make a purchase I would like to find out what is the luminosity difference between the two levels that this bulb provides (marker light vs. brake light) and also if your bulb is brighter than this: http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/ ... -x45-T.htm or this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/2x-1157-RED-42-SMD- ... 588979ebad

Thank you for your answers






2x 1157 Bay15d 30 5050 SMD LED Tail Brake Light RED
2x 1157 Bay15d 30 5050 SMD LED Tail Brake Light RED
Item Id: 220660551611
End time: Sep-25-10 17:36:35 PDT
Seller:

peraccurate (759)
99.5% Positive Feedback
Member since Dec-06-07 in Taiwan
Listing Status: This message was sent while the listing was active.

[VersaOnRoids]

GOT PIX ? ? ?

[anthony870]

I threw these bad boys in.

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/ ... -x45-T.htm

They are super bright when on the brakes and last for 30,000+ hours.

i just got some led reverse lights from that site for my v. but didnt get brake lights because was told that the difference between running and brake would not be very noticable and may result in someone running into the back of me when stopping. so do you have any pics or can you get some pics of the difference in running and braking and maybe the difference in led and halogen.

also did you do your turn signals and if so were you able to fix the fast blinking of the bulbs and what did you use. i was also wanting to do those but saw that they said would blink fast without a resistor or flasher. was goin to get a flasher but couldnt find what flasher the v took. so just didnt get leds at all for the blinkers.