LED taillights, turn signals, marker lights & headlights!

[dcb]

re: damage, not likely. Bulbs burn out without breaking anything.


ooh, another LED plus, should be much more reliable than filament

[JeepNmpg2]

Quick bit of info first Carlos - if you unplug one of the two bulbs that you were asking about and the other does not go out, they are not on same "circut" because by breaking the circut with one of the lights, it would effectively make the other go out. To my knowledge, everything in a vehicle that is wired with more than one item that does essentially the same thing (front/rear/left/right parking lights, etc) while all share the same common "feed" of electricity, they are wired in parallel. Meaning that that one feed somewhere splits into four (assuming four parking lights) and terminates at four different ground points (which is the entire metal portion of the vehicle chassis) which all lead back to the negative terminal on the battery. So if one goes out, it doesn't affect the others, with the exception of being ever so slightly less load on the battery. I hope this wasn't confusing.

[bgd73]

I like the tiny marker lights.. I have two for no resaon, and they blow constantly.. will try some of the led ones.

did not know they existed..

that site showed I had 21 external lights.

I just ordered four "194".. two license plate at white and 120 angle, and two side marker 90 degree amber...

for every watt saved..how much is that in fuel? I know the headlights are the most dramatic, but to add up 21 external lights alone..yikes man, I don't think my 18 foot long delta 88 had that many lights...
there is little lights next to big lights on the old sube... trying to be pretty I guess.

[Piwoslaw]

I have LEDs in my rear flashers and my front position lights.

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

Mine blink quickly -- I think I'll just get used to it.

I'm already used to mine. I'm also used to my passengers telling me that I have a burned bulb somewhere.

Another quirk of LEDs: When I turn my car off there is still some residual electricity in the wires. Normal bulbs would use that up in no time, but LEDs need a small enough current to still shine for 1-2 minutes. It's a dim shine, so you only notice in the dark, but I get people telling me I left my lights on.

Carlos: Re fast blinking: It is required that the flasher circuit blink faster when the current draw is less than a certain value (equivalant of 2 bulbs in North America and 3 bulbs in Europe), as an indication for the driver that a bulb has burned out. If you disconnect/remove your front flasher, then the rear should blink twice as fast. That way you will see how your car will behave with LEDs.

[JeepNmpg2]

I remember reading somewhere that LED's draw roughly 90% less than incandescent bulbs of similar output. And overall, if you're going to swap for LED's, you should start with the bulbs that remain on the most, IE park/licence plate lights.

I also remember reading that the average dual filiment bulb is rated for 30 watts for bright (2.6 amps) and 10 watts (.9 amps) for dim (park) circut. I don't have anything in particular to cite this information, but I'm reasonably sure that it's very accurate.

My Jeep for example had 9 external constantly running lights (parking), so that would be roughly 90 watts being consumed. I've converted all of those to LED, so now it's basically a 9 watt draw, netting 81 watts of savings. I just don't know how much that equates to gasoline use.

[RobertSmalls]

LED's are more directional than incandescents. How bright are they when viewed from 25° off-center?

[Ryland]

right on the Super bright led's web page they have a pop up notice tellling you that your leds will not flash right with most stock flashers, they then give a link to their page of flashers that will give you the correct flash rate. you want a flasher that works correctly with LEDs, not a load resistor.

[cfg83]

Ryland -

Originally Posted by Ryland

right on the Super bright led's web page they have a pop up notice tellling you that your leds will not flash right with most stock flashers, they then give a link to their page of flashers that will give you the correct flash rate. you want a flasher that works correctly with LEDs, not a load resistor.

Yeah, I thought I had to do custom wiring, so I didn't want to get one.

But I was mistaken. There aren't any custom wiring requirements. I just have to swap a flasher unit in my fusebox. I'd be willing to do this if I can find the right flasher unit for my Saturn.

Thanks!

CarloSW2

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by RobertSmalls

LED's are more directional than incandescents. How bright are they when viewed from 25° off-center?

It depends on the LED, the LEDs that I use have a 180° spread so they are just as bright from the side as they are straight on, it hurts to look at them without a lens to defuse them.

[cfg83]

Neil -

There is a circumstance where you can claim they save fuel. I use them to protect the battery when I turn the engine off at long stoplights at night.

If I know the stoplight will be long, I will sometimes turn off the engine but leave the *running* lights on for safety. That way someone pulling in behind me won't approach a dark car stopped at the intersection. I am "safety-minded" and I get to turn off my engine. Everybody wins!

CarloSW2