LED brake lights?

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Crazy4408pac

N. Michigan
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Traverse City Michigan
Looking to up-grade to LED brake/turn lights. Just wondering what anyone has used.
Did a search and keep getting #1157 replacement lights, that are plug and play. I see a mix of bad and good things about them.
What say you?
Thanks
 
The good is less current.

The bad is blinker and flasher cans might need to be replaced with led comparable units.

I like the less current part but don't like the instant on/off, doesn't feel right. ( But getting more used to it as time goes on)
 
What car do you have? DigiTails makes LED tailight kits for a variety of Mopars. I sent them one of my 68 Dart tail light housings so hopefully soon they will have a kit for me. Replacement 1157 bulbs don't work very well with what I've seen. The light they put out isn't reflected by the housing as well and you get a dimmer light.

As far as the side markers are concerned, you can use a standard replacement LED bulb. However, make sure you use colored LEDs. A bright white LED will bleach out the color. Your amber lenses will look white and your red lenses will look pink.

You can get fully electronic flashers from your local parts store.
 
I've done this on a couple cars & bikes.
Incandescent technology relied on the reflector (tail light housing) to project the light through the lens. You can get 1157 LED's that have chips around the body, as well as projecting straight out through the lens.
I'm going to use these in red in my Valiant tail/brake/turn lights, and the same ones up front in amber as run/park/turn lights.
You will need an electronic LED flasher to replace yours.
People get into trouble when the just start changing bulbs and find they have to upgrade the flasher to electronic, or try to add a resistor to make their old flasher work.
Do it right and it's all plug & play.
 
I've done this on a couple cars & bikes.
Incandescent technology relied on the reflector (tail light housing) to project the light through the lens. You can get 1157 LED's that have chips around the body, as well as projecting straight out through the lens.
I'm going to use these in red in my Valiant tail/brake/turn lights, and the same ones up front in amber as run/park/turn lights.
You will need an electronic LED flasher to replace yours.
People get into trouble when the just start changing bulbs and find they have to upgrade the flasher to electronic, or try to add a resistor to make their old flasher work.
Do it right and it's all plug & play.
I have similar I got off ebay. They worked great in my pickup truck bed trailer.
 
Drop in LED bulbs were awful when I tried them a few years back. I ended up buying a set of LED replacements from DIGI-TAILS. They require some minor wiring and mounting of the boards. They are BRIGHT and light up the entire lense. They usually run a sale around Thanksgiving.
 
Those are nice but pricey. LED lighting technology has bumped up a notch in 5 years. These with the segments all around are pretty damn bright and wont break the bank either. Will put the same style ones I have in my trailer in both barracudas. I do want to get LED headlights that look like a 7" sealed beam, not these bug eyed lookin LED headlights I see now. I will wait, somebody will come up with something good that looks like and old sealed beam. The company I work for changed all their fluorescent overhead fixtures to LED tube lights. Super bright, super efficient. The times they are a changin.
 
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I have LED strips similar to
www.ebay.com/itm/16FT-5M-Bright-Cool-White-5M-300Leds-Flexible-SMD-5050-Led-Strip-Light-Lamp-12V/123772196047?epid=14004348850&hash=item1cd165d4cf:g:0PcAAOSwgkZc35vn

I took apart the the tail lights and using contact cement laid three rows of LED Strips for the running lights .and 2 additional rows of LEDs for the stop lamps. I then laid 2 rows of LEDs into the backup lights and put in a connector. So I can remove them easely.

Very inexpensive and extremely bright I wish I took a picture to show
 
superbrightleds.com

Put them in my brake/turn, reverse and front park/blinker in amber. They are stupid bright. I'll see if I can get a pic.
 
Word of warning about custom LEDS in your tail lights.

If you need a replacement part it could be non existent or really expensive.

I have a magnifier light that uses LEDs, it's not working, parts are not available, I could get ICs and LEDs and Caps etc if I knew what was bad, but a replacement board would be the most likely fix. A twist in bulb is cheap and in a pinch a standard bulb could be substituted in
 
Ask @slantsixdan, he is a lighting guru. He'll tell you everything is illegal and not DOT approved...he's usually right.
 
Word of warning about custom LEDS in your tail lights.

If you need a replacement part it could be non existent or really expensive.

I have a magnifier light that uses LEDs, it's not working, parts are not available, I could get ICs and LEDs and Caps etc if I knew what was bad, but a replacement board would be the most likely fix. A twist in bulb is cheap and in a pinch a standard bulb could be substituted in
The red led 1157 trailer bulbs I bought, I will be using in my 67 barracuda and sons 69 barracuda. I also bought the amber ones for the front. I bought extras of each just in case of failure. Damn things were cheap enough. When I hooked up my trailer with these at night for the first time I thought my brake pedal was stuck on lol. It wasnt. The low brightness on these is close to stop lamp brightness. The stop lamp brightness is really bright.

Screenshot_20200721-061413_eBay.jpg


Screenshot_20200721-061436_eBay.jpg
 
The red led 1157 trailer bulbs I bought, I will be using in my 67 barracuda and sons 69 barracuda. I also bought the amber ones for the front. I bought extras of each just in case of failure. Damn things were cheap enough. When I hooked up my trailer with these at night for the first time I thought my brake pedal was stuck on lol. It wasnt. The low brightness on these is close to stop lamp brightness. The stop lamp brightness is really bright.

View attachment 1715565040

View attachment 1715565041

What else did u have to change ??
 
I'm looking into LEDs for tail lights only for the race car, any one have words of wisdom?
 
Famous bob , I didnt do the cars yet since they are dissassembled. I did buy different flashers specifically for use for the LEDs in the cars so they flash at the correct speed. The flashers i ordered off evilbay have an orange cover with a small hole to access an adjuster screw so you can fine tune the flasher speed. I bought a few extras since they were only a few dollars each. On my trailer I did nothing, just plugged them in. Enough resistance with the truck wiring that I did not need a heavy duty flasher. Stock truck flasher worked just fine.

Pishta , as far as DOT regs go automotive exterior lighting on a taillight or signal bulb. I have never seen a DOT approval on any lightbulb unless it's a headlight assembly. The DOT approval on any other light be it a taillight, signal lamp, marker lamp is an approval on the design of the lens itself, not what's behind it illuminating it. So as far as using LED bulbs in a taillight or signal light goes, who cares as long as they are bright enough to get somebodies attention.

Screenshot_20200721-084025_eBay.jpg
 
I'm looking into LEDs for tail lights only for the race car, any one have words of wisdom?
Buy a pair of the ones I listed. Maybe 2 pairs for spares since I'm not sure what race car vibration will do to them. They are bright.
 
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Ask @slantsixdan, he is a lighting guru. He'll tell you everything is illegal and not DOT approved...he's usually right.

Dan is always right, agreed. But who in the world will pull your lights apart to tell you that some part of it is ILLEGAL. Just is not going to happen
 
Dan is always right, agreed. But who in the world will pull your lights apart to tell you that some part of it is ILLEGAL. Just is not going to happen
Again the DOT approval is for the lens design, not what's lighting it up from behind. The exception is headlights, driving / fog lamps, or aftermarket trailer light lenses. What lights up stock factory lenses up from behind is not DOT required. Many modern vehicles use LED lamps for illumination. The DOT number is for the lens design along with the reflectors. Have you ever seen a DOT approval number on any 1157 or an 1157A bulb? Just sayin.
 
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Looking to up-grade to LED brake/turn lights.

You're dealing with safety lights that have to work right (not just light up, whether or not someone looking at 'em thinks they're "kinda bright", "stupid bright", or whatever), and there are optical complications. Start reading at post № 80 of this thread. That situation is in flux; one of the world's reputable light source makers (Tungsram, long affiliated with GE) is gearing up to launch a new line of LED signal bulbs that stand a good chance of working well in old-car lights. As soon as they're released and I've tested them, if they're as good as it looks like they might be, I'll shout about it on here.
 
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