I bought some LED taillights to see if they were any brighter than my stock bulbs. Here is the package I bought. The results were not impressive for this particular 1157 style light. See the picture of my brake light below. The light on the right is the LED, the light on the left is the stock 1157. The LED is more red, but it is not as bright.
I also bought a 194 style light to use on a custom app for my 65 Chevy truck. I am using stepside hole lights as third brake lights. The bulbs that came with the set are meant for running lights. I switched to a high power incandescant bulb and it started to melt the lense and the holder. So I switched to an LED light from the same company. The results are a super bright 3rd brake light, compared to the stock light on the bottom. In this instance the LED lights are exactly what I needed. http://www.jamstrait.com/
The LED lights throw more of a dot on your taillight, the 1157 lights up the whole housing, there is another bulb brighter then an 1157, maybe 1157a. Ask at NAPA they can help, also much cheaper. I tried these LED lights I needed 4 per side, they get expensive fast.
There was a thread about this, but in order to get a good light pattern without such a noticeable hotspot, you need to build your own LED circuit.
'Ya know, I have been told that to really get the benefit of the LED brightness, you have to use some kind of load equalizer between all the LED circuits (i.e., brake & turn separate or brake/turn together). The point was that simply plugging the LED bulbs in place of the incandescent bulbs is not ideal. I have noticed tremendous improvement in brightness when the internal tail light housings are restored and re-silvered (Eastwood products) so that more of the light is reflected outward. There is no doubt, though, that LED's run cooler and use a lot less power. I thought also they were actually brighter ... until I saw the pics in the first post. It would be nice to have some others weigh-in on this with some experience.
Replacement LEDs "bulbs" are technically not up to par with incandescent; However, technology is rapidly closing the gap. Some LED setups (the packaged trailer lights and modern cars) are impressive only because the system as a whole (clear lens and reflective surfaces) are designed well. Most people fail to realize that LED are directional instruments with a range on 30-60 degrees before performance rapid falls (light appears dim). Incandescents are Omni directional thus a true comparison is difficult since were comparing apples to oranges. This directionality of LEDs is easily observed when you angle you cell phone or laptop screen. Youll notice that the color changes or dims. So if one were to retrofit their vehicle with LEDs, the proper way is to build one from scratch. When I had done the research, the cost for parts; 100 superbright red LEDs, 20 resisters, Plexiglas, and misc material the cost per tail light would be about $100 plus the time required to assemble. It is very do-able for people but will require some patience and some basic EE knowledge. Im sure that some day there will be LED clusters Bulbs bright enough to penetrate the thinker lens of our older cars, but until then<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
I've had poor luck with 2 diffrent kind of LED lights on my Malibu. they failed within 6 months. both sets. some of it would work some wouldn't some parts of the bulb would flicker. these were the multi-directional ones that can use the reflector. This is on my 04 malibu and the front side marker factory bulbs melt the housings. :blast: though i'm now discovering that GM has a special cooler bulb for them now.
Buy LED replacement bulbs with caution. There IS a quality difference. Anything I've seen in the chain stores for 1156 or 1157 replacements are not high output, or quality. You really get what you pay for. Important notes on selecting a replacement. http://www.superbrightleds.com/carbulb-notes.htm This is the only company I buy from. http://www.superbrightleds.com/led_prods.htm Link about LED dash lights. http://www.turbobuicks.com/forums/buick-v6-turbo-tech/79637-dash-lites.html This is all eye candy kind of stuff with a bling factor, so it isn't going to be cheap. ElectraJim
I have been testing different ways of trying LED's on my 66 Riv's taillites. So far The best seem to be a couple of rows with high intensity red LED's mounted to shine in to the reflector. I gives a very good output lite out of the lens. I lined up the LED'd so they are behind the chrome trim bars of the lens trim. I figured about 33 LED's per row. Had to stop for now to have surgery. Will probably get back to it after the holidays. The load someone was talking about is to make the flashers work correctly and/or dim the LED's for driving lites when not in stop mode. I used a HOTRONICS adjustable eletronic flasher to solve the turn signal problem. Also installed one of their Sequential tailite kits also. Works great, now to switch all to LED's , Then I'll be satisfied.:TU:
Re: Led Review 11/08 <center>When buying LED's for your vehicle Buick or Classic muscle: 1) Don't buy them from your local around the corner Auto emporium mercantile store. These are horrible! Guaranteed you'll waste your $$$$'s for a re-lamp 2) Do make sure, where you can, make them LED clusters. 3) Never use a colored LED cluster where the lens is discolored. Example: Red LED's with a Red lens. (Good way to waste your money in my opinion) 4) Don't forget to save your old incandscents you took out.... I'm sure they will collect dust for years to come! <center>My 1971 Buick GS now has (2) Festoon cluster LED lights in Both rear dome lights in the rears. They are great! They are "Xtra Cool White". <img src="http://dl.ledtronics.com/ImagesAll/FES001-08.gif" width="420" align="center"> Have you ever touch those festoons (fuse type lamps) when they are hot? The ones that are originally there? Ouch on the fingers! No more buying the round plastic lenses that get discolored and warped anymore. The hazard flashers front and back are really bright; and instantaneous when turned on. Got to love it. So are the turn signals, and brake lights! The side markers are really bright also! Front sides include the ambers. The cool looking thing I found is the "Xtra cool white" look in the middle rear location where the gas cap is located; for the license plate light @ night that I bought. I like the swival one also. I have not gotton to the Glove box light yet, nor the instrument cluster, but when I do I'll keep you posted. I'm sure the dimmer switch for the instruments won't work, but that's ok, It'll be either on or off. Besides how many people slightly dim their dashboard anyway? I know I don't. That rheostat is working the hardest when it's resisting all the bulbs wattages from those incandscents. Either "off" or "on" for me...... So where did I get them? http://www.ledtronics.com/products/cat1.aspx?P=C0D6 You get what you pay for here. These LEDS's are what we use in our Industrial facility for safety, except they are 24vdc, instead of 12vdc and used with many rotating beacons over 1/2 mile to designate High Voltage modulated Pulsed DC is present. Have fun and let us know what you think of your LED project. Thanks, Scott
Re: Led Taillight review <center>You get a brighter lumen w/ a clear LED cluster or XTRA cool white, rather than red, or amber, Etc. That is what I noticed. Let's say you have a lens already colored red, It'll be much brighter using a clear white LED cluster w a red lens. The lens provides the needed red color. Stick with the XTRA COOL WHITE if you can for clear len's, They seem to work best in mine. Just my two cents, You may prefer to use something else for your needs. You may have to experiment for yourself by buying ones and two Z's as I did to start out. Please Keep us posted! Thanks
Re: Led Taillight review I used white ones for the amber front corner markers on the malibu and they looked green. they were a pretty cool color to start with. I recommend the opposite to use the color of the lens your using to save cost as red led's and amber led's are generally much cheaper than white ones. but i've had bad luck with them all together could be I got cheapies. o No:
I'm interested in hearing from anyone who has tried both white and red LEDs behind a red lens and getting their feedback. According to superbrightleds.com: Which Color LEDs should I use ? For best results the LED color should be the same as the lens color. As an example: a red lens will filter out all but the red portion of the light so if the light is all red, none or very little light will be blocked by the lens. The light from a White LED contains very little light in the red portion of the visible spectrum so most of the light would be filtered out by a red lens.
I tried a "white" LED bulb in a yellow marker lens. Didn't like the result. Tried a matching color, and i was MUCH happier. I didn't try the same experiment in a red tail lamp however. I'll leave that te$t for someone else. :TU: ElectraJim
I like the cops "LED strips" they use. Aren't they cool? I'm quit happy with the LED's in the old 71' GS.
Re: Led Review 11/08 I've done that before. Wasted my money for sure!!! My car doesn't have Hazard Flashers. SHOWOFF!! My car doesn't have side-markers either. BAH!
<center>Pete, Did they not have hazzard flasher lights in yours? Front and rear? <img src="http://images.scottfisher.multiply.com/image/1/photos/7/600x600/8/sm-kfog-logo.gif?et=84gz1rx2ncocx1NNKxH8jg&nmid=135078519width="900" align="center">
Hazard flashers were an option. I saw the accessories to install it go on eBay for $500+ recently. All I've got is turn signals !
