Brake light bulb type and LED bulb discussion

[notquitesane]

Sure, I'll do that in the morning right after getting back from the farmers market.

[okashira]

Thanks, I messed up both pretty bad and they are still stuck lol.

[okashira]

Get a chance to make a video?

 

BTW, I have found I needed 500 ohm on the brake bright side (2 1k in parallel). Otherwise, it's still a little bright when HL are on and brakes off.

1000 ohm makes them much dimmer then nothing, but 500 ohm brings them down another notch and they are perfect.

 

Also needed 1000 ohm on the dim (HL on) side on the right side, but not the left side. Kinda weird.

Prob variations between the two LED's

[notquitesane]

I got it made and uploaded.  So you need something long and skinny to fit in the hole on the right hand side of the licence plate bulb.

 

[okashira]

You are awesome. Do you mean push to left? Will try now..

 

Got them... thanks. The back is now 100% LED on my car. :-D

And mirrors.

 

Headlights, side markers, front turns next.

Going to order some different CREE XM-L2 LED's from Mouser and solder to the chinese HL's I got. I fried one of the XM-L2's that camr on it.

I measured them at about 2.6A through two XM-L2 LED's each. So they are good for about 1600LM each and 17W each.

Edited September 21, 2015 by okashira

[notquitesane]

left... right... lol  aren't they the same? lol  

[okashira]

Ordered these LED's to replace the ones that came:

http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=XMLBWT-00-0000-000LT60E4virtualkey57280000virtualkey941-XMLBWT000LT60E4

 

4500k, 280 lumen at 700mA.

Should be good for 1600 lumen each since the driver does about 2.6A and 2 LED each.

Hopefully I can desolder/solder these...

[okashira]

I am pissed I did not see the XHP50 LED's cree released. Would have been a better choice all around with small modification to the mount.

[notquitesane]

I don't think I could solder those tiny tiny leds! Looking forward to seeing your progress with your LED headlights. 

 

I recently saw a review of someone putting Philips X-treme Ultinon H11 LED bulbs in a Ford Fiesta ST, the results were pretty good.  The beam pattern was pretty close to the original stock bulbs, didn't look like there would be any more glare than with the stock bulbs.  Expensive, but it's a big brand name.  If I save up enough, I'll give it a shot. 

[okashira]

Yup, I'll post when I finish. Could be ~2 weeks

[notquitesane]

Or if you added an additional contact below the 1157 bulb and connected that to the center brake light, then you'd have all 4 tail lights turn on dim with the head lights and bright when you hit the brakes.

 

After suggesting someone could do this, I got thinking that I want to!  I purchased additional bulb holders for the inner tail lights, drilled holes, bent some wire, formed a 2nd set of contacts in the 1157 socket and held everything together will jb weld.  So the next step is to run a wire down from the center brake light to connect to my new contact.  That should make it so the inner tail lights light up when you stomp on the brake while still functioning at tail lights when you turn the head lights on. 

Edited November 9, 2015 by notquitesane

[notquitesane]

Just providing a bit of an update.

 

I've swapped out my front signal lights with JDM Astar 144 LED bulbs.  It's the first type of led bulb that seemed to fill the reflector properly.  Cost wasn't too expensive either, can be found on eBay.  Here's a link to the manufacturer's site.

https://www.jdmastar.com/shop_by_bulb_size/3156-3157-4157/1200-lumens-144-ex-smd-3156-3157-led-bulbs.html

 

 

The left is the JDM Astar 144 LED bulb, to the right is the 39 LED bulb that I used to run as my front turn signals.

 

I actually re purposed the bulb on the right.  I removed the 3157 bulb base and installed it on a 7443 base and have been using it as a rear turn signal.  It fills the reflector nicely but still isn't brighter than an incandescent.  I've found the longest bulb you can install in the rear turn signal is about 60mm, or 2.35".  I wish I could use another one of those jdm astar 144 led bulbs, but it's 2.5" long.  It won't fit.

[notquitesane]

A bit of an update.

 

Those JDM Astar 144 LED bulbs I posted above aren't very good.  The dim mode is too bright.  When the winter came and I was driving with my headlights on all the time, the leds started to burn out in a hurry.  I ordered chinese copies on amazon, (BYOPTO is the brand) taken them apart and modified them so the dim mode is dimmer.  So far so good.  The JDM Astar ones cannot be taken apart to be modified.  The modification process replaces a resistor inline with the wire that connects with the parking light wire.  You replace the resistor with one of a greater resistance.  I experimented and settled on using a 68 ohm 1/2 W resistor.  It's a pain to get apart and a pain to put back together, using lots of epoxy.  If you're handy with electronics and soldering, it could be a fun project.  Another way of doing it would be to place the resistor in the wiring harness.  The resistance value would be different as you are not removing the one present in the bulb.  A bit of experimentation would be required.

 

The rear turn signals, i've installed these.

 

https://tinyurl.com/ydg8cpvm

 

They are insanely bright, I hope they last.  They also do not need resistors to prevent hyperflashing.  They draw 18W and are a direct replacement bulb.  No hyperflashing for these.

 

I think I'm done.  The fog lights and headlights are halogen, but i'm ok with that.

[nevember]

Just bumping this post- I really appreciate everyone's input. The tail brake lights have been a real hassle because of the wrong Manual, but thankfully you guys helped solve it. I was content to keep using standard bulbs but I have now had 4 go out within a year. I do drive a lot, and a lot at night, but I'm still tired of changing these- it's pretty bad when both are out. SO, based on what I read here I have just ordered the Philips Ultinon Reds 7443. Really hope they look well and last. I couldn't find a working photo of them on this forum so I am planning to post a photo comparison once they arrive next week. Feel free to contact me with any questions on this.