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Replacing bulbs with LED's?

Old Jan 29, 2005 | 07:19 AM
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Default Replacing bulbs with LED's?

I did some searches on this topic (replacing bulbs with LED bulbs), but nothing came up. So here's my question:

Has anyone replaced their front and rear turn signal bulbs with an LED bulb? If you have, please let us know what your experience was. Which LED bulb (model and color) did you use and how satisfied are you with it?

I am specifically interested in replacing the turn signal bulbs (front and rear), reverse light, stop lights, some interior lights (map light, front dome light, rear dome lights, vanity light) etc with LED bulbs.

My main reason for changing these from regular filament bulbs to LED bulbs started because I wanted to replace the turn signal bulbs with LED's. Why LED's? Two reasons - they are brighter and the way the go on and off is just so cool - very fast, unlike filament bulbs. So while on this, I thought why not replace most of the filament bulbs with LED's? A KIA (I forget the model, but I think it is their top of the line sedan) was following me the other day and the driver put on his blinkers and they were LED's! They looked so cool. I didn't particularly like the shade of color, but the way LED's go on and off so fast and how bright they are is what got me thinking about doing this mod!

I absolutely love the new rear LED tails that a lot of new cars seem to have. If I replace the turn signal bulb, reverse light and stop light with LED bulbs, I will partly achieve a modern rear tail light that I like so much. Not sure about the stop light though as that has two different intensity settings.

OK, Rominl, OLT, PHML and any others please share your encyclopaedic knowledge of lighting and help me out here !
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Old Jan 29, 2005 | 05:06 PM
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I'm in the process of doing the same, and will keep you posted.

I have an '04 RX330. I have replaced the DRL and front side markers with 5-LED replacements from an eBay Store called Velocity LEDs. I am satisfied, but not stoked with the result. This 5-LED unit has one forward-firing LED and 4 side-firing LEDs. The color of the DRLs definitely complements my factory HIDs, but I wish they were brighter. The front side markers are fine.

I am waiting for the delivery of 15-LED amber units from the same place to replace all my turn signals. Assuming these are bright enough, I am particularly looking forward to these since when not in use, the units are clear (as opposed to the current amber bulbs), and so my light modules will look distinctively different from others out there during the daytime.

I am also looking into replacing my rear lights, including rear side markers, but I'm waiting for these other lights to come in first. I'm doing this very incrementally.

Hope that helps. Best of luck!
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Old Jan 30, 2005 | 12:29 AM
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Hameed try this place

Autodynamic.com

I only did my parking lights with single LEDs. I have them for 2 years now.

Ed

Last edited by SC300Es; May 26, 2005 at 11:25 PM.
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Old Jan 30, 2005 | 02:42 AM
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Originally Posted by Hameed
I am specifically interested in replacing the turn signal bulbs (front and rear), reverse light, stop lights, some interior lights (map light, front dome light, rear dome lights, vanity light) etc with LED bulbs.

A KIA (I forget the model, but I think it is their top of the line sedan) was following me the other day and the driver put on his blinkers and they were LED's!
I wouldn't recommend using LEDs for the map lights, dome lights, and vanity lights (if possible)...going with hyperwhite halogen bulbs will yield much more useable output than LEDs in those locations.

The Kia model you're talking about is the Amanti....I'll admit the LED turn signals are nice, even though the car itself is a weak and disgusting attempt at copying/crossing over a Jaguar S-Type with an MB E-class.

If you're planning to use LEDs in the turn signals, make sure you attach load equalizers unless you don't mind hyper-fast blinking signals.

http://autolumination.com/equalizers.htm


I personally wouldn't recommend Autodynamic for LEDs, because the 4-LED ones I've bought from them would burn out every couple months or so. Instead, I suggest you get your LEDs from http://autolumination.com . They're LEDs seem to be of much better quality and they offer a very wide selection of different kinds of LEDs...I've been pretty satisfied using the oval wide angle lens and matrix wedges in my parking lights. You may also want to look into either the Eagle Eye or 24-LED Matrix bulbs for your signals, breaklights, and reverse lights.
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Old Jan 30, 2005 | 06:33 AM
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Originally Posted by BR1AN
I wouldn't recommend using LEDs for the map lights, dome lights, and vanity lights (if possible)...going with hyperwhite halogen bulbs will yield much more useable output than LEDs in those locations.
Agreed! I just threw those in the mix, but was not really interested in changing those. I really just want to change the blinkers, reverse lights and stop lights. That's it!

The Kia model you're talking about is the Amanti....I'll admit the LED turn signals are nice, even though the car itself is a weak and disgusting attempt at copying/crossing over a Jaguar S-Type with an MB E-class.
Indeed! The rest of the car sucks. Even the color of the LED's on this car was kinda ugly - I just liked the concept of the LED's that's all!
If you're planning to use LEDs in the turn signals, make sure you attach load equalizers unless you don't mind hyper-fast blinking signals.

http://autolumination.com/equalizers.htm
Hmmmm.... I didn't realize this was involved at all! That is why I posted this question on CL! I knew someone would have insights into this that I had no idea about! Where can I get these load equalizers from and how much are they? I guess the blinkers that MB have in their side mirrors must have these load equalizers? Thanks!

I personally wouldn't recommend Autodynamic for LEDs, because the 4-LED ones I've bought from them would burn out every couple months or so. Instead, I suggest you get your LEDs from http://autolumination.com . They're LEDs seem to be of much better quality and they offer a very wide selection of different kinds of LEDs...I've been pretty satisfied using the oval wide angle lens and matrix wedges in my parking lights. You may also want to look into either the Eagle Eye or 24-LED Matrix bulbs for your signals, breaklights, and reverse lights.
Now I need to figure out which exact model of LED's I need to get to replace which bulbs.........

I specifically want to replace the following bulbs with LED's:

1. Wedge bulb in the high beam housing. This one I want it to match my 6000K HID's in the main beams. I am not interested in replacing the high-beam bulb itself, because I don't use the high beam.
2. Blinker bulbs (front and rear) - clear color
3. Front Side Marker bulbs - same color to match my 6000K HID's in the main beams.
4. Reverse lights - clear
5. Stop light - clear (this has to be able to accomodate the variable intensity of normal brake lights
6. Rear light "around" the main brake light - clear
7. Trunk light - super white or very slightly blue
8. Rear licence plate frame light - - super white or very slightly blue

I have a 99 GS400 with the 01 style tail lights.

That page does not really indicate which model of bulbs that the LED's replace. How would I figure that out? Please help!

Last edited by Hameed; Jan 30, 2005 at 09:07 AM.
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Old Jan 30, 2005 | 10:32 AM
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You can take a look at superbrightleds.com, some people I know on the Infiniti forum have replaced exterior bulbs with their products and are very happy with them. They have 2-, 4-, 6-, 9- and 15-LED bulb products for most of the common applications like 7440, 7443, 194, 1157, etc. They also sell a load resistor kit to prevent hyper-flashing in the turn signal bulbs.

http://www.superbrightleds.com/1157.htm
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Old Jan 30, 2005 | 10:40 AM
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Hameed,

I tried LEDs in the blinkers of my JP tails here -->https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=128019
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Old Jan 31, 2005 | 12:00 PM
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Originally Posted by DaveGS4
Hameed,

I tried LEDs in the blinkers of my JP tails here -->https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=128019
Thanks for the link Dave. Now I am on the fence regarding this LED mod I initially wanted to do.

Can anyone tell me exactly what LED bulbs I need to get from the urls mentioned

http://www.superbrightleds.com/1157.htm

http://autolumination.com/equalizers.htm

For the following bulbs in my 99 GS400:

1. Wedge bulb in the high beam housing. This one I want it to match my 6000K HID's in the main beams. I am not interested in replacing the high-beam bulb itself, because I don't use the high beam.
2. Blinker bulbs (front and rear) - clear color
3. Front Side Marker bulbs - same color to match my 6000K HID's in the main beams.
4. Reverse lights - clear
5. Stop light - clear (this has to be able to accomodate the variable intensity of normal brake lights
6. Rear light "around" the main brake light - clear
7. Trunk light - super white or very slightly blue
8. Rear licence plate frame light - - super white or very slightly blue
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Old Jan 31, 2005 | 12:59 PM
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Ignore my last question!

I found out here what bulbs I need:
http://www.sylvania.com/ConsumerProd...RG-Results.htm

Thanks folks!
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Old Jan 31, 2005 | 03:02 PM
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Originally Posted by Hameed
Thanks for the link Dave. Now I am on the fence regarding this LED mod I initially wanted to do.

Can anyone tell me exactly what LED bulbs I need to get from the urls mentioned

http://www.superbrightleds.com/1157.htm

http://autolumination.com/equalizers.htm

For the following bulbs in my 99 GS400:

1. Wedge bulb in the high beam housing. This one I want it to match my 6000K HID's in the main beams. I am not interested in replacing the high-beam bulb itself, because I don't use the high beam.

3. Front Side Marker bulbs - same color to match my 6000K HID's in the main beams.
FYI, the super-white LEDs aren't a 100% match to 6000K HIDs. I'd say that the oval wide angle lens in super-white gets somewhat close, but it's a bit more purplish in color. The 5-LED matrix wedge is more of a blue-ish/green-ish white than purple-white...but I think it would light up the high beam housing the best out of all the different types of LEDs.

Check out this thread to see what PHML's experimented with so far:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=127769
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Old Feb 2, 2005 | 06:22 PM
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I've had experience with LED dome bulbs. (fuse type) and Trust me when I say, they're white but dim as hell. If you actually want to use your dome light to see, dont get LED's. I myself am actually going back to halogen for this very reason.
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Old Feb 2, 2005 | 08:23 PM
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LEDs are the future. Invest in LED making companies. In the next 20 years all headlights will be LEDs as well as tailights. That is A LOT of LEDs!
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Old Mar 4, 2005 | 02:16 PM
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Originally Posted by 1SICKLEX
LEDs are the future. Invest in LED making companies. In the next 20 years all headlights will be LEDs as well as tailights. That is A LOT of LEDs!
got any company names that will be the leaders of the industry?
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Old Mar 5, 2005 | 01:59 AM
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Originally Posted by GS300Rich
got any company names that will be the leaders of the industry?
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=153370
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