Led Bulbs - What Are Peoples Experiences

[Henry Yorke 269 3 Cars]

I have been looking at some LED bulbs as previously I have had chrome coloured indicator ones in my 307 but one of them has blown.

 

The benefit of these is that they stop the "fried egg" effect an amber bulb has

 

Now I need two offset amber flashing bulbs for my indicators (582 bulb type) and 2 clear ones for my front fogs (581 type). As the clear 581 bulbs are hard to get hold of in shops, I am turning to the internet to order some. I am also contemplating if such bulbs would give a brighter light in the stop lights on my 205 as they are notoriously hard to see when they are breaking as they don't have an extra high level stop light that most modern cars have (I have almost run into the back of people when out on a blast!).

 

I have had some LED side lights before that were super white and these were slightly tinged blue so didn't necessarily look the best if not combined with HID lights.

 

I have also tried nail varnish remover on an amber bulb for the fogs and no success.

 

There are various types of LED bulb with lights on the front or the side etc.

 

Has anyone had any experience of these and can recommend a seller?

[Alan77 78 1 Cars]

I got these and they make a good improvement over standard stop/tail lights. It makes me feel safer knowing that my brake lights are now similar brightness to modern cars.

 

LED 380 stop/tail bulbs

[Henry Yorke 269 3 Cars]

I've taken the plunge and ordered some of these

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...e=STRK:MEWNX:IT

 

I have ordered some white ones for the front fogs and some amber ones for the indicators. I'll put up some comparison pics when I get them on both the 307 and the 205.

 

There are 24 LED and 36 LED versions, but these seemed to be priced right so I plumped for them. Given a choice I think I would have liked the more cylindrical ones like these

I think they would make better use of the lenses reflective properties. However they were nearly twice as much

 

They arrived today and I quickly fitted them. I couldn't test them in my CTI as the 205 doesn't use the offset pin like the 307 does for its indicators.

 

I have wired up the front fogs onto the side light circuit for the moment and swapped the indicator bulbs (one chrome and one amber) for the LED ones.

 

White Fog lights - these are so bright it is quite astounding. The light is that slightly bluey tinged light that seems to be the norm now. Perhaps I am used to the old yellowy white of a filament bulb

Amber Indicators - what I notice is that these have a much more definite on / off that the filament bulb. The light is not as bright as the white ones, but is more than adequate.

 

 

I think they give a very clean look to the front with no more "fried eggs" for indicators

[jackherer 543]

Amber Indicators - what I notice is that these have a much more definite on / off that the filament bulb

 

That is one of the biggest advantages of LEDs IMO, if you use them as brakelights they light up significantly faster, 0.5 milliseconds as opposed to 200.

 

By my calculations you cover about 2.7 meters in 200 milliseconds at only 30mph.

 

Also 200 milliseconds is about the time it takes for human muscles to react so by having LED bulbs you are effectively doubling the person behinds best possible reaction time.

[Henry Yorke 269 3 Cars]

Update. Drove to work in it this morning and whilst the indicators flashed correctly when I put the hazzards on, on a normal turn they flash too fash but still work. Having a read around on the net this is because the relay thinks a bulb is blown due to not enough resistance from the LED bulb. Therefore I need to put in a 6-8 ohm 20-50w resistor in parallel to the bulb.

More info on this link http://www.jkisrmb.com/tail_light_led_bulb_fix.htm

 

Luckily the way the SP Morrettes / Hella lenses work is with some spade connectors so I can easily do this without cutting wires. However I think you may need to cut on a standard car or change the relay to an LED friendly type

[johnnyboy666 195 1 Cars]

I've got an LED high level brake light on my 205 and its definately something I'll be doing on any car i have in the future, the light up time is almost instantaneous, I may look to changing over the other bulbs at some point I think