LED bulbs?

"MonkeePuzzle" (monkeypuzzle) 12/27/2013 at 13:13 • Filed to: None

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anyone ever done a swap for LED bulbs in their interior or exterior lights? Like such as these, that are intended to just swap in place of the regular incandescent bulbs?

I'm thinking of changing all my interior bulbs to LED, and considering changing brake lights and indicators on the exterior (headlights will remain stock, I'm not into blinding people with HIDs or such nonses), if anyone has any opinions there too.

as I am a self proclaimed ricer, I shall clarify that I will never replace my OEM light fittings, just looking to upgrade the actual bulbs.

Aaaaaand go for opinions and stories

offroadkarter > MonkeePuzzle 12/27/2013 at 13:14

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I have pure white LED's all in my interior

Ian Duer (320b) > MonkeePuzzle 12/27/2013 at 13:17

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Tried some once for overhead lighting. They were bright but more directed than incandescent bulbs since they only emitted light out the front rather than using the reflective housing to spread the light more evenly. This was years ago so it't possible things improved since then and perhaps there are now rear facing leds as well in those drop in replacements.

ShelbyRacer78-Fusion Modifier > MonkeePuzzle 12/27/2013 at 13:18

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I'm planning on it.

Chairman Kaga > MonkeePuzzle 12/27/2013 at 13:18

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I've been told that exterior bulbs are illegal unless they're OE. I thought about doing my interior lighting in green LEDs but the color is too bright and harsh, and ruin the classic vibe in an older car.

BJ > MonkeePuzzle 12/27/2013 at 13:18

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For the interior bulbs, the risk is essentially zero, so I'd say go for it. For the exterior bulbs, you need to watch out for two things:

1) Colour fidelity and brightness - do the LED lamps output the right colour, and enough of it, for safety and legal reasons?

2) Signal lights on older vehicles use an electro-mechanical system to make the bulbs blink, and if your LED bulbs don't draw enough you'll end up with no blink, or an ultra-fast blink that looks broken.

Question: where'd you find these bulbs? I've never done this type of conversion, but I'm curious...

Velocity- Peuguette Connoisseur > MonkeePuzzle 12/27/2013 at 13:18

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I also want to replace my tail lights and signals with LEDs. I must know more

Victorious Secret > MonkeePuzzle 12/27/2013 at 13:19

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I've swapped over all my bulbs.

Interior is straight forward, don't need resistors or other nonsense. Just get the right bulb, go for it.

Exterior? Brakes are simple. Install and go. Make sure you get the largest amount of LEDs possible or pony up for the Cree powered ones that run 50 a pair. Trust me, cheaper LED bulbs are not as bright and it isn't worth it. Spend generously. superbrightleds.com, hell even Amazon. Just make sure its bursting with LEDs and powerful ones at that.

Turn signals MIGHT require resistors to prevent the hyper-blink nonsense, depends on the car. Some cars you can replace the flashing module with a newer one so you don't need to add resistors, but thats dependent on the car. Resistors themselves if you need them, get ceramic ones, preferably ones that already come with a backing plate so you can tuck them away nicely. Wiring requires pos/neg taps and you're off to the races.

I myself ordered some more powerful ones form superbrightleds this morning, the old ones I have work very well, as shown in this old video from when I first installed them.

Be sure to get beefy reverse lights, if you have a backup camera. Mine right now don't light up as much for the camera as the previous OEM ones, so I ordered a stronger set of those too.

Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy > MonkeePuzzle 12/27/2013 at 13:20

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I want to do a swap for a decent LED kit, but some factory stuff isn't that good. When my parents had a rental Dodge Caravan in Orlando a couple years ago, it didn't really brighten interior at all.

Casper > MonkeePuzzle 12/27/2013 at 13:28

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As a lot of people have said, interiors are straight forward. Anything not dependent on a specific voltage or resistance will be an easy change. Things like blinkers are usually where the trouble is. You might also have to play around with finding the right intensity of bulb for your specific application. For instance there are some lights you want to be really bright and some you don't, there are some you need to pass through tinted covers and some that don't. I just tried a variety on my cars.

One thing that I will say, if the LEDs are cheap, they will probably fail faster than incandescent bulbs. It's due to the cheap soldering and cheap components. If you buy nice bulbs, they can last a really long time. Buying more expensive and application specific bulbs will probably also make you less likely to be pulled over. Non-DOT bulbs can technically be illegal, but if you have made a good effort to match the color and intensity of the originals, you should be ok.

Team6.1 > MonkeePuzzle 12/27/2013 at 13:30

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My LED knowledge comes from landscape lighting. In general the extra $$$ is worth it. Cheap ones vary in color (shades of white or blue or yellow) and are poorly constructed. Heat is what kills em. A 20w halogen puts oit the same light as 4-5w of LED.

MonkeePuzzle > Casper 12/27/2013 at 13:31

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thanks, perhaps I'll play around with cheap ones and find the right "colour" and "temp" etc, then get the longer lasting higher quality variety as those fail

MonkeePuzzle > Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy 12/27/2013 at 13:32

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good to know. The lights in my Civic are from a Jeep, which actually used the same overhead console as a the Caravan, but likely very different years to one you rented a few years ago.

grahamrh808 > MonkeePuzzle 12/27/2013 at 13:33

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Just one thing to be aware of, I tried using LEDs in my instrument cluster (wanted different color illumination) and while the bulbs work fine, the light from the LEDs wasn't as diffused (?) as the stock incandescent bulbs, so I ended up with dim/dark spots on some of the gauges. I wouldn't recommend it for the cluster.

MonkeePuzzle > Victorious Secret 12/27/2013 at 13:33

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hmm, had not considered the possiblity of super fast strobe action on the indicators, like when a regular bulb is burned out. I certainly dont want that. Thanks for the input

MonkeePuzzle > BJ 12/27/2013 at 13:34

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ebay, amazon, many online retailers. Amazon is my current target as I have Christmas present money to spend.

sounds like I'm go for interior bulbs, but perhaps need more research on exterior

Casper > MonkeePuzzle 12/27/2013 at 13:34

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Yeah, LED is weird simply because they are straight output from the diode they also have a tendency to "spot light" unless they are well setup and properly diffused.

lonestranger > MonkeePuzzle 12/27/2013 at 13:35

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I only have my licence plate lights swapped for LEDs. I really like 'em. Since they just need to shine straight onto the plate, any 'ol arrangement of LEDs will do. Mine are 194s something like this:

If I were to swap brake, turn, etc. bulbs, I'd get ones with lots of LEDs arranged all around, so that the light gets shone to all parts of the OE housing's reflector. Something like these from superbrightleds.com*:

* not an endorsement. I've never shopped there. They just seem to have a great selection.

Otherwise, the light output can be much less than stock. Years ago (2001 or so), when aftermarket LED bulbs first came out, I got some like this for my Ranger's stop/turn taillights:

Awful. Absolutely no light got reflected by the OE taillight housing. All you saw for light was two little round dots about 1 1/2" in diameter.

Oh, and if you're swapping turn signals, you'll need either a flasher made for LEDs or you'll have to wire in a load resistor. Otherwise, the stock flasher will flash them much too quickly.

MonkeePuzzle > Chairman Kaga 12/27/2013 at 13:35

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yeah, I do doubt finding an OE or DOT approved replacement, so I'll run that risk. Perhaps just jam all my old style bulbs in a padded box in the basement in case I get a fix it ticket from johnny law

MonkeePuzzle > Ian Duer (320b) 12/27/2013 at 13:36

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mine are just regular bulbs, and the spreading appears to be done via the plastic covering (which would remain), so maybe I won't have the same issue? But I'll keep that in mind, directed is handy, but some spread is needed, I certainly don't want a pinpoint of light

MonkeePuzzle > offroadkarter 12/27/2013 at 13:37

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appear from being white and not looking "dingy" like the older yellow bulbs, do you think they actually provide better illumination?

MonkeePuzzle > lonestranger 12/27/2013 at 13:38

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thanks, good to hear from someone with experience. from the other replies and yours sounds like I should look for someone with experience with my specific car and replicate their success

MonkeePuzzle > grahamrh808 12/27/2013 at 13:39

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I'm pretty content with ym gauge cluster lights, and I don't want to lose the ability to dim them, which I've read elsewhere can happen, so I think I'll leave them be.

Forgetful > MonkeePuzzle 12/27/2013 at 13:52

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I did my FR-S. Switchback signals (glow white, flash amber)

Tap Turn for one touch signaling

I also did interior, trunk and license plate LEDs from Diode Dynamics

The interior and trunk lights are a MUST! It's seriously like day light with them

Skif6996 > Forgetful 12/27/2013 at 14:02

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Wtf are the lights doing in that second video?

Ian Duer (320b) > MonkeePuzzle 12/27/2013 at 14:21

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If it were to do this today, I would find a brand that offers all the bulbs needed and order a few first to see if I liked the effect.

I did just remember one side effect from the car I tried them in. Because of the reduced current draw the "theater lighting" feature took about 5-10x as long to fade because of what I assume was the system's capacitor discharge rate, so that could be another consideration.

offroadkarter > MonkeePuzzle 12/27/2013 at 14:23

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it depends on what kind of LED bulbs you get, and how good your incandescents are, but I'd say mine are a bit brighter.

Textured Soy Protein > MonkeePuzzle 12/27/2013 at 14:26

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Another endorsement for SuperbrightLEDs.com. I got brake and license plate bulbs from them for my old Mazdaspeed 6. They worked nicely.

I'm planning to get some H8 bulbs from them for my 135is since the angel eyes in the headlights have a regular incandescent yellow bulb that makes them look cheap even though they're adaptive bi-xenon headlights and the accent light at the top of the housing is LED.

Forgetful > Skif6996 12/27/2013 at 14:33

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Tap Turn is a flasher module. When you touch the signal, but don't engage it fully, you get 3-6 flashes from your signal like many upscale cars have. Built in to the flasher are some hazard light easter eggs that allow you to make your signals alternate or go slo-mo

Scorpio GTX1 > MonkeePuzzle 12/27/2013 at 14:49

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Pretty much everything on my car is LED that can be. Interior lights are great, they're much brighter and look classier than the gross yellow halogens. I swapped out my front turn signals, and they had a built-in resistor to keep the flashing speed normal. Fog lights are also LED. No regrets. Just bought a full set of LED tail lights, and am now waiting for them in the mail.

 > offroadkarter 12/27/2013 at 15:41

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Dat durr looks pretty dim. Did you use twist cap connectors for your wiring?

offroadkarter >  12/27/2013 at 15:48

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my LED's are worth more than that gingers parents marq

Jayhawk Jake > MonkeePuzzle 12/27/2013 at 16:55

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I switched all my interior to blue LED. It looks cool and was stupid easy to do (10 minutes because the dome light was a PITA to get in)

NaturallyAspirated > MonkeePuzzle 12/27/2013 at 17:07

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I swapped the bulbs in the overhead interior lights in my Subaru for "warm white" LEDs from SuperBrightLEDs. They are much, much brighter than the OE bulbs, and they draw so little current that I'm sure I could leave them on all night and still be able to start the car next morning.

I'm not a fan of the "pure white" or bluish white LEDs as the blue tends to glare off my eyeglasses really badly, but the "warm white" color is pretty similar to a standard filament bulb and doesn't cause any trouble.

I thought about doing the outside marker lights with LEDs, but good LEDs for my Subaru are really expensive, and since the OE bulbs do a fine job of illuminating the corners, so I decided to stick with regular bulbs.

nucciOMG > MonkeePuzzle 12/27/2013 at 17:21

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I did it in my S60R- no issues at all. Pretty straight forward install.

JoelA237 > MonkeePuzzle 12/30/2013 at 03:13

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I did for a while, I like the look, and my TINY alternator seemed to like the lower draw.. However, I live where it snows, A LOT, the led bulbs did not get the tail light lenses hot enough to keep the snow melted off of them while on longer trips... Just a thought if you are in a snowy area as well.

MonkeePuzzle > JoelA237 12/30/2013 at 09:04

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I've heard similar issues with LED traffic lights. I do live in a snowy area, something to consider