Switching To LED Bulbs

"Justin Hughes" (justinhughes54) 10/06/2015 at 08:00 • Filed to: lighting

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Traditional incandescent light bulbs have been in use for well over 100 years. One of them, at Livermore, California’s Fire Station 6, has been in use for 114 years straight – over !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . But lately it’s lights out for the old bulbs. Not only are they being !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , they’re becoming less and less common in cars as well. Alternatives to halogen bulbs are appearing all over the car, from HID headlights to LEDs to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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Advances in LED technology have made them extremely popular for automotive use. Though more expensive than halogen bulbs, they last many times longer, and turn on and off much more quickly. This is particularly eye catching for turn signals, and gives other drivers a fraction of a second more warning of your intentions. There are reasons why all of those flashing lights on the police car pulling you over are LEDs. They also look more modern and allow a nearly unlimited variety of design choices – the wraparound parking lights on the front of my BRZ, for instance, or the “race track” tail lights on the Dodge Charger. You can even choose your interior lighting color in some cars, such as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and its optional MyColor system, thanks to LEDs.

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Though much of my BRZ’s exterior lighting is LED, the stock turn signals are the old fashioned halogen bulbs. They’re effective enough, but seem a bit of an anachronism among the slick LED lighting elsewhere. I decided to upgrade my turn signals to LED bulbs.

( Full disclosure : !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! sold me four turn signal bulbs and two reverse bulbs as an ordinary customer, just like anyone else. I didn’t ask for nor receive any special discounts or freebies because I write stuff on the internet.)

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These days you can get LED bulbs to replace pretty much any standard type of halogen bulb out there, from sidemarkers to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and anything in between. I had many choices of LED turn signal bulbs available, at various prices and brightnesses. I chose product code !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , with 45 surface mount LEDs in an amber color. Even though I tinted my tail lights red, I wanted amber bulbs back there anyway in case I ever decide to remove the tint. On a whim, I also bought a pair of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! bulbs for my reverse lights. The stock bulbs are pretty dim, and since I’m now backing in and out of parking spaces in darkness after work, I went for it.

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As with any vehicle that isn’t designed to run LED turn signal bulbs, you need to take extra measures to prevent “hyperflashing,” where the signals flash twice as fast as they should, as if a halogen bulb was burnt out. SuperBrightLEDs.com sells resistor kits that you can splice into the turn signal circuits to prevent this. I had already bought a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turn signal module, which, among its numerous features, supports LED bulbs just fine with no need for extra resistors.

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Installation was simple plug and play, just like the stock bulbs. Thanks to already having the TapTurn module, no further modification was necessary. They just worked, simple as that.

The LED bulbs eliminate the large amber bulb inside the turn signal lens, which makes the lens shiny and chrome when the bulb is off. This matches the rest of the headlight housing, and looks cleaner than stock. I used to buy special halogen bulbs that were amber with a translucent mirror coating to achieve the same effect on my older cars, but this looks so much better.

It functions much better, too. The bulbs themselves are about as bright as stock, but the light shines from the lens much more evenly, likely because light is emitted from 45 different points of the LED bulb rather than a single filament. It’s perfectly visible in bright sunlight, and I can see it clearly reflected off of cars in front of me when I’m stopped close to them. Plus the instant on/off flashing is far more eye catching, visible, and upscale looking than the stock bulb.

I’ve tinted my stock tail lights red, including the turn signals, because I personally don’t care for the “import tuner” Altezza look. Though I prefer amber rear turn signals, the shape of the lens and contours of the housing wouldn’t let me leave it clear without looking funny, so I bit the bullet and tinted the whole thing. I didn’t change the amber bulbs, but the turn signal shined red through the tint. The color of the bulb didn’t seem to matter at all.

Imagine my surprise when I swapped in the amber LED bulbs in the back and the signal shined bright amber, despite the tint. It’s the best of both worlds. I get the cleaner look of the all red lens, as well as the clarity of the amber turn signal instead of red. Though it is identical to the bulbs used in front, the design of the rear lens makes it much brighter than stock. The difference is far more dramatic than in front, and well worth the investment.

I’m not quite as impressed by the LED reverse bulbs, but they’re decent. The color is certainly a more pure white, rather than the yellowish tint of the standard bulbs, but they don’t seem any brighter than stock. For the price, it’s no big deal, and they do look cool. Rear visibility isn’t great out the back of the BRZ anyway, and the reverse lights are way down low, so that may be why I don’t see a benefit. My backup camera automatically adjusts to the available light level, so I wouldn’t see extra brightness on the screen, either.

Overall, I’m quite happy with bringing my lighting into the 21st century. I’m not quite ready to splurge on replacing my sidemarkers, license plate bulbs, or interior light, since there wouldn’t be any significant benefit like there is for the turn signals. But when the stock bulbs finally do burn out, they’ll be getting LED replacements.

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SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman > Justin Hughes 10/06/2015 at 08:13

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The only aftermarket mods on my 740i are LED interior lights.

I have a couple of OEM mods unrelated from a 750iL

functionoverfashion > Justin Hughes 10/06/2015 at 08:24

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I replaced all the nav lights on my boat with LED bulbs a few years ago. The key was not falling for the complete fixture replacement at $50-$100, but instead just replacing the bulb itself, as you did. Since none of them are blinkers, it was really plug and play.

The bow light was so freaking bright I had to take measures to dim it so it looked more “normal” and didn’t wash out the colors of the plastic lens (red/green). In the boat, you want a balance between brightness so others can see you, and not so much that it hurts your own night vision. For example, I put in a switch that kills all my dash lights, which I mostly leave off.

Full disclosure: I also purchased my bulbs at SuperBrightLEDs.com and found their selection and system for matching bulb types to OEM/Industry codes to be the best I could find. But they didn’t give me any special deals for writing this comment that will probably be seen by 3 people.

axiomatik > Justin Hughes 10/06/2015 at 08:24

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Looks very nice. The turn signals came out great. It’s a shame that he reverse lights didn’t really come out any brighter, but they look good at least.

Justin Hughes > axiomatik 10/06/2015 at 09:11

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A different kind of LED bulb would probably fix that, but I admit the reverse bulbs were more of a “while I’m here I’ll buy these too and save on shipping” afterthought. I didn’t research them as much as I did the turn signal bulbs.

RightFootDown > Justin Hughes 10/06/2015 at 09:19

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Looks good, Justin!

Some newer vehicles *cough*BMW*cough* require additional software coding when swapping to LED bulbs. If the coding isn’t performed then the bulbs may flicker and it’s possible that the computer may detect the lights as failed and warning lights on the cluster display.

BREADwagon > Justin Hughes 10/06/2015 at 09:46

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+1 for using LED replacements for turn signals, reverse lights, and even interior dome lights. But never, ever..EVER use super bright headlight bulbs without proper projector housings. My biggest pet peeve is improperly aimed headlights, or crappy projectors with super bright bulbs popped into them.

But brighter turn signals\hazards and reverse lights increase safety dramatically, and they look awesome to boot. Nice job!

Justin Hughes > BREADwagon 10/06/2015 at 09:56

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Thanks! All of my NA Miatas got headlight upgrades, but only with proper Euro pattern lenses to better distribute the light of the H4 bulbs. I think using an LED bulb with different light distribution patterns than the lens was intended for is why the headlight bulb upgrade Andrew demonstrated in his article didn’t work well for long distances. It’s a different story with an indicator bulb, where the light is supposed to go all over the place and be seen.

BREADwagon > Justin Hughes 10/06/2015 at 10:00

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One of the first maintenance items I did to my NA was getting bosch ecodes. The light pattern with the sealed beams that the PO had on the car was hilariously bad. While the ecodes are not the best, it was a huge improvement over the sealed beams. I looked into retrofitting s2000 projectors into a flea-bay miata housing, but I got lazy and never pulled the trigger.

RazoE > Justin Hughes 10/06/2015 at 11:51

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I love LEDs and HIDs. I have Miromoto H7 HIDs in my headlights, switchback 1157 LEDs in my signals, TRD D2S conversion in my foglights, LED reverse lights, and LED interior lights. I am getting LED rear signals and LED brake lights soon.

Justin Hughes > RazoE 10/06/2015 at 12:15

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If I had an FR-S instead of a BRZ, I’d definitely do switchbacks for the front turn/parking lights.

RazoE > Justin Hughes 10/06/2015 at 13:34

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They’re definitely worth it.

Here are the TRD conversion 9006 to D2S HID kit I used in my fogs ($800 new! Of course I didn’t pay that much)

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Justin Hughes 07/10/2016 at 22:28

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I’m late to this party - but I’m considering upgrading my turn signals to LED and I was wondering how yours are still holding up...? :)

Justin Hughes > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 07/11/2016 at 07:35

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Holding up great! That's another advantage - LEDs last longer than bulbs.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Justin Hughes 07/11/2016 at 12:27

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For sure...only issue with LED bulbs is quality as there are a lot of cheap imitations. Glad to hear the stuff from SuperBrightLeds holds up! :)

I just finished swapping my taillight/brakelights to Phillips LEDs and my interior dome and trunk lights to LEDs. My license plate lights are already LEDs, as are my reverse lights, so turn signals are the next logical step. They look nice and the instant on-off and crisp brightness are great for making sure you are seen more easily, so nicer looks and better safety for a nominal cost isn’t a bad deal! :)

Justin Hughes > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 07/11/2016 at 13:26

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I agree! More recently I added a pair of LED driving lights from them to my motorcycle.

http://rightwristtwist.com/reviews/parts/…

tl:dr; More of the same. Two 10w LEDs draw just over half the power of the single 35w halogen light I had before. They’re focused and bright enough to basically drown out my headlight without blinding oncoming drivers. Even better, they’ve held up to the bumps and vibration of being on a motorcycle quite well, despite being bolted to the unsprung portions of the shocks!