I won one of their eBay auctions for a pair of amber bulbs (or so i thought), for the front marker lights of my GTA.

Well, dumb me wasn't paying attention & I won the auction for BLUE bulbs!

I emailed them, explained it was MY mistake & they simply said "Send them back & we'll exchange them, no charge."

So I sent them back & asked for white LEDs, for my amber lenses, since I had clear bulbs in my car.

Well.....White bulb + amber lens = GREEN LIGHT!!!!

Once again, I told them what my lights were looking like & sent them another video.

Once again.....They simply said "Send them back & we'll exchange them, no charge."

This time I made no decision on bulb choice, other than "I need to light up an amber lens. Send me whatever I need."

They send amber LED bulbs.

They ROCK!

Very amber & direct plug-ins. No resistors needed for the flashers to work. BTW, the bulbs have 39 LEDs on them!

To sum it up.....They exchanged the bulbs TWICE for me, both times due to MY ERROR.

Now I wanna save the $15/pair (i need 8 bulbs/4 pair, $60!) up for red 39 LED bulbs for the rear of my car, and get them from justpal!

 

If your putting these in your tailights.You may want to think twice about it.I doubt they're bright/big enough to fill the lamp pocket.Got a pic/link?

 

Thats awesome, you rarely find a seller that will help you out that much without wanting some money for it.

 

eBay 39-LED Bulb link
Those are the amber LED bulbs I got, for the front my GTA.

As for big/bright enough....4 bulbs per housing & each section is roughly only double the size of the nose housing. And the amber nose lenses are plenty bright enough.

I've looked & looked at LED bulbs for over 2 years, because I just knew they wouldn't be bright enough, or not work with the flasher, due to a low amperage pull.

I finally settled on the 39-LED bulb ones from justpal & couldn't be any happier.

 

so if I'm understanding you correctly, these bulbs work in place of regular bulbs AND you don't need a resistor for them to flash?

 

Correct on both counts.

But I did just notice something on my way home from the P.O. today.

Both green turn indicators on the dash are about half lit. Not FULLY lit, like when you make a turn & they flash, but more like they were being fed 9 volts. Enough to glow, but not very brightly.

That may or may not have to do with the LED bulbs, as I've had them come on like this before, with the standard lights.

It seems to be an intermittent issue I can't shake. Some days they would light, sometimes not.

But, both before & after the LED bulbs, they would flash correctly, when the turn indicator was used. Just in the off position was I getting the half lit situation.

 

Nice, a total of 24W of power. My only thing with these is they are bulbs and I hate how they emit light. I like High Powered LED's (what SE uses in their kits)...just a preference.

Post pictures and video of before and after please please please.

P.S. Also do you think because Turn Signal Bulbs are single action 1156's (Single Contact) and NOT dual action 1157's (Dual Contact) is maybe the reason why you have always had the dimming of the turn signal arrows in the cluster? I noticed when I put an 1157 in an 1156 slot (Brake bulb in turn signal socket), it wouldn't work fully and viceversa. Just another thought.

 

You call them "bulbs", like they are stock incandescent bulb style, but they are 39 LEDs on 3 different circuit boards in layers, on a stock incandescent bulb base.

Stock left, LED right.
http://s119.photobucket.com/albums/o...comparison.flv

No. Because my stock fronts ARE duals....turn/running lights. All my rear lights have converted to duals too as running/turn/brake because of STS. And with the STOCK incandescent bulbs I had the dash half-lit issue, sometimes on & sometimes off. They were on today, but I can't say FOR SURE it is because of the LED bulbs. Its happened on my stock bulbs so....

These LEDs have the correct, dual contact 1157 base on them, and (dunno HOW) are dual illumination LEDs. Yes. EACH LED can get brighter for a running light/turn signal function

 

I just made a video showing the difference between the 3 bulbs, etc.

I'm thinking a clear LED would probably be the brightest, yet might be SO BRIGHT they would "wash out" and be an almso white/very light amber color, as seen by the clear incandescent bulb

 

Thanks for the info and the vids Stephen. I'd like to do my tailights in LEDs. I actually thought about just getting a bunch of leds wiring them up and measuring the resistance in a regular 1157bulb and matching it with external resistors... I might consider this when I have spare $$

 

I'm thinking bout getting a pair of LED reds & a pair of LED clears & seeing which works better on the rear, then getting the rest in whichever works best.

The LED clear might be TOO bright & "wash out" the red, like the incandescent clear ones did, to the amber fronts.

Right now, I have incandescent clear ones on the rear.

 

honestly, I think the red LEDs would work best, I currently have red bulbs and it seems to "fill in" (fades in?) the red better...

 

I have all clear bulbs in my tails & other than a problematic 3rd brake light (and the too fast flasher, but I found a solution to that, just gotta do it), mine are very clear & easily visible....With clear bulbs.

The white you see in the top center, come on & off...Is my interior dome light. Not the 3rd brake light screwing up.

 

I like these types of LED's. That's what I meant by not liking the Bulb 'look/type'
http://www.wardenjp.com/1157_13wled3.jpg
http://www.superbrightleds.com/image...ons/rl4410.jpg
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Thanks for the video, you can definitely tell the difference, and I like how LED's take away from the fade in/fade out as stock bulbs do.
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I totally forgot about the STS and the fact you have a bird and not a maro. Oopsy
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The white LED is crazy bright behind that lens. Looks good in the end though.

 

The first bulb is like mine.....A LED arrangement on a stock bulb base. Just different styles LEDs. I guess you meant the "glass bubble lens" on my style LEDs.

And the second one is an interior dome light bulb. Again....Different style LEDs on it.

I've never seen what kind of light output you get from those style LEDs I'd love to put those side by side with mine & see the difference directly between the 2 types/.

 

Those look awesome and I will be ordering a set. So what bulb is in there in this video at 19 sec remaining that is extremely bright? I want mine like that!

 

I believe that to be a stock clear bulb. As it states Standard Clear Bulb

 

so the stock clear bulb is 2x as bright as the led ones or is the led on the left and the stock on the right?

 

Clear incandescent bulb & no you don't....

You are correct.

Clarification here.....

The amber LED bulb is on the drivers side (your right side) in the beginning of the video.

The passenger side (you left side) was changed from amber to clear, to the LED at the end,

Yes, the clear incandescent bulb was the brightest...IN THE VIDEO. In reality, the amber LED was much clearer, more "orange" (incandescent clear bulb behind the amber lens gave a washed out, almost yellow look) & looked WAY better.

Get the amber LEDs for the front.....You won't be disappointed! Go buy a single clear incandescent bulb clear & do them side by side. You'll put the amber LED back in, trust me!

 

So these are all incandescent bulbs?Have you tried fitting the amber LED to comapre brightness?

A year or so back i tried a 32 LED 1157 type in the tail/brake light & it barely light up the red section.So im curious about the 39 LED unit!Post a comparison pic with the amber, just for kicks.

Those "flat" type (high intensity) LEDs are brighter, but they seem to burn out easier.Tried those too(on my bike).Im kinda burnt out on experimenting with LEDs right now.So ima let you guys spend money while i watch..subscribed.

 

Yes. All 8 bulbs are clear incandescent bulbs

No

You tried red or clear?

Maybe....Amber behind red though? Thats a bit of a hassle to get to just bulbs, just to test & try though. Yes...I'm lazy!

 

I tried the clear ones, thought they'd be brighter.
IIRC, i think the 32 LED barely fit thru the hole.So your 39 unit may be too big, but just remove the lense if so.

 

The diameter on the 39 ones are really no bigger. They simply added another layer of bulbs, to get more bulbs.

Measuring with my calipers (i thought they weren't gonna fit at first) they are like 1/8" smaller overall diameter, than the bulb socket opening in the plastic housing.

I've actually thought....What would it take to get the plastic reflectors re-"chromed" for better reflection?

 

Remember this.

Thats a 24 LED 4 inch dia lamp.Even at that size it still doesnt fill the lense.Ive even got a 3x5 inch 24 LED lamp that illuminates better, but not by much.So im skeptical if the smaller unit even with 39 LEDs can do better.Maybe ill be proven wrong, but at the very least i think ill get a set for my driving lights.Yours look pretty damn bright.The 32 LED lamps i bought would'nt even fill the driving lamps with enough light!

I dont think its the number of LEDs, but what direction they face.That & a smooth see thru lense.Instead of the refractive type 3rd gens use.

So you did'nt need a resistor for the front signal lamps after installing the LEDs?

 

Nope. But that may be part of the problem the dash turn indicators stay lit, saying there is a dead bulb.

They were sometimes on, sometimes off before with incandescent bulbs too. So the LED bulbs may just be helping to contribute to whatever my problem is.

 

Do they flash faster with the LEDs?

 

Nope....Video on Pg 1, Post #9.

The drivers side bulb is the amber LED, the passenger side was changed as indicated.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/post...719-post9.html

 

As far as colored LEDs vs white LEDs, the matching color LED will be brighter. ie: red lense red LED will be brighter. A red LED emits ONLY on the red wavelength, where as a white emits on ALL color wavelengths and the red colored lens will filter out all but the red.

I actually tried this with some side marker lights, buying white LEDs thinking they would be brightest, but as it turned out it made the red lens look an odd pale red color, where the red LED made it a nice bright shade of red. In the open, not behind a lens the white was much brighter then the red.

 

I suspected as much.....

I'll just go with the red LEDs.

 

How about the direct plug-in LEDs used with a mechanical Wig Wag unit from my old days as a Volunteer Firefighter, when I used my POV to respond.....

 

aweome set up steve

 

i love the sequential turn signals! do you still sell them?

 

Unfortunately, no.....Sorry.

 

a ole VF, well me to brother

anyway, i always wanted to see how they would look, i figured that stacked LED would work real good, and there is the prof, i may order enough to finish going total LED on my car

 

Well, I made 2 new videos today, this time in daylight, after seeing them yesterday (for the first time in daylight)........

With some shadow over the car? Not quite so bad.


Direct sunlight? Not so great. If you pay attention to the lens, you can see they are working but.....The direct sunlight makes me reconsider spending the $ on 8 of them for my tail lights.
Sorry about the shay video. Wind was knocking my camera around some.

 

well I got the 39 LED amber bulbs today. stuck them in the car, the side markers are extremely dim, both of the turn signals on the dash are lit, and the blinker doesn't work.... wtf is this ****?

 

Well.....I already said that my 2 indicators were lit before the LEDs. I've been having on & off problems with them anyways, so couldn't say the LEDs had anything to do with that. But my blinkers work, as you can see in the videos.

As for the side markers...I haven't noticed that.

But did you see my last video of daytime running? I'm not so happy with their daytime lighting.

 

So how bright do you think they'll be in the tailights now?

 

Judging by how the amber LEDs behind Amber lenses look in the daytime......I can only suspect red LEDs behind red lenses would be just as bad, in the daytime.

I was looking over on superbrightleds.com & maybe theirs are better. I just don't wanna blow any more $ on LED bulbs that end up like these.

I sure don't want my tail lights as dim during the day, as my ambers are up front.

I think I'm gonna switch back to standard bulbs up front.

I'm just wondering WHY newer cars, like the C6 Vettes, have such BRIGHT amber fronts. If its just a plug style change to get those, like 3157 bulbs...I'll easily do that. I know the factory wasn't putting in LED bulbs so.....

 

Look at the lenses of most new cars,Both the taillights & headlamps have very clear smooth lenses.You can see thru them & tell what the bulbs look like.I tell you the key is that smooth lense, its like glass.Also cars with LED tailights have BIG forward facing LEDs.Combined with the lense that helps the LEDs shine thru easy.Our talights & front signals & side markers dont have smooth lenses.You cant see thru them so its very difficult for the LEDs to illuminate properly thru our rather thick refractice lenses.When you install the small(dia) LED lamps.Most of the LEDs are'nt facing forward.This makes the situation even worse.As long as we keep the lense stock, LEDs will never work as well as late model LED tailights.Believe me Ive already tried all the methods your going thru.The best results Ive gottem are with these two types of lamps.Both are from superbright & they're not that expensive either.Notice the lenses on them btw!I tried both & they are equally bright.I just liked the round look a lil bit better.
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...3.11609#RT-x24

 

In that case.....It would be simple in my GTA. Just get red bulbs & take out the red lenses.



The outer lense with the grid is clear & it would be simple to pull the red fluted lens out!

I just hate spending the $ on failed experiments, to find better lighting.

 

Yep,thats what i was thinking.Those big lamps pictured above should work pretty good.Id do it.

 

The outer lenses mount to the bulb reflectors, which in turn, hold the whole thing to the car.

I'm not willing to cut up the reflector/mounting portion, to fit in those big LED arrangements, shown above.

I was talking about just using a red LED bulb, in the sock tail lights, minue the red fluted lens inside.

 

You dont need to cut the reflector housing to mont the LED lamp.Even without that red section.That LED bulb still wont get the job done.Ive tried that method as well.

 

I have 3 sets of the GTA lights & if I KNEW the results would be perfect, I'd sacrifice 1 reflector set.

Like for a big, long, LED board, divided into 4 light sets (for my STS to still work) and that took up 1 whole side.