FRporscheman

You might have had interest in LED tail lights for your car. You may have seen those socket bulbs on ebay that are clusters of LEDs smushed together. Seems like an easy way to employ LEDs though it might make the light to localized. You may even have been concerned with how ricey it might look in the end.

This is the bulb to which I refer:


Well I had 2 bulbs burn out. They were the rear tail light bulbs, the ones that just glow at one constant luminosity, with your headlights on. Not the 2-step brake lights. I decided instead of buying a pair of incandescents from FLAPS for $8, I would just buy a pair of these LED guys from ebay for like $10 or something, and see how they work out. Also I figured LEDs would last "forever" so it's a better investment.

This is how it looked with the LED installed (inner light) with just the headlights on. The outer light is a 2-step, so in this pic it is just "glowing".


Here it is with the brake pedal held down.


Clearly, the LED light is too centralized, and it also seems too bright. Keep in mind, on ebay there are LED bulbs available with up to 40 LEDs in the cluster. These were the smallest ones I could find, with "only" 12 LEDs! And still too bright!

So here's what I did:


I put this in and this is how it looked with the headlights on, no brakes:


With the brakes on:


The paper has two effects: dimming the light, and scattering the light. At night, it looks very similar to the original incandescent, and this is quite satisfactory for me. Putting paper over an incandescent bulb is a fire hazard, but LEDs hardly get warm at all, even after hours of duty, so the paper is OK. The paper I used was one of those magazine subscription cards, but plain white printer paper should work fine too. The heavier the paper the stronger the filtering. I don't suggest using thin paper or oily/inky paper though, like magazine pages.

I hope you find this helpful!

Keithr726

Nice write-up. I've been thinking about doing this myself but I'd have to do all the bulbs on the light and center panel.

Gator_86_951

Should pull less current. Looks great arash.

flashgordon

Did you have any problems with the flasher for the turn signals not working correctly? I was told that LED bulbs don't draw enough current for the stock flashers and you had to install a different type of flasher. I wasn't sure if this was just a myth or not.

S2cab

I have an LED backlit boost gauge in another car I own, & was told to use a voltage regulator inline or the LED would eventually burn out.

Jim 944S

That's a very popular mod on motorcycles... Look up:

http://www.signaldynamics.com/lighting_control.htm

I think you're talking about a "Load Equalizer" in regards to the turn signals. There are several of the moduals that are available for automotive use as well as motorcycle use in thier offerings.

I use the headlight modulator, tail/brake light, and backoff modules on my Harley... VERY effective!

Jim 1987 944S

Jim 944S

I'm using the 1.85" 48LED bulb on the Harley turn signals, front and rear, with the rears integrated with the brake light and back-off module.

http://www.customdynamics.com/motorcycle_led_bulbs.htm

I see that custom dynamics now has an LED cluster with LED's around the base which now gives the same coverage as a regular incandescent. Ice Shark had done some experimentation with LED's when he was designing his famous tail light conversion kits and discounted LED's as being too expensive. Expensive yes, but I'd like to see someone do a REAL LED rear display and see how it looks. You'd have to disassemble the taillight housing in and perhaps drill a bit to get the LED's into the housing.

Many sources for single plug in displays, or single or multiple width runs of LED's.

Jim 1987 944S

luckett

have you considered using a foil backed paper to help scatter the light better?

FRporscheman

Hmm that sounds like a good thing to try. It might take some trial & error to get the foil in the right size and shape but the result might look even better.

I did not use any load equalizers or voltage regulators. Time will tell if they burn out! My turn signals are working just fine. Though this may not be the case with early cars, which had a different arrangement of relays.

alex

Good solution Arash- I have had a ton of trouble with my tail lights going out, to the point where I've had to run a new line to them (grounds work fine). Once I get around to tackling it properly, I'll put some of these in.

N/a 944

Nice write up arash! Might be something I will do when my next bulb goes. *now that I have said that I bet it goes out the next time I turn my lights on... DOH!!!*

N/a 944

Site note...
How come there is only 1 sticky on here? I think this would make a great one, and I am sure there would be more to follow.

luckett

because this is not a ricer forum

FRporscheman

Nah not sticky worthy. Maybe DIY-forum stuff... but maybe someone in the future will do a search and stumble upon this.

Thanks for all the compliments everyone!

N/a 944

I wasn't expressly reffering to led conversions, but things like timing belt/ water pump diy's & walk throughs...