View Poll Results: Put together a comprehensive write-up?
Absolutely! I'd like to see all the details!
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55
79.71%
No, just tell us which LED bulbs to get.
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14
20.29%
No, this really isn't useful at all.
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0
0%
Voters: 69. You may not vote on this poll
Gauging interest in LED bulb shootout write-up
#31
Drifting
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Just installed an LED flasher relay and the latest Super bright LED's in the taillights. Blinkers work fine when the parking/headlights are off, but go into bizzare mode when parking/headlights are on and blinkers do not flash. Also, when the parking/headlights are on, all of the pass rear lights are illuminated and do not blink. Any suggestions ? T
http://www.v-leds.com/BlinkerWarning...81116-1-3.html
#32
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Ed & Borland-Thank you for the lightning fast replies.
I did replace the OEM flasher (green-bottom left) with the proper flash relay (black-bottom right right). I did use the pertinent 1156 & 1157 45 light LED's (top right) for the front blinkers (amber/clear lens), the rear brake lights & the rear blinkers all in red (rear lens cover is painted red) The rear parking lights were swapped out to the older style LED's (top left) I have not swapped out the white back up lights as of yet. Everything seems to be working OK at this point, with the exception of the front parking lights bulbs do not go on, but the rear bulbs do while in parking mode
Also, 84 hatch glass should be to me this week and am looking for an thin, approx 4" wide, LED 3rd brake light strip that will hide well behind the rear headliner. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Marvelous work on this project.
T
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Last edited by 77tony; 04-25-2011 at 04:30 PM.
#33
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Hey Tony,
Check the "alignment" of the LEDs in the parking light/turn signals (front). They have 2 "connections" and if they are not making contact correctly you may get some weird behavior. The bulb has 2 "pins" on the side of the socket (very small, maybe a couple of mm long), and they align the bulb into the light fixture socket. Make sure they fit properly into the socket.
Cheers!
Carl
Check the "alignment" of the LEDs in the parking light/turn signals (front). They have 2 "connections" and if they are not making contact correctly you may get some weird behavior. The bulb has 2 "pins" on the side of the socket (very small, maybe a couple of mm long), and they align the bulb into the light fixture socket. Make sure they fit properly into the socket.
Cheers!
Carl
#34
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For a nice variety of LED light bars, check out spoilerlights.com. Not cheap, but lots of choices. If you can find what you want on eBay, the eBay option will probably be cheaper. ![Smilie](https://rennlist.com/forums/images/smilies/smile.gif)
spoilerlights.com is where I got the replacement one I needed for my AIR wing.
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spoilerlights.com is where I got the replacement one I needed for my AIR wing.
#35
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Some LED strips that might be useful: http://www.creativelightings.com/Pre...trips-s/97.htm
They make custom lengths if you need non-standard lengths. I saw some LED strips at my local Advance Autoparts but have no experience with them.
Cheers!
Carl
They make custom lengths if you need non-standard lengths. I saw some LED strips at my local Advance Autoparts but have no experience with them.
Cheers!
Carl
#36
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I did use the pertinent 1156 & 1157 45 light LED's (top right) for the front blinkers (amber/clear lens), the rear brake lights & the rear blinkers all in red (rear lens cover is painted red) The rear parking lights were swapped out to the older style LED's (top left) I have not swapped out the white back up lights as of yet. Everything seems to be working OK at this point, with the exception of the front parking lights bulbs do not go on, but the rear bulbs do while in parking mode ![Confused](https://rennlist.com/forums/images/smilies/confused.gif)
![Confused](https://rennlist.com/forums/images/smilies/confused.gif)
Also, FWIW, the black relay you show (CF13 GL-02) is the exact same relay I'm running and everything works on my car.
My memory is starting to come back on something, though: remember the problems I mentioned (probably once or twice in earlier posts in this thread) about strange problems I had at one time with my turn signals (probably two or three years ago last time I got all my LED lights working)? I'm not sure I ever 100% understood what caused it (although I've got a new theory now that I don't think I had at the time), but... FWIW, I've actually got one 25 Ω load resistor in parallel with each rear turn signal bulb. I remember not liking doing it and suspect it might have been due to this weird problem I was having with the front turn signals not blinking (they'd stay in bright mode) when the parking lights were on. In retrospect, I should have taken more time to figure out what was really happening and possibly come up with a better fix (I really hate using load resistors), but... that's what worked for me last time around. As I recall, I was in a hurry (might have been before a 928 event or something, I don't remember) and didn't take the time to document it.
These load resistors were not being used — as is the conventional case — to supply a load required to cause the flasher relay to cycle, but rather to fix this other problem that I never 100% figured out, as I said. Maybe I'll take the time this time around to figure out what's really going on. Some kind of back-feeding of a dim or bright voltage to the other (bright/dim) circuit (in which case, diodes could likely be used to solve the problem instead of wasting energy with load resistors).
Your problem, though, might be something entirely different, as the symptoms you're describing don't sound quite the same.
You do have 1157 (dual circuit) bulbs up front for the front turn/parking signal bulbs, don't you?
Last edited by Ed Scherer; 04-28-2011 at 10:25 AM.
#37
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My bad, I had 1156x45 ambers with clear lens in the front. I used these amber bulbs for the rear turn signals, and they look great-even better than the red ones they replaced. IMHO, it now looks more like a blinker light with the amber color showing up through the red lens-unexpected, but effective. I think when people see amber-they are progarmmed to think blinker ? I am going to go ahead and order a few 1157x45 ambers for the front blinkers, some high power festoon's for the interior. The festoons (soft white) I recieved last week are just not bright enough. Superbright LED's has some thin 3rd brake light strips I will also be adding to the order. Thanks again Carl for sending me the LED flasher relay, and some LED's that I used for the rear parking lights. Also Thanks again to Ed & Borland for your advice, much appreciated.
T
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Last edited by 77tony; 07-10-2011 at 02:07 PM.
#38
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...
And... thanks for your previous efforts on the LED lighting front; I've got a bunch of NAPA 680-3296 sockets ready to go to do the "brake lights across the whole bottom" mod that you described in your S4/GT/GTS Brake Light Upgrade Mod thread.
And... thanks for your previous efforts on the LED lighting front; I've got a bunch of NAPA 680-3296 sockets ready to go to do the "brake lights across the whole bottom" mod that you described in your S4/GT/GTS Brake Light Upgrade Mod thread.
#40
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I can offer a little brief advice right now, though: Super Bright LEDs is a great vendor and their 1157 Dual & 1156 Single Contact BA15 High Power SMD LED Automotive Bulbs are now the brake/turn bulbs I'd recommend of all the ones I've tested (best, most even light distribution pattern, although perhaps not quite as bright as the ones I previously recommended, which I believe are no longer available anywhere that I could find).
New favorite for 1156/1157:
Previous favorite (and apparently no longer available) for 1156/1157:
In an older post, I noted some other exterior LED bulbs; I've since replaced all the 1156/1157s with the above, though.
FWIW, Super Bright LEDs has always been great to me (and they're fairly close to me, too, which helps with fast, but inexpensive shipping). The other main place I've gotten stuff is Autolumination/Superlumination, which hasn't been all that reliable in the past, but more recently has been pretty good. I've managed to get a few things there (some LEDs for pod switch backlighting, for example) that I couldn't get at Super Bright LEDs. No problems at all with them over the last year or so.
Oh... one other point (which I've probably already mentioned somewhere in this thread or elsewhere): I don't trust a lot of the "technical" information or specifications (sometimes just in the form of how a product is labeled, like "7W LED") provided by most of the vendors other than Super Bright LEDs. After measuring a lot of them, the reality is way different than the product label/specs. In particular, I noted that what was called a "7W" LED was neither as bright as some of the older "5W" bulbs that I had, nor did they use as much current (and therefore since the voltage was the same, couldn't possibly be "higher power").
Finally... I'm pretty sure I'm going to finish and post my write-up on instrument cluster / pod switch / center console LED lighting conversion before I get back to the write-up for this thread here. I'm farther along on that write-up and really want to get it done.
Last edited by Ed Scherer; 07-10-2011 at 02:41 PM.
#41
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Sounds great Ed. I have also been working with Super Bright Leds because they seem to have the best selection and products. After experimenting with a few different types of LED's, they took back my returns that were over 30 days with just a little pleading. I also like and use their high power interior festoon bulbs. T