Electrical: LED Signal Lights

[Kato]

Has anyone used LED 1157 amber replacement bulbs for the front signals? Any problems? Recommended manufacturer? Thanks!

[bensherb]

Every bulb in my 62 GT except the headlights and glove box lights is LED. Using the same color LED under a colored lens is always best, a white LED will tend to wash out the color and it looks bad. If you change the front turn lights to LED change the rear lights too or you may not have signals depending on your flasher. The only problems with using LEDs for the signal lights is (1) finding bulbs that are bright enough and (2) using the correct flasher unit. The flasher for incandescent lamps wil not work for LEDs you need one rated for them. I got mine on ebay , bulbs too.

Flasher: http://www.ebay.com/itm/281891893949...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Front turn/park: http://www.ebay.com/itm/301581945870...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I used these for the tail/brake lights:http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-PCS-Red-11...cAAOxygPtS4i-y

But assuming these are as bright as the amber I think these would work too and are about 1/2" shorter. http://www.ebay.com/itm/4X-Pure-Red-...IAAOSwAL9UcrDe

Gauge and fender markers: http://www.ebay.com/itm/20pcs-Ba9s-L...0AAOSw5IJWe6Ux

Courtesy lights: http://www.ebay.com/itm/2X-Xenon-Whi...QAAOSwQJ5UUIb2

License plate light , probably reverse lamp too: http://www.ebay.com/itm/291651933165...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[sweetolbob]

FYI, Generally when adding LEDs you either need to use an LED ready blinker relay or resistors with the bulbs. These guys are pretty well known for decent bulbs. https://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/tail-brake-turn/ I won't argue with Ebay sources bit I've had mixed luck with them.

Bob

[Kato]

Every bulb in my 62 GT except the headlights and glove box lights is LED. Using the same color LED under a colored lens is always best, a white LED will tend to wash out the color and it looks bad. If you change the front turn lights to LED change the rear lights too or you may not have signals depending on your flasher. The only problems with using LEDs for the signal lights is (1) finding bulbs that are bright enough and (2) using the correct flasher unit. The flasher for incandescent lamps wil not work for LEDs you need one rated for them. I got mine on ebay , bulbs too.

Flasher: http://www.ebay.com/itm/281891893949...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Front turn/park: http://www.ebay.com/itm/301581945870...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I used these for the tail/brake lights:http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-PCS-Red-11...cAAOxygPtS4i-y

But assuming these are as bright as the amber I think these would work too and are about 1/2" shorter. http://www.ebay.com/itm/4X-Pure-Red-...IAAOSwAL9UcrDe

Gauge and fender markers: http://www.ebay.com/itm/20pcs-Ba9s-L...0AAOSw5IJWe6Ux

Courtesy lights: http://www.ebay.com/itm/2X-Xenon-Whi...QAAOSwQJ5UUIb2

License plate light , probably reverse lamp too: http://www.ebay.com/itm/291651933165...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT





[ATTACH=CONFIG]56814[/ATTACH]

FYI, Generally when adding LEDs you either need to use an LED ready blinker relay or resistors with the bulbs. These guys are pretty well known for decent bulbs. https://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/tail-brake-turn/ I won't argue with Ebay sources bit I've had mixed luck with them.

Bob

Thanks Gents..

I will look into all of the links and start buying! Eventually I'd like to get everything over to LED but the signals and brake lights need the most immediate attention.

[alaipairod]

I put the led bulbs on my '57 GH.
Took it to the La Palma meet....The Judge docked me 2 points each for the front signals, the back up lights and the rear tail/brake lights.
.......So....I'm back to the original 1157s and etc.............P.S. I left the led compatible flasher in.....Works fine with the 1157s.......

[Kato]

I put the led bulbs on my '57 GH.
Took it to the La Palma meet....The Judge docked me 2 points each for the front signals, the back up lights and the rear tail/brake lights.
.......So....I'm back to the original 1157s and etc.............P.S. I left the led compatible flasher in.....Works fine with the 1157s.......

Safety comes at a price apparently!

[bensherb]

Yes, the solid state flashers do work with the incandescent bulbs as well.

The problem with adding resisters in series with the LED bulb is that doing so defeats the power saving gains of the LEDs and makes the change pointless. I measured the power draw of both the LEDs and incandescent bulbs in each lighting circuit; if added all together the LEDs use about 1/8 the power of the incandescent's. If all bulbs/filaments were lit at the same time the LEDs draw a total of 2.54 amps, while the incandescent's draw 19.6 amps.

One more thing I forgot before, if you use LEDs for your instrument lights, the factory "dimmer" feature will not work. The LEDs do not draw enough power. With blue LEDs in my panel I've never found a need for them to be dimmed. I used white LEDs in the turn indicators, they work FAR better than the incandescent's did, they actually light up now instead of a dim glow.

[bensherb]

I put the led bulbs on my '57 GH.
Took it to the La Palma meet....The Judge docked me 2 points each for the front signals, the back up lights and the rear tail/brake lights.
.......So....I'm back to the original 1157s and etc.............P.S. I left the led compatible flasher in.....Works fine with the 1157s.......

Safety comes at a price apparently!

I would hope that was in the "Trailer Queen" category. Most places I've been allow improvements to drive ability, reliability, and safety; especially for driver categories. I would certainly consider a 17 amp reduction in power draw through a 60 year old wiring harness a safety improvement.

The thing that got me started on changing to LEDs was that the incandescent's had smoked my reverse light lenses; literally.

[gordr]

LED's for instrument panel lighting are probably not dimmable. The diodes alone tend to put out a pretty constant light level as voltage is dropped, and them just go out abruptly. And, since LED's use so much less current than incandescent bulbs, the dimmer rheostat used in our cars will basically drop no voltage at all to a set of LED's over its range. "Dimmable" LED bulbs for household lighting contain circuitry that adapts to the output of a wall dimmer switch. There's not enough room for that in the base of a tiny bulb like a #53.

There are some circuits out there for time-domain LED dimmers that use a 555 IC timer chip to cycle the LED's rapidly off/on/off/on (at a rate too fast to see) with the length of the "off" and "on" periods controllable by a knob. So, at a 50% duty cycle, they would seem to be half as bright as at 100%. Sort of like how a power tool speed controller works.

[Kato]

Thanks again all for this excellent advice. I am going start the switch over to LEDs right away!