Replacing your taillight bulbs with LED's ?

[Boeschbuilt]

Has anyone ever tried replacing their factory tail light and reverse light bulbs with those plug-in LED type?
Did it work? Where did you get them?
I have a customer who just got some tinted taillight lenses and wants the bulbs to be a little brighter.


Thanks in advance,
Matt

[EdwardDennis]

Originally Posted by Boeschbuilt

Has anyone ever tried replacing their factory tail light and reverse light bulbs with those plug-in LED type?
Did it work? Where did you get them?
I have a customer who just got some tinted taillight lenses and wants the bulbs to be a little brighter.


Thanks in advance,
Matt

FWIW...
I've done LED retrofits on motorcycles--but not cars.

First, you'll be hard-pressed to find an LED bulb that will be brighter (...or as bright as) the stock lens/incandescent fixture. Since your customer is using a smoke/tint lens, he (...or she) will probably get the brightest light from using the stock incandescent socket.

Anyway, I'd suspect the fortwo requires a universal load equalizer. Typically, when you simply replace incandescent bulbs with LEDs (...as in the tail/stop/turn combo on the US 451) - the stock flasher relay may begin to blink too fast: a manufacturer-designed response of the flasher relay indicating that a bulb is burned out (---which, obviously is not the case).

So, simply plugging-in an LED bulb may result in the blinker system failing altogether (blinkers will come on and stay on steady, or they will not come on at all, or the left and right indicators will illuminate at the same time).

A load equalaizer will likely solve the problem. But, as I said, I don't think your customer will see any real taillamp brightness improvement with his (...or her) smoke/tinted lens and an LED bulb.
My humble opinion, of course...

[Wdhitch]

Matt,

The reverse lights are plug and play... have had LED's in them for well over a year now with no problems... infact they're so much brighter than the stock bulbs they give a flood light effect at night which really helps.

I've seen people do the break/turn bulb but if I remember correctly, it did require extra parts and was more of a custom "know what your doing" type of thing. To date I haven't seen a widely available LED for the brake/tail lights but if you find one please let me know.

I'm PM'ing you the website where I got mine.... The license plate led's look bad ass too... but we've had a problem with them burning out so I had to go back to stock.

Bill

[jwight]

You can check here; quite a few folks bought from them: Smart - Items - Your LED Shop

[fastturb]

I've put LEDs in my other cars for braking and turn signals. I needed a "no load" flasher which is readily available. In some cases I've pulled the housing apart to replace the single OE bulb with a board of LEDs. This is 10X brighter if you can do it that way. good luck

[IH8OPEC]

Originally Posted by Boeschbuilt

Has anyone ever tried replacing their factory tail light and reverse light bulbs with those plug-in LED type?
Did it work? Where did you get them?
I have a customer who just got some tinted taillight lenses and wants the bulbs to be a little brighter.


Thanks in advance,
Matt

Some sites I've used in the past:

LED Light Bulbs, Task Lighting, PAR38, Office Lighting

Super Bright LEDs - LED Products and Accessories

LEDLight.com: Online Shopping for LED Lighting Products

http://www.ledautomotive.com/

Hope this helps!

[Boeschbuilt]

Thanks a lot everyone,
I will let you know what I end up doing.
Matt

[NCC1701]

One of my rear turn signals has burned out. Since I need a replacement, I'm considering LEDs. Anyone know which might work? Any that don't need an additional load?

If not, what bulb do I need?

[mvaldes]

One of the supporting vendors has them. I got a 3rd light setup that works fine. They also have them for the tail lights (which I have not tried) at Smart Pit stop
smartPitStop

[NCC1701]

But, this is a turn signal. Same 'bulb'? And, what about the load? Will I have to use a standard bulb to keep from having the rapid flashing? I don't really want to get into the complication of adding a resistor to the setup.