LED Automotive Bulbs

[Safety Guy]

I see on Ebay that LED bulbs are offered, but they are in the UK. It would be somewhat cost prohibitive to buy them from there.

Does anyone know of any LED bulbs or bulb clusters sold in the U.S?

LEDs use less electricity and have very long lives. Also very shock resistant. Lots of newer flashlights use them and they are getting to be higher performance as time goes by.

I do see a few of them on semi trailer applications, but I don't see any in stores for cars.

I think changing your parking/side marker, turn, brake, and instrument lights to LEDs would reduce the drain on the electrical system.

Yeah, I could learn to make them myself, but I have plenty of other things to do right now--like learning to be a Festiva mechanic!

All in good time...

Karl

[Gforcefd]

autozone

I believe I have seen them at autozone, but I don't want to be the first one to try them, I wonder how bright they are, because festiva's have bad enough eye site already.

Logan

[EVOGUN]

If you replace your turn signals you need to add a resister the current draw of 20ma is not enough to work your flashers.

Thanks :wink:

[SimonTuffGuy]

I have a set of LEDs in for my parking lights, they are alright, but it's no brighter than a stock bulb.

I also used a set before in my tail lights (lights/brakes) and it caused problems with the grounding for my alarm/remote start.

I plan on doing the 4" circular LED tail light conversion (like that on a semi) in my Jeep.

[FB71]

you can find them in the US. Be careful of the ones in AutoZone and such, most of them are labeled "show use only". They aren't bright enough. www.superbrightled.com has some. I bought and tried them, wasn't impressed. Since our flashers are electronic, not thermal, you can change the current-sensing resistors inside the flasher to make the leds work, but again, I haven't found any worth the mod yet. I agree with Simon on the commercial truck lights, much better way to go, albeit somewhat more expensive. Check AW Direct (www.awdirect.com). They sell equipment for tow trucks and road tractors/trailers. They seem to have a good selection and reasonable prices. If you decide to look for drop-in led bulbs, look for a brand of led called "luxon star". They're expensive, but very, very bright. Worth the money in my opinion. You can also check www.ledlight.com.

[Safety Guy]

I'm familiar with the Luxeon Stars, as they're used in various flashlights. At a recent gun show I saw a 1 watt LS in a Streamlight Propolymer 4AA light throw an impressive beam in a lighted conference center room. I think the LSs come in 2, 3 and 5 watt strengths as well. Both Streamlight and SureFire use them. They rival Xenon bulbs for brightness and hotspots, although they aren't quite there yet.

I know there are now a bunch of bicycle headlights out now that should be good enough for general use and provide longer run times.

I would imagine that it will only be a matter of time before we'll see some better, brighter LED bulb replacements for our cars. They just have to be properly matched for throwing light in the right directions (primarily "multidirections").

I hadn't thought about resistance for flasher units to work. Thanks for mentioning that!

Oh BTW, I'm also a "flashlightaholic." Anyone else who is interested can check out:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com

All sorts of folks doing LED conversions for Maglights and Mini-Mags, etc.

Karl