LED Side Lights

[Griffinr]

Having left the lights on the other day and flatend the battery I decided to see if I could reduce the power consumption of the side lights. A hunt around Ebay and I found LED side lights, number plate light and stop and tail Photo shows the standard bulbs along side the LED versions. Total drain on the battery is now 0.25 amps instead of 2 amps (with the panel lights turned off). An added bonus is the LED's are faster acting than the filament bulbs so the brake lights come on quicker.

[Keithyboy]

Do you have the link(s) or preferably part #s please?

Edited by Keithyboy on Sunday 9th January 20:16

[Griffinr]

Keithyboy said:

Do you have the link(s) or preferably part #s please?

Edited by Keithyboy on Sunday 9th January 20:16

Stop/tail I used http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2-X-BAY15D-1157-P21-5W-TAIL-... Came from HK in 7 days.

The side lights on my car are the capless type you will need to check which you have and then search for an LED version.

The number plate light is a festoon type, I used a 44mm LED type and bent the contacts in the fitting to suit. Can't find the link to that one at the moment.

Rob.

All the ones I bought came from Hong Kong sellers as they were much cheaper but seem to be good quality, all arrived in about a week.

[tozerman]

Griffinr said:

An added bonus is the LED's are faster acting than the filament bulbs so the brake lights come on quicker.

Will that really make any difference? are TVR's faster than light?

Cheers.....Tony..

[greyhulk]

Griffinr said:

Having left the lights on the other day and flatend the battery I decided to see if I could reduce the power consumption of the side lights. A hunt around Ebay and I found LED side lights, number plate light and stop and tail Photo shows the standard bulbs along side the LED versions. Total drain on the battery is now 0.25 amps instead of 2 amps (with the panel lights turned off). An added bonus is the LED's are faster acting than the filament bulbs so the brake lights come on quicker.

(Sorry for bringing up old topic, PM's aren't going through either)
How did you get on with changing over the old 21watt halogen bulbs to the LED's on the 'S'? Were they bright enough in 5w? Also did you get 'red' & 'amber' bulbs for the rear cluster or just stick to white?
I talked with a guy from 'horizenleds' & he recommended 16watt cree leds for the rear cluster.



Steve

[Griffinr]

This is an old thread!
The rear stop and tail are still as the photo and are actually red led's. The front sides are now SMD led's which are much brighter. I haven't changed the indicators to led as you then need resisters to provide enough load for the flasher unit.

[Blue 30]

Or to change indicators to Led, you can swop the flasher unit to an Led type.
Usually a one for one swop. But you can't have only one dashboard indicator lamp for both sides with Led indicators.
TerryB.

[greyhulk]

Cheers guys, ah i didnt know that about the indicators, think ill leave them considering my luck so far

I'll just get myself the led red bulbs, think there was 2 per cluster.. Now would the reverse light bulb be ok to changeover without the need of an led flasher unit?

Thanks for the advice
Steve (the man who got vapourised by his hid's)

[Griffinr]

greyhulk said:

Cheers guys, ah i didnt know that about the indicators, think ill leave them considering my luck so far

I'll just get myself the led red bulbs, think there was 2 per cluster.. Now would the reverse light bulb be ok to changeover without the need of an led flasher unit?

Thanks for the advice
Steve (the man who got vapourised by his hid's)

Not much point in changing the reversing light bulb as its not on that long. A word or two of warning when messing with the rear light clusters "considering your luck so far" the bulb holders are, to put it politely a bit cheap and nasty and prone to bad connections and rusty contacts.

[mk1fan]

LEDs have moved on a lot in the last few years. Quality and output has improved.

LED compatible relays for the indicators are less than £10 and fitted in seconds.

I would recommend using matching colours as the coloured lenses remove a lot of the output from white bulbs.

I'll link later the bulbs fitted to my cars. I've not had much success with dual filament versions of LED bulbs so stick with filament bulbs.

I agree the holders are pretty ropey. The connector is a major flaw. I replced it with narrow spade crimp connectors and some heat shrink. The circuit board is open to rusting and is very fragile. Cleaning it up is simple but delicate work.

[mk1fan]

Rear indicators;
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/231531581280?_trksid=p20...

Front indicators;
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/311236941613?_trksid=p20...

Side indicators;
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Button-12v-Amber-LED-CLE...

Front side light - 9 SMD version
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291371973083?_trksid=p20...

Rear reversing bulbs and fog lights;
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261658138688?_trksid=p20...

[greyhulk]

Nice one chaps, my S is at auto electricians as we speak due to some rear fog light issues
mk1fan thank you for the links, did you change the flasher unit to an led one as mentioned in one of the above posts? Also my sidelights are different to yours, i have T4W fitments in mine (just got some phillips whitevision in for now)
If my memory serves me correct, am i right in thinking there's a total of 4 bulbs per cluster, 3 BAY15S & 1 BAY15D?

Edited by greyhulk on Friday 5th February 20:36