Brighter rear tail/brake lights

[A900ss]

My car has dim brake/tail lights as it has smoked Perspex covers (standard not a chavved up aftermarket fit).

The car is also low and I am concerned that some numpties may confuse my brake lights for tail lights. My brake lights are about the same brightness as normal tail lights so it could happen.

Please do not drag this into a poor design, at's not what this topic is about but has anybody used LED's in place of the regular p21/5w?

I'm thinking something like this (Philips not cheap HK LED's as this is a safety thing not a chav thing)

http://www.powerbulbs.com/product/xtreme-vision-p2...

Thanks in advance.

[joebongo]

So are they legal or not?

In principle, if you can get around the voltage problem with a modern car thinking the bulb was blown due to low power drain then it looks fine.

Just the issue of if you had an accident would they be seen as an illegal mod, and would the insurance pay out or also need it to be a declared mod?

[A900ss]

joebongo said:

Just the issue of if you had an accident would they be seen as an illegal mod, and would the insurance pay out or also need it to be a declared mod?

Very good point.

It's an older car so no CANBUS or similar but legality is a very good point.

[kambites]

Can you not get "superbright" tail-light filament bulbs in the same way you can get extra bright headlight ones?

[RedAndy]

get a 3rd brake light in the middle - then there's no question for those following.

i found LED tail light bulbs to be less than useless- the spread of light is no good so although the LED is bright, the whole lamp effect is actually less.

[triggerh4ppy]

A900ss said:

My car has dim brake/tail lights as it has smoked Perspex covers (standard not a chavved up aftermarket fit).

The car is also low and I am concerned that some numpties may confuse my brake lights for tail lights. My brake lights are about the same brightness as normal tail lights so it could happen.

Please do not drag this into a poor design, at's not what this topic is about but has anybody used LED's in place of the regular p21/5w?

I'm thinking something like this (Philips not cheap HK LED's as this is a safety thing not a chav thing)

http://www.powerbulbs.com/product/xtreme-vision-p2...

Thanks in advance.

Out of interest .. what car?

[Mr2Mike]

triggerh4ppy said:

Out of interest .. what car?

TVR Chimaera I guess. I'm intrigued as to how the manufacturer (Ford in this case) made a 21 Watt lamp be the same brightness as a 5 Watt lamp, and why doesn't the Fiesta that the lamp assemblies came from suffer similarly?

[andy-xr]

RedAndy said:

get a 3rd brake light in the middle - then there's no question for those following.

This is what I did on one of my old kit cars, dead easy to wire in

[A900ss]

Mr2Mike said:

triggerh4ppy said:

Out of interest .. what car?

TVR Chimaera I guess. I'm intrigued as to how the manufacturer (Ford in this case) made a 21 Watt lamp be the same brightness as a 5 Watt lamp, and why doesn't the Fiesta that the lamp assemblies came from suffer similarly?

The 21w and 5w do have different intensities. It's just the 21W brake light is similar in intensity to a modern cars tailights.

I think the difference between the fiesta and the Tiv is that the Tiv has smoked perspex covers OVER the fiesta unit.

[Podie]

Philips do them - Vision Plus or something like that - as "standard" (not LED) bulbs.

Brighter and claim to come on quicker - I had them fitted on my Chimaera.

ETA - http://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/380-Philips-Visio...

Edited by Podie on Monday 24th February 10:33

[Speed addicted]

RedAndy said:

i found LED tail light bulbs to be less than useless- the spread of light is no good so although the LED is bright, the whole lamp effect is actually less.

+1, tried on motorbikes that kept blowing normal bulbs (probably due to vibration). You get a little dot of bright in the middle of the light.

[RizzoTheRat]

Depends on the bulb design though. I also fitted LED's bulbs to the back of my motorbike after blowing several conventional bulbs. they were definitely not as good off at a wide angle than square one, but they were still plenty bright enough. Can't remember where I got them, they looked a bit like this one but had another ring round the edge, meaning they still produced enough light to illuminate the number plate (clear bit in the bottom of the tail light allows light straight down for the number plate illumination.
http://www.image-tmart.com/images/Q/Q1021WH/1156-7...

Don't make the mistake some people do and fit red bulbs behind a red cover, either use red bulbs with a clear cover or clear bulbs with a red cover.

Can you get complete aftermarket LED units for your car? Quite common for bikes and hell of a brighter than standard.

[Mr2Mike]

A900ss said:

The 21w and 5w do have different intensities. It's just the 21W brake light is similar in intensity to a modern cars tailights.

I think the difference between the fiesta and the Tiv is that the Tiv has smoked perspex covers OVER the fiesta unit.

Ok, I misinterpreted your description. I presume the lamps use the standard 21/5 watt dual filament lamps? If so then probably the simplest improvement would be to switch to high output halogen versions (near the bottom of that page). Same electrical power so no danger of melting wiring or plastic lenses.

[Captain Muppet]

My 323 had some dim rear lights when I picked it up last year (3 of of the 4 sidelights). The bulbs had all smoked up inside from vapour deposition of evapourated tungsten. New standard bulbs fixed it.

[Dog Star]

Captain Muppet said:

My 323 had some dim rear lights when I picked it up last year (3 of of the 4 sidelights). The bulbs had all smoked up inside from vapour deposition of evapourated tungsten. New standard bulbs fixed it.

This was what I was going to suggest; it's quite common and I'd be surprised if this isn't the OPs root problem.

[Alan Hart]

PERHAPS THE 'tt' WITH HIS FOOR ON THE BRAKE WAS DRIVING AN AUTO!

[rohrl]

Alan Hart said:

PERHAPS THE 'tt' WITH HIS FOOR ON THE BRAKE WAS DRIVING AN AUTO!

No need to shout.

When I owned an automatic car it was equipped with Neutral and a handbrake, just the same as a manual car, and I used them at traffic lights.

[A900ss]

Hi,

I'm the OP and yes, it was in relation to a Chimaera.

Please see this thread about halfway down for what I did and photos/videos of the results should anybody be interested.

Thanks all.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...