80W Cree Stop/Tailight bulbs

[ChimpOnGas]

Well these work well.




Here with standard bulbs:






And here with the 80W Cree bulbs:





80W Cree bulbs again at a distance:




Just the tail lights in these pictures which are a big improvement over standard incandescent bulbs, but the brightness of the brake lights are something else.

I'll try and get some snaps to show you all how good the brake lights are as soon as I can find an assistant to hit the brake pedal while I do the photography.

All in all while these stop/tail bulbs are rather expensive they are also a vast improvement in safety.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/370968345463?ssPageName=...



PS:

1) Headlight bulbs are: Philips X-treme +100% H4s

2) Sidelight bulbs are: OSRAM LED 4W T4W BA9s 4000k warm white

3) Rear number plate bulbs: Two SV8 10w incandescent Festoons with chrome sticky back plastic lining the void

4) Interior light: 24 SMD LED Lamp Light Panel With BA15S adapter

All massive improvements too

[ChimpOnGas]

gavgavgav said:

Wont it look like your brakes are on all the time?

"Much brighter than a 21/5w filament bulb and nearly the same light output of a 55w halogen headlight bulb !"

Don't be daft, stop tail lights work buy virtue of their brightness difference, as long as the stops are brighter than the tails you'll have the desired effect.


The tail light part of these LED bulbs is actually a multiple cluster of small LEDs, I estimate they provide 10 - 15% more light which while not a huge step up it is a very noticeable improvement on a dark night.

The actual Cree spec LEDs live behind the central projector lens and are used for the brake light element only, this is where you see a much bigger gain of about 30-40%.

The Chimaera lenses are smoked to hell and are in effect a second lens over the Fiesta sealed units, the end result is rather dim on standard incandescent bulbs especially when compared with modern cars.

So while these bulbs are clearly a massive step up, because of the smoked lenses it's not like they're blinding, just a shed load better.

Sure, they make the car a lot more visible to other road users at night but it's during a bright day when your braking that the real benefit is enjoyed, people these days are used to cars with far brighter brake lights so on the standard setup on a sunny day its possible they may not immediately realise you're braking.

Anything to help avoid being driven into by that distracted mum running her kids to school in her 4x4 has to be a good thing, to my mind these bulbs are a good alternative to an unsightly high level brake light.

[ChimpOnGas]

jamienshelly said:

Glad you managed to avoid any incidents, as soon as I saw this thread I thought they will be great in the fog, any thing to make the car more visable at night to prevent accidents can't be ignored.
We just need something to make us visable in truck mirrors as we are so low, We had 2 start to pull out on us on the M23 a while back.
Brilliant find

It's a good point jamienshelly, the Chimaera lights are indeed very low making them hard to see to regular cars & 4x4s, but to a truck they must be virtually invisible!

I'd say the only real answer to the truck visibility issue is a proper high level brake light, but on the grounds of aesthetics that's not for me.

TBH I'm that impressed with these bulbs I'm going Cree LED on my reverse light and rear fog too.

As I'm not with the car right now, can anyone tell me if the Fiesta rear light cluster has provision for a second fog light bulb?

Loads of cars have this but the cheapskate manufacturer doesn't fit all the bulb holder & bulb from the factory to save a few quid, I discovered just this on my old Peugeot Expert van years ago, I simply broke out the bulb holder & popped a bulb in.

Immediately I went from one fog light to two, which made a huge difference.

Is the Fiesta tail light cluster the same?

[ChimpOnGas]

jamienshelly said:

The fiesta lights have the Fog on the O/S and the reverse on the N/S, Some manufacturers only use one fog light as they may be confused with the brake lights, and it has to be on the O/S (in the UK).

Thought so, just checking.

Shame really as two fogs are always better than one

Not to worry, from what I've seen on the stops a Cree bulb in the reverse & fog light will be worthwhile upgrades too.

LED bulbs that are FINALLY worth having, these Cree jobs are the nuts!!!

[ChimpOnGas]

abbotsmike said:

Not a chance in hell. They'll be 4-5W at the absolute max, most likely less than that. And the claims of brighter than a 55w halogen will be optimistic at best.

Having looked at the ad, if they drive those chips anywhere near their maximum, they'll burn out in pretty short order. That's a lot of LED to put in an enclosed box with no heatsinking.

Agree chaps... but they certainly work great on my car

Cant argue with that

Cree LED's have been around a while now, for the last three years I've been using a Cree gun light for lamping, it works great and doesn't ever get past warm even when left on for sustained periods.

Way better than the big old halogen lamp & motorcycle lead acid battery I used to use

Bunnies & foxes hate it though

[ChimpOnGas]

A900ss said:

I fitted mine last year and have had no heat issues whatsoever.

I think there are a definite safety item for little cost. Side by side photos and a video here (scroll down the page a bit)
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

+1

A well worthwhile & easy mod with no heat issues Russ

[ChimpOnGas]

So as the OP of this post and having fitted these 80W Cree Stop/Tailight bulbs some 3.5 years ago I can also vouch for their reliability and longevity so far. Saying that a traditional incandescent stop/tail light bulb should easily last at least this long and often many years more, I think when I get to year 10 on the LED that's when I'll be able to confidently call them longer lasting.

However..... performance wise there's absolutely no comparison, so I for one will never be returning to incandescent bulbs, the only way I'll swap out my 3.5 year old LEDs is when something even better comes along, and to be honest I'm surprised that hasn't happened already given the rate of progress in LED technology in recent years.

I've also been running LED H4s in the headlights for years now and would never go back to incandescent bulbs here either, overall they're still not quite as good as my 2 year old Audi A3 that has the latest OEM quality HID headlights, but they run them a pretty close second and in my Mk3 headlight setup my super powerful LED H4s do deliver much better light than even way more modern cars that still use incandescent bulbs.

If you think about it that's a huge step on from what TVR originally gave us even when the reflectors are in good order, and if you look closely most Chimaera reflectors are in a shocking state these days, which makes the situation ten times worse. I can highly recommend the latest generation of LED H4s, you will need to adjust your headlights down a bit to avoid dazzling oncoming drivers but the latest versions of these LED H4s allow you to make an 'LED to reflector' adjustment without touching your actual headlight adjusters.

This latest LED to reflector adjustment system a better approach in my opinion, because with the adjustable LED H4s you're actually fine tuning the refractive angle between the chip and the reflector itself, rather than keeping it the same and crudely adjusting the whole reflector down which definitely achieves the desired anti-dazzle objective but also has the effect of pushing the light further down into the road so creating a more intense but smaller pool of light right in front of you on dip beam.

Because the adjustable LED system hadn't appeared on the market when I fitted my LED H4s I solved the dip beam reach problem by adjusting my Mk3 headlights down, and then fitting a set of Piaa LP270 led driving lights which were expensive, but are lovely and small and devistaingly good at filling the dip beam reach issue with my adjusted down LED H4 equipped Golf Mk1 Hella units that are used in the Mk3 Chimaera headlight conversion.

The end result of all this work to improve my Chimaera headlights is outstanding dip beams that don't dazzle or trouble oncoming drivers, then when I flick the system to full beam I have headlights that go from just outstanding to devastatingly good, better than my HID equipped 2 year old Audi in fact! Please excuse the pun, but my fully developed and adjusted all LED Mk3 faired headlight setup with the brilliant LP270s is not only safe and respectful to other road users, but is also genuinely 'night and day' better than what the car came with from new

As with my success fitting these Cree LED stop/tails, I'll never go back to incandescent headlights

All in all the use of correct selected and properly adjusted LEDs is highly recommended , but I see no reason to change to LED indicators as I feel my good old fashioned incandescent flasher bulbs work just fine and are perfectly visible to other road users left just as they are. It's also worth noting that going LED on the indicators can cause all sorts of undesirable and well documented issues, so for these reasons I've decided to leave my indicator bulbs well alone.

I hope all this this helps others, because the tail lights and headlights TVR put on this car weren't exactly brilliant when brand new in the 90's, but with a bit of reflector corrosion added in for good measure I'd say they can end up downright dangerous, and there's no arguing the fact that compared with the lighting on modern vehicles the standard setup.. even in perfect condition....... is a bit of a joke really.

Dave.

[ChimpOnGas]

Stever said:

Good write up Dave.

I changed my stop and tail lights for LEDs and as mentioned the difference is night and day. Having done this it was pointed out to me that the rear indicators on my Griff were difficult to see because of the brightness of the other lamps so I changed my rears only to these

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CANBUS-382-PY21W-12V-CO... and the difference is amazing again and there were no errors or flash issues literally plug and play.

See this quick video for results

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxXgfBqO-Rw&fe...

Wow, great result Steve... and no crazy speed flashing faults either.



I'm tempted

Did you just fit to the rear?

[ChimpOnGas]

Ok, thanks to Steve's impressive YouTube demo and his confirmation there are no nasty issues with these new type of LED indicator bulb, I've decided to complete the LED conversion on 'Ol Gasbag' by fitting them to the indicators too.

I chose to buy through Ali Express as you can get four of the exact same bulbs for just £32.49, I've purchased from Ali Express in the past and had no issues with the experience. While delivery usually takes three weeks because they're coming direct from China (where they're made), buying the bulbs this way does work out nearly half the price.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4pcs-No-Resistor-R...

I'll be patient.... and take the saving

Many thanks to Stever for the original heads up, great result and well shared

Edited by ChimpOnGas on Wednesday 8th November 11:22

[ChimpOnGas]

Stever said:

I only did the rears because the fronts are much easier to see being on their own. Ideally it's something I might do when I'm feeling the need to upgrade something next

Cheers Stever, excellent find mate, I've steered away from LED indicators until I saw your YouTube demo today.

If you do choose to add them to the front, they're available for £18.66 a pair if you buy them from Ali Express.

Here's the link....

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/2pcs-No-R...

I've gone all in and bought four for £32.49 (link above in my previous post).

Thanks again for the recommendation

Soon 'Ol Gasbag' will be be almost 100% LED, for many years I've had an LED interior courtesy light which is way better, and obviously the well documented LED headlights, stop/tails, driving lights, plus LEDs behind the number plate.

Just the side repeaters and the fog light to complete the LED exterior lighting conversion.

Dave.

Edited by ChimpOnGas on Wednesday 8th November 11:24

[ChimpOnGas]

phillpot said:

Dumb question, the answer may even be here if a trudge through four pages, but these "cree" bulbs must be a whole different cup of tea to these cheapy things presumably?


cheap led's

There's a massive difference Philpot, if you're going LED anywhere on the car you need to choose carefully as there's lots of toy shop junk out there that actually perform much worse than good old incandescent bulbs.

However, if you sift through the rubbish and do your research properly there are good improvements to be had, that's why it's important to only go with the tried and tested recommended products on this post.

Fail to do so... and you run the very real risk of buying utter junk that will go straight in the bin!

[ChimpOnGas]

I believe this new type is 'plug n play' and doesn't need the LED compatible flasher unit.

Stever will confirm, but he's already said he's using them on the rears with standard incandescent bulbs in the front.

Running the two technologies front and rear on the same car at the same time tells me there's no LED compatible flasher unit required with the LEDs he's using.

[ChimpOnGas]

Just to confirm the indicator bulbs used in the Chimaera are P21W, otherwise known as BA15, this type of bulb has parallel pins.

It seems from reading Stever's posts the Griffith uses the off-set pin type indicator bulb known as a PY21W.

I'll correct my links so people order the right P21W parallel pin bulbs for the Chimaera.

Dave.

[ChimpOnGas]

Matthew Poxon said:

Scrap that comment above, I am confused. After a bit of reading it looks like the Griffith has the P21W bulb for rear indicators not the PY21W. Yet Stever's post says PY21W?

Is yours a late chim with the chieftain tank lights or the early one with the fiesta lights?

Hi Mathew, on my Chimaera I have the earlier the fiesta lights, in these lights you need the P21W (BA15) bulb type which has parallel pins.





My understanding is the Griffith uses the same bulb but with offset pins, this is known as a PY21W (BAU15S).




I have also sent you a little retarded proposal on Messenger mate

[ChimpOnGas]

ric355 said:

ChimpOnGas said:

Hi Mathew, on my Chimaera I have the earlier the fiesta lights, in these lights you need the P21W (BA15) bulb type which has parallel pins.


My understanding is the Griffith uses the same bulb but with offset pins, this is known as a PY21W (BAU15S).

The later style Chimaera rear lights are also parallel pins.

Useful to know, thanks.

So we believe only the Grifters have wonky pins, which makes sense given what we already know about them

[ChimpOnGas]

Stever said:

Good write up Dave.

I changed my stop and tail lights for LEDs and as mentioned the difference is night and day. Having done this it was pointed out to me that the rear indicators on my Griff were difficult to see because of the brightness of the other lamps so I changed my rears only to these

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CANBUS-382-PY21W-12V-CO... and the difference is amazing again and there were no errors or flash issues literally plug and play.

See this quick video for results

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxXgfBqO-Rw&fe...

Ok, so that makes the above link from Stever wrong then as it points to the PY21W type which is the offset pin type.

This seems odd as he's clearly fitted them to his Griff

Ok, I've just sussed it out, Stever's link points to what the eBay seller describes as a PY21W, but if you read his description he refers to the bulb in his listing as having opposite pins (Ie not offset pins). The thing is as we all know a PY21W has offset pins, so the eBay seller is the one who's confused, he's clearly listing a PY21W in the title of his description but further down the listing describing a opposite pin P21W which is also what he's sending.

The eBay seller needs to correct his listing title to P21W!

Stever was just lucky, if the bulbs he purchased from the eBay seller were genuinely PY21W as described in the listing title they would have had offset pins and they wouldn't have fitted his Griff indicators, because as we now know thanks to Mathew Poxton and others all the TVRs were discussing here (Chim & Griff) use the same opposite pin type P21W indicator bulb.

Only the fog and reverse lights use the offset pin type PY21W, because of the incorrect eBay listing I've ended up both types, I guess that means my offset pin PY21W type are going to be my new reverse and fog light bulbs, that still leaves me with two spare offset pin PY21W bulbs if anyone is interested in having them off me at what I paid so they can do the same?

When you understand a BA15s is the same thing as a P21W, this image makes it all very easy to understand, shame the feking eBayer Muppet didn't study it before creating his listing.....



In summary....

• A P21W (BA15s) has opposite pins and is used as an indicator bulb in all Griffs and Chims

• A PY21W (BAU15s) has offset pins and is only used in Griffs and Chims in the fog light or reversing light

[ChimpOnGas]

ChimpOnGas said:

Ok, thanks to Steve's impressive YouTube demo and his confirmation there are no nasty issues with these new type of LED indicator bulb, I've decided to complete the LED conversion on 'Ol Gasbag' by fitting them to the indicators too.

I chose to buy through Ali Express as you can get four of the exact same bulbs for just £32.49, I've purchased from Ali Express in the past and had no issues with the experience. While delivery usually takes three weeks because they're coming direct from China (where they're made), buying the bulbs this way does work out nearly half the price.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4pcs-No-Resistor-R...

I'll be patient.... and take the saving

Many thanks to Stever for the original heads up, great result and well shared

Edited by ChimpOnGas on Wednesday 8th November 11:22

Ok boys, these arrived yesterday so just over two weeks to come direct from China, they look very good quality and the bulbs came extremely well packaged, they even came with a free set of LED side repeater bulbs which luckily are the correct 501 type for the Chimaera's side repeaters.

If you buy direct from China using Ali Express these LED indicator bulbs are £18.66 a pair vs £30 a pair if you buy them from the UK seller 'Car Mod Shop', I bought a set of four which cost me £32.49 vs the £60 I would have paid with 'Car Mod Shop' for the exact same thing, as far as I'm concerned that's an extremely worthwhile saving if you can wait the extra two weeks for delivery .

I'll fit them over the weekend after I've cleaned the car which is still filthy from last weekend's amazing but rather wet blast through some of the best driving roads in Wales, once installed I'll add a YouTube video link to this post so we can all see how they work on a Chimaera.

Here are the LED 501s that came free with my new LED indicator bulbs...



And the P21W (BA15) indicator bulbs themselves... with parallel pins!



Looking good

Dave.

Edited by ChimpOnGas on Friday 24th November 10:53

[ChimpOnGas]

Not the best video, I always forget to hold the phone in landscape.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIwo2drRFwQ

It was a cold start about an hour ago so excuse the haze, but I think it proved the point, with the smoked Chimaera light covers as they are these very bright indicator bulbs are a no-brainer safety mod, especially in the winter when the light get covered in filth.

So after the above test I put the second one in immediately and will fit the two fronts tomorrow, great find Stever , and now half price for TVR owners direct from China thanks to Aliexpress

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4pcs-No-Resistor-R...


PS: As Stever confirmed there are no rapid flashing issues with these LED bulbs, just fit and enjoy a safer TVR