80W Cree Stop/Tailight bulbs

80W Cree Stop/Tailight bulbs

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Discussion

ChimpOnGas

Original Poster:

9,637 posts

178 months

Friday 14th March 2014
quotequote all
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 thumbup

gavgavgav

1,551 posts

228 months

Friday 14th March 2014
quotequote all
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 !"

chrispitman

742 posts

253 months

Friday 14th March 2014
quotequote all
I changed my inside roof bulbs on both my cars to led, so much better than the std yellow dull light.

Only thing with the cree leds is check how hot they get with that wattage.

Sardonicus

18,928 posts

220 months

Friday 14th March 2014
quotequote all
chrispitman said:
I changed my inside roof bulbs on both my cars to led, so much better than the std yellow dull light.

Only thing with the cree leds is check how hot they get with that wattage.
They wont get hot if they are SMD based scratchchin nice find Dave wink that could well save a crunched rear end frown the brake lights being low and piss poor gives the average numpty a bit more visual indication as they look beyond the phone whilst texting irked only 290 Ebay score Dave? Pah! laugh




Edited by Sardonicus on Friday 14th March 09:11

A900ss

3,245 posts

151 months

Friday 14th March 2014
quotequote all
Very interested in this and posted a question asking the same about a month ago.

Yesterday I was in the BMW and was in the middle of crashes all around me in the fog on the A417 in Gloucestershire. At least 6 accidents in a one mile stretch and I had to drive of road to avoid somebody going into the back of me.

I'd love to see he brake lights photo of these.

A900ss

3,245 posts

151 months

Friday 14th March 2014
quotequote all
Dave,

Any chance of a video to show the difference between tail and brake? Sometimes 2 seperate still photos don't highlight the differences.

A video in daylight is fine.

Thanks.

ChimpOnGas

Original Poster:

9,637 posts

178 months

Friday 14th March 2014
quotequote all
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.

jamienshelly

1,826 posts

137 months

Friday 14th March 2014
quotequote all
A900ss said:
Very interested in this and posted a question asking the same about a month ago.

Yesterday I was in the BMW and was in the middle of crashes all around me in the fog on the A417 in Gloucestershire. At least 6 accidents in a one mile stretch and I had to drive of road to avoid somebody going into the back of me.

I'd love to see he brake lights photo of these.
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 smile

ChimpOnGas

Original Poster:

9,637 posts

178 months

Friday 14th March 2014
quotequote all
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 smile
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?

jamienshelly

1,826 posts

137 months

Friday 14th March 2014
quotequote all
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).

ChimpOnGas

Original Poster:

9,637 posts

178 months

Friday 14th March 2014
quotequote all
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 yes

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!!!

Dr Mike Oxgreen

4,101 posts

164 months

Friday 14th March 2014
quotequote all
Is it possible to get these in red? That would be even more effective.

Let's remember that the red cover over the lights doesn't "change" the colour of the light going through it; it actually filters out all the light frequencies that aren't in the red area of the spectrum. A 5W white LED is emitting a broad mixture of blue and green as well as red, and the red filter is cutting out most of the blue and green components. So a lot of the power of a white LED will simply be lost when placed behind a red filter.

By contrast, a red LED only emits its power in the red area of the spectrum, because it is chemically doped so that the silicon emits all its light as red. Hence, a 5W red LED will emit all its power in red frequencies, and very little of it will be cut out by the filter. The result is a much brighter red light.

Years ago I experimented with LED tail lights on my SEAT, and found (not to my surprise) that red LEDs were much, much better than white.

Also, do we know whether these LEDs work well in the later non-Fiesta light clusters?


ETA: Possibly... http://www.car-mod-shop.co.uk/380cree-80-rx2-pair-...

Edited by Dr Mike Oxgreen on Friday 14th March 12:25

Pink_Floyd

900 posts

220 months

Friday 14th March 2014
quotequote all
ChimpOnGas said:
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.
I thought I saw something to say that having 2 rear fog lights is illegal. Other drives would not be able to see the brake lights as they are already being dazzled by the fog lights. By only having 1 fog light then on the passenger side of the car they will see the brake light illuminate.

Dr Mike Oxgreen

4,101 posts

164 months

Friday 14th March 2014
quotequote all
Pink_Floyd said:
I thought I saw something to say that having 2 rear fog lights is illegal. Other drives would not be able to see the brake lights as they are already being dazzled by the fog lights. By only having 1 fog light then on the passenger side of the car they will see the brake light illuminate.
No, there's plenty of cars that have two as factory fitment. I think you can either have two, or if you have just one if must either be central or to the offside of the car.

I personally agree that two fog lights reduces the impact of your brake lights. Actually, if it were up to me I'd ban fog lights altogether, because it is rare that they're truly necessary and people tend to use them inappropriately.

Dr Mike Oxgreen

4,101 posts

164 months

Friday 14th March 2014
quotequote all
Returning to the LEDs, are these really 80W?

Eighty Watts? Really?

Can the wiring for the stop/tail lights cope with that load?

Pink_Floyd

900 posts

220 months

Friday 14th March 2014
quotequote all
Dr Mike Oxgreen said:
I personally agree that two fog lights reduces the impact of your brake lights. Actually, if it were up to me I'd ban fog lights altogether, because it is rare that they're truly necessary and people tend to use them inappropriately.
Agree, Be better if all side light and brake lights were seperate IMO rather than having the dual filiment stop/tail light.

abbotsmike

1,033 posts

144 months

Friday 14th March 2014
quotequote all
Dr Mike Oxgreen said:
Returning to the LEDs, are these really 80W?

Eighty Watts? Really?

Can the wiring for the stop/tail lights cope with that load?
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.

ChimpOnGas

Original Poster:

9,637 posts

178 months

Friday 14th March 2014
quotequote all
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 smile

Cant argue with that nono

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 yes

Bunnies & foxes hate it though wink

A900ss

3,245 posts

151 months

Friday 14th March 2014
quotequote all
I've just ordered a red pair.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/370954040443

I'll post a video or photos of the red set to give others a comparison when they arrive.

Thanks for the spot Dave.


Podie

46,630 posts

274 months

Friday 14th March 2014
quotequote all
Ironically fitted some Cree sidelights to the daily driver recently, and they're quite a revelation.

They came via another forum in a group buy, from car mod shop - so you may be able to do a deal.

In the assumption they're the same as Griff bulbs for the stop/tail I'd be interested.