I have seen LED taillight kits for sale on ebay lately. What is the benefit of replacing the bulbs with LEDs?
I assume the LEDs use less power and put out more light.
What is involved with changing over to LEDs?

 

They last longer than bulbs have better light output. But I thinik it is just a little too rice looking for me. I think they are expensive but I have never seen pricing on them for cars.

 

I believe he's talking about the universal bulbs. So it'd be Leds behind the stock lenses. Aside from being more expensive, the main difference is power usage. LEDs use much less, plus they iluminate faster and more brightly.

 

That is what I meant, LEDs behind stock lenses.
How much do these usually cost? Are they plug and play, or is there cutting and splicing involved?

 

Should be plug and play, but you'll have to know which bulb is which. I can't remember what they are but an example would be a 1157 type bulb. So if the stop lights were a 1157 you'd need the 1157 LED replacement bulb.

 

The advantage of a white LED set up behind the stock lenses would be the lower current draw, but there are a couple of issues you should be aware of:

1. most of the bulbs on Ebay are crap, and are not even half as brite as the conventional incandescent bulb. Even the 14 LED ones can be made very cheap without any real brightness.

2. LED bulbs used in turn signals will sometimes have too low resistance and cause the CPU to "think" or act like there is a burnt out bulb.

 

I am considering using HID and LED lamps in my 88 GTU, but that is with a scratch-built electrical system designed to work with LED because of the reasons Icemark stated.

I wouldn't go for e-bay to find them, try Painless Wiring, Ron Francis Wiring, or BrightLite (commercial rigs). Be warned, their LED bulbs are not cheap. They run about 18-55 each, and the Ron Francis and BrightLite bulbs are not plug and play for an RX7.

Another consideration is whether they are DOT (Department of Transportation) legal. I haven't found anything yet that proves that LED bulbs are street legal (except for BrightLite, for commercial rigs, but they run $55 each).

 

I'm working on a little project along these lines, but I'm only going to do the hi-stop light. Basically I'm going to mount 16 high-intensity LED's mounted in a clear plastic panel cut to fit in the housing behind the red lense. By wiring them in the correct series/parallel arangement with some dropping resistors, they'll all receive the right amount of voltage.
I have no idea if this will work or not, it just an experiment because I'm curious. If they're not as bright as the normal bulb I'll just revert everything back. I'm mainly after the quicker response time of LEDs. The time difference to reach full brightness compared to incandesant bulbs is about one car length at 60mph!

 

At SEMA the Sylvania Rep was telling us LEDs also generate lots of heat in the wiring and housing modules when clustered tightly.

Can anyone verify that?

-Nat

 

my friend mike at clearcorners.com could maybe answer some of your questions.

 

I would love to have LEDs in the Back I have the 89 Round Tail Lights, looking for the Quick responce time and brighter benifits

 

To my knowledge, LEDs don't generate heat, at least no where near what a conventional bulb does. So, no, I don't think that's true.

As for adapting LEDs to work with the car's existing electrical system, there's a circuit you could buy or make that'll allow your turn signals to work normally. Check with the manufacturers I pointed out in an earlier post.

 

So you know Mike too huh? I've spoken to him a number of times.

 

There's a guy on the forum named Manntis who sells parts. On his site, he lists led lights - here's the link:

http://www.rotorhead.ca/detail.php?adid=22

If you got in touch with him, then I'm sure he'll tell you all about them. How well they work, how bright they are etc.

 

The big key again is the britness, ideally you would want LEDs with at least 6400 MCD, and I would try and get 10,000 MCD if you could.

Typically at 7000 MCD you are looking at a 30Ma draw per bulb so at 16 of them you would have about a 5 amp draw.

You would want to stay away from lower briteness verions like 2000 MCD, which really won't be bright at all (even though most people call the super brite).

 

mike has one of the sickess 240's i've seen. it looks stock, but it's cleeeeen. LED's in the back, and HID projectors in the front. i got drunk with him at a party! hahahaha. we showed off our cars to each other. he said he's gonna hook me up with some LEDs for my tails!