anyone actually got rear brake lights replaced with LED bulbs successfully?

I've been looking around for a replacement for my oem ones and trying to make less electrical draw as possible when I apply brakes

where do you guys buy them ?

 

I got most of my LEDs thru vleds.
VLEDS

 

Here's a big thread about it: https://www.rx7club.com/interior-ext...-777050/page4/

Unlike incandescent bulbs, you need to match the color to the housing for the best brightness. If you switch the turn signals, it will trigger hyper-flash and you'll need to mess with cpu#2 a little bit to make it stop.

It replaced some on my old FD, but for the effort and cost had mixed results. So far rocking regular bulbs on the new ride.

Reverse lights and parking lights in the front are easy and effective targets (cause they clear)

 

it just makes it flash really fast right ? is it a bad thing ? will it cause any issue

 

It will give cops an excuse to pull you over, because hyperflash is intended to indicate a broken signal light.

 

The hyperflash is an easy fix, read my thread -

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generati...ht-way-943516/

LED bulbs are an industry that's under HUGE growth, what was true a year ago (brand, design, etc.) is not true now.

When you are shopping for bulbs, things to consider -

- Brightness, you want the bulb BRIGHT, at least as bright as the OEM bulbs. Dim bulbs can mean rear-ended.
- Color. Red bulbs in a red housing, yellow in yellow, etc. The nature of LED light output requires you to match colors. A white bulb would work but won't be as bright.
- Light direction. The stock tail light bulbs go in through the bottom and the light from the side of the bulb is what does the work. Many LED's have light coming from the top, this is useless.
- Bulb size. If it's too long or too fat it may not go in the housing. You may have to make some measurements.

Also, you can spend a LOT going to LED bulbs - I probably dropped $300 in bulbs on my car. But, just do them in phases, you don't have to do all of them at the same time.

The easy/low hanging fruit bulbs are great to do first. The interior dome light is super easy and makes a MASSIVE difference. Same with license plate lights. The more challenging but more rewarding is brake and turn signals, really makes the car look more modern.

Dale

 

^good info Dale

I've noticed the reverse lights in particular make a HUGE difference vs stock, it's nice to actually see where you're going when backing down a driveway at night now

One other little trick--- on many FDs, I also replace the OEM light covers that sit over the rear license plate. Pretty cheap and Ray Crowe has them sitting on the shelf

 

^Yep, those covers are almost always brown and nasty. New ones let that beautiful LED light shine through.

Dale

 

I couldn't find any bulbs to be bright enough. Retrofitting leds will be the best option. 99 spec 3rd brake lights are a little brighter also after a led retrofit.

 

thanks guys. I just got done swaping rear brake lights and boy dose it make a HUGE difference!!
it's brighter and my rpm no longer drops when I step on the brakes at a stop light !!

now I need to change out the day time running lights. thanks guys !!

 

Nice! What bulbs did you get?

 

the rear brake lights I got it from member. rlee429. x 4 red led

I just got the DRL swapped too. I got them at Walmart for 9.99 for both

you can get them at any walmart. it's 194 size/general part# white 6k. wedge typ bulb

 

the lights isn't super bright as it shows in the picture but very smooth white. still brighter then stock and way better visually . I like them and recommend to everyone out there to do it if you haven't already.

shows for it self. Glad i did it . it dosent put much if at all any stress to the electrical system
my RPM stays smooth as I press the brakes , dosent drop the rpm and make the car all wonky anymore. happy !!

 

I recently changed out my driving lights. I used Sylvania 168 Cool White LEDs. You can see in this photo that the changed out bulb is on the passenger side, and the original bulb is still in place on the driver side.

The headlights are Sylvania SilverStar Ultra. Sorry I don't have the original bulbs in there for comparison's sake.



edit: Sorry, that original photo I posted was huge. Here it is if you want to see it at full-size.

I would love to know what a good replacement would be for the fog lights and turn signals, along with the rears--all the info in the threads linked here is fairly old. Would love to see a table of successful color-matched LED bulbs that are readily available in 2017! Anyhow here's my contribution. Attached photos are the exact bulbs I used as seen on Amazon today.

Tangential topic: I use Stealth Auto's silver-coated bulbs for my turn signals in my other cars, and this gets rid of the amber, but of course, they aren't LEDs. I wonder if something exists in the LED world that would get rid of the amber in the turn signals as well. Regardless, I haven't done anything to my turn signals yet.

 

To get rid of the amber on the front turn signals you have to crack open the housings and remove the amber lens. Then you could use any LED without worrying about losing brightness. But, you should keep them orange.

I've seen clear side markers, dunno where to source them except the rears from marcus.

 

Is there an orange LED you can run for the turn signals without having to modify the CPU#2 or have fast flashing signals?

 

Basically, no.
But, the old school method is to wire a resistor in-line with the light. This produces heat, however.

Better to just to mod cpu#2:
https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generati...ht-way-943516/

 

Oh well what I meant was to get rid of the amber color in the housing and the bulb, but to still have it flash orange. Didn't realize that the orange is part of the lens/reflector on this car (although that's obvious if I look closer at that photo now, duh). Not really all that important though.

Side markers might be interesting, but on cars of this era, not too concerned about it I suppose. Thanks for the info, Narfle.