Cree Q5 LED reverse light bulbs - throw canbus warning or not?

Soldato
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Quick question - Anyone fitted these?. Do they throw up an error via canbus?. The listings for the ones I have seen on eBay don't make it too clear and after Googling for further info it would appear that most of them have a resistor of sorts built in.

Ta.
 
How odd, I was looking at these today too! From what I gather, these CREE Q5 5W are the brightest you can get (brighter than the other 7.5W ones).

I guess you'd need a special canbus version, as with them only drawing 5w it would error otherwise. One thing I was reading is that there were originally some over-heating issues, but then later versions fixed it... but to be careful with some retailers selling the old ones. Though using it for reverse shouldn't be a problem, it was more DRL/Sidelight users that had problems.
 
Nothing wrong with the originals. However my folks have moved house and now they have a long fairly narrow mono-block drive with a fence on one side and on the other side bordering the front garden a small 'dwarf' wall which is at the perfect height to catch alloys as the car is reversed up it. Can be difficult to see now the darker evenings are here and the wife regularly picks up our little lad after my folks have been babysitting, she asked me yesterday if the reverse lights could be made any brighter and when I asked why she cited the above but also tagged onto the end that she 'might' have caught the N/S alloys a wee bit.

There's very little in the way of light output from the original bulbs so it looks like the Cree's are the way to go to increase this. Telling a woman to take more care and not to rush a reversing manouver doesn't work under any circumstances as we all know. :rolleyes:
 
Anyone know if these are a good match for 4300k xenons? Im forever on the quest to find some matching bulbs but they are all too blue. Bought a pair of these bulbs anyway in 501 for my sidelights.
 
Wouldn't an led be too directional? I'd be surprised if it lit up a lot

Not at all, you should see the set I have in my front fogs and sidelights!

Anyone know if these are a good match for 4300k xenons? Im forever on the quest to find some matching bulbs but they are all too blue. Bought a pair of these bulbs anyway in 501 for my sidelights.

They're more 6K. A lot of the guys on the owners club have changed their Xenon bulbs to match these instead of the other way round.
 
Not at all, you should see the set I have in my front fogs and sidelights!



They're more 6K. A lot of the guys on the owners club have changed their Xenon bulbs to match these instead of the other way round.

Thats all well and good but 4300k is considered to be the best for vision. I am more function over form. I know it must be possible as I have a festoon SMD LED bulb for my rear interior light and thats white as snow compared to my front reading lights.

Also AFAIK white light as a fog light is no use at all. The yellower the better for being any actual use in fog. I work nights and used to have H.I.D's in my fogs and were pap for fog which I run into all the time living in the fens.
 
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Thats all well and good but 4300k is considered to be the best for vision. I am more function over form. I know it must be possible as I have a festoon SMD LED bulb for my rear interior light and thats white as snow compared to my front reading lights.

Yeah I know, I was just saying that these are a lot 'bluer' than 4300K so wouldn't really go with them.

Also AFAIK white light as a fog light is no use at all. The yellower the better for being any actual use in fog. I work nights and used to have H.I.D's in my fogs and were pap for fog which I run into all the time living in the fens.

Yep, but when do you ever use your front fogs for anything :p
 
Just fitted these now, here's a quick pic. Not brilliant as it's daylight, but Jesus they're bright!

IMAG0592.jpg

IMAG0593.jpg
 
Just done a bit of searching. The link posted earlier is to a CREE Q5 5W bulb, giving allegedly 380Lumens. There's some others available that are CREE Q5 7W bulb, giving allegedly 400Lumens.

Some people reckon they're a bit too focused though, so for reversing cameras they just are so bright and focused that on the back-up camera display it just shows as a white hot spot in the centre of the screen, and left/right/above/below is still dark and hard to see. They prefer something like a bulb covered in 8W of 19LEDs to give a wider spread (19LED 8W 5k V-LED). Thread with comparison photos.

Though some more googling found me a site that sells CREE with the choice of 5W or 10W bulb, and then with a choice of spot, wide angle, and super wide angle lenses... http://autolumination.com/7443_7440.htm
 
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