LED Interior Lights

Dogbreath said:
It's a pretty simple task these days, LED technology has progressed hugely in the last few years. LED's also have the advantage of producing the correct coloured light without filtering, which gives them a further boost in efficiency compared to tungsten lamps.
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Yes but even tho LED's are more efficient, I still think you'd need a 5W or 3W LED to match the brightness of a 20W tungsten bulb. Most normal 5mm red LED's are only 0.05W so I doubt they would be bright enough for use as brake lights.... Unless you had 100 of them?
howardcanning said:
Aren't LED brake/tail lights supposed to be a little bit dimmer than halogen bulbs, albeit faster on/off?
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It wouldn't surprise me, unless you got some mega expensive aftermarket LED's, I doubt they would match the brightness of a 20W tungsten bulb... They are faster on and off, I seem to remember it would be quite a distance difference at motorway speeds (50-100m braking distance...)
ShakenNstirred said:
they look bright to me when i have been behind cars with LED lights
and do cars even have halogen rear bulbs?
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OEM lights have to be TUV approved so are very bright...

Aftermarket LED's aren't TUV approved, so don't have to meet any brightness requirement.
 
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My LED rear lights are very bright, you can see people squint when you have break light held at the lights. The indicators are equally bright.

As for interior bulbs, they also won't work in some cars properly will they? Cars that fade in and out the interior lights the same way energy saving bulbs won't work on dimmer switches in homes.
 
mrk said:
As for interior bulbs, they also won't work in some cars properly will they? Cars that fade in and out the interior lights the same way energy saving bulbs won't work on dimmer switches in homes.
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Yes they will, they're not flourescent bulbs, you can adjust the brightness of LEDs through voltage as well. It works in my car, anyway.
 
I was just about to say what Howard has mentioned.

The LED interior light in my car fades in/out quite happily.

edit... Howard, I replied to one of your posts in the 'Post your HiFI/AV kit' thread :)
 
--Mike-- said:
It is a LED - a Light Emitting Diode.
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I know what LED stands for thanks :p Although the unit contains an LED as it's light source, the whole unit itself is still a bulb. Even UltraLEDs calls them LED Bulbs.

As Howards says, my LEDs also fade in and out fine.
 
mrk said:
My LED rear lights are very bright, you can see people squint when you have break light held at the lights. The indicators are equally bright.
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But yours are OEM, they're great... It's only the cheap aftermarket LED conversions for brake lights I think wouldn't be up to par IMO... :)
 
I saw some non O|EM ones on a saloon e46 a few times, they look fine brightness wise but there's something about them that just does not look as "LED" like as LED ones - they look more like bulbs than LED units if you know what I mean!
 
agw_01 said:
I was just about to say what Howard has mentioned.

The LED interior light in my car fades in/out quite happily.

edit... Howard, I replied to one of your posts in the 'Post your HiFI/AV kit' thread :)
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Replied, sorry, I don't go in there as often as I do Motors :D
 
mrk said:
I saw some non O|EM ones on a saloon e46 a few times, they look fine brightness wise but there's something about them that just does not look as "LED" like as LED ones - they look more like bulbs than LED units if you know what I mean!
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I think I know what you mean, I think I've seen them. They probably just used different LED's on the older cars.

LED's are always improving, and often you'll find they may have a slightly colour or even a different power supply.
 
I put LED indicator bulbs in the back of the Manta and they flashed too quickly, so I've gone back to normal filament ones.
 
MikeHunt79 said:
I think I know what you mean, I think I've seen them. They probably just used different LED's on the older cars.

LED's are always improving, and often you'll find they may have a slightly colour or even a different power supply.
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they weren't on older cars that's the thing :p what i'm on about on the saloons I've seen are aftermarket ones people buy and fit DIY because BMW never made them for saloon cars!

They look fine of course visually but they just don't have a genuine look to them when turned on :)
 
BigglesPiP said:
Stop calling it an "LED bulb". If this behavior continues I shall be forced to call the police.
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Why? Isn't this thread about the units you can buy that fit the form factor of a standard bulb but have one or more LEDs to provide the light.

Now if someone was calling it an "LED lamp" I'd agree with you 100%

On a related note, I bought a bunch of LED exterior bulbs for my Legacy and had a few issues, the worst one being that my brake lights didn't have any actual reflective material in them, just grey plastic at the back which provided just enough reflection for a standard bulb but didn't reflect at all with an LED one, we also tried them in my GF's 200SX S13 which had the same problem plus the bulbs went it at a funny angle making it even worse, have they fixed that with the more modern LED stop/tail lights?

The second one is ultraled's sell a replacement flasher relay for the indicators which seems a far more elegant solution for the resistors, they say they designed it for BMW and one of the comments in the reviews says that it doesn't work on Japanese cars and that they had to get a different relay from "A US supplier" does anyone know who this supplier is and/or what kind of relay I need?
 
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