Warning to Red Cobra owners

[olddog]

I was in the LCS parade. I was following a bright red Cobra in the parade. The sun was out. A beautiful day. At first I thought the brake light on the Cobra in front of me were not working, but when I was close at a stop, I could tell a slight differance when he let off the brake peddle. My son who was with me also commented that he thought the brake lights were not working. We even tried taking off our sun glasses, and you just could not see the brake lights. The second car up was a darker color, and we could see the brake lights very well on that car,

Maybe this has been talked about before, but thought I would mention it. I was thinking that maybe the LED lights or some other brighter bulb might help. I love red on these cars, and don't want to knock on a color. Maybe we should all take a look at our brake lights on a bright sunny day.

[Tony Radford]

It's funny you bring this up. I was told in traffic recently that one of my brake lights was out. I checked it out when I got home and they were both fine. But hey, who needs brake lights on a bright red Cobra! My whole car is a brake light!

[Speedysnake]

We were instructed to turn on our headlights for the parade into london. I believe this may have caused some difficulty with cars that have brake & tail lights in the same reflector. The guy I followed had the single tail lamp & it was difficult to tell when he put on the brakes. Luckily for both of us, my navigater was watching close After one "brake check" out on the four-lane, we were real careful. Suggestion, leave the headlights off.

[Power Surge]

Did it have the single Lucas light, or the dual round Lucas lights?

The single style is horrible and emits very little light. It's just an 1157 bulb, behind the red lense, but it has NO backing. It just throws light back towards the wheel. I am really surprised nobody has come out with a reflector cup or something to add onto these lights.

[franklin]

I would also be interested in a reflective cup for the front side of the single lucas light. It would make them much more visible & bright.

[Got the Bug]

You might want to try the 3 Watt Luxeon (red) LED lights from SuperBrightLEDs. I replaced the standard 1156/1157 rear bulbs in my SPF with Red 3 Watt LEDs and noticed a significant improvement. Not cheap to change out all four though.

[Bill Bess]

I don't know if this is what you need, but I built a pair of polished alum. tail light buckets, that attach inside the trunk area to the back side of each tail light. My stop and running lights are very bright and visible in the bright sun light here in Lake Havasu City.
Perhaps the car in question had a poor grounding system and no reflectors?

Anyway, Best Regards, Bill

[1985 CCX]

Guys

ERA has a reflector
Polished bulb reflectors/shields for above (see right) - $22

[Power Surge]

Originally Posted by 1985 CCX

Guys

ERA has a reflector
Polished bulb reflectors/shields for above (see right) - $22

Is it for the single or dual light setup? I don't think my single Lucas lense has offset studs like that.

[Ls6venom]

i too have noticed that issue... not only on red cobras, so what i did was incorporated a 3rd brake light off of a 1999 chevy tahoe.

[Silverback51]

Originally Posted by olddog

I was in the LCS parade. I was following a bright red Cobra in the parade. The sun was out. A beautiful day. At first I thought the brake light on the Cobra in front of me were not working, but when I was close at a stop, I could tell a slight differance when he let off the brake peddle. My son who was with me also commented that he thought the brake lights were not working. We even tried taking off our sun glasses, and you just could not see the brake lights. The second car up was a darker color, and we could see the brake lights very well on that car,

Maybe this has been talked about before, but thought I would mention it. I was thinking that maybe the LED lights or some other brighter bulb might help. I love red on these cars, and don't want to knock on a color. Maybe we should all take a look at our brake lights on a bright sunny day.

Be careful. Not all LED bulbs are brighter. Take a look at the attached link.


http://www.superbrightleds.com/carbulb-notes.htm

[Got the Bug]

Originally Posted by Silverback51

Be careful. Not all LED bulbs are brighter. Take a look at the attached link.


http://www.superbrightleds.com/carbulb-notes.htm

True. Another comment from their website:

"As an exception, our new 3 Watt and 5 Watt Luxeon LED car bulbs are as bright or brighter than most standard filament car bulbs."


The results of my purely subjective non-scientific test (my wife and I comparing the bulbs), the Luxeon LEDs appear to be much brighter than the standard bulbs. $100 brighter...you have to decide.

[Speedysnake]

Sal,

I don't know what type lights they were, but they were the single, rectangular lights. The issue here was that we were in a parade, headed west at 9 in the AM, the sun was shining on the back of the car in front of you. We were instructed to put on our headlights for the parade. The fact that the tail lights were on all the time made it more difficult to see when the brake lights came on

Some good info coming out on this thread now

[RedBarchetta]

You can paint the insides of any ERA/SPF bent steel taillight recepticals with white spray paint and that will improve their reflectiveness/brightness outward toward the red lens.

Also be careful on LED selection...they generate more heat and can melt the lense if too close to it. Not all LEDs that are built for the 1156/1157 socket are alike.

Third, what Tony said...the WHOLE CAR is a brake light. I've managed to cause two accidents so far as a result of rubber neckers. Three more and I'm an ace.

-Dean

[CobraDan]

1157 bulbs can be replaced with 2357 bulbs, available at any auto parts store. ... approximately 20% more candlepower compared to the stock 1157 bulbs

[CobraDan]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2pcs-...mZ200217651211

[lovehamr]

Originally Posted by RedBarchetta

You can paint the insides of any ERA/SPF bent steel taillight recepticals with white spray paint

I've used "chrome" paint for that with good results as well.

Originally Posted by RedBarchetta

Also be careful on LED selection...they generate more heat and can melt the lense if too close to it.

? Are you sure? I've never felt a hot LED before.

Steve

[CobraDan]

No real heat buildup with 12 Volt LED bulbs they are only slightly warm to the touch as there is no filament.

[trularin]

I found the car in front of me, during the parade, had brake lights that didn't work all of the time. I think it was a GA car in front of us and the brake lights only came on 20% of the time...if at all.

Many cars only have the top two lens wired for brake lights and others appear to have power problems as the light goes a little brighter, but the bottom lamps almost turn off.

This is strange that you bring this up. The cars hardest to see are the red cars with poor brake lights.

Just my $0.02 worth.

[trularin]

Lovehamr,

I could send you some that need heat sinks. Current draw is Current draw.

We have LEDs that will blind you if looked into for more than a second.

We have RED LEDs that need metal heat sinks that are used for HUDs.