Patrick - LED Taillight problems

[Large Arbor]

I ordered two LED ones as I have the doulbe round tail light version. I figured if they don't work I can sell them to Patrick when his burn out. (: I will give them a try on one side tonight to see if they work and will post later. If they do work, I will order two more.

Phil

[DanEC]

Large Arbor - hope they work out in your car OK.

[Large Arbor]

I put two in the morning on the drivers side and they worked great. If you need me to check anything to compare to yours, let me know and I will run down what I have to help you eliminate your issues.

Phil

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Large Arbor

I put two in the morning on the drivers side and they worked great.

Well, good. I will cheerfully take full credit for the success and send you a bill next week.

[Large Arbor]

Dang, a bill too. Those critters are bright. I think the brake lights will blind oncoming drivers from the rear and it will force them to stop due to the red light. I mean you could get burnt from the brightness! Perhaps between the two of us we can fix Dan's problems.


Phil

[Large Arbor]

Dang! A bill too! You take a Visa Debit card? These things are bright. I mean they will blind anyone behind me and sunburn them! Perhaps we can figure out Dan's problems now.

Phil

[Large Arbor]

Sorry- double post...

[DanEC]

Good deal - maybe when it warms up again I'll take another stab at it.

[kevins2]

Phil,

Thanks for testing the Superbright LEDs in the double round taillights. I'm going to order 4 of them and give them a try. Now Patrick will probably come up with a reason to send me a bill as well.

Kevin

[Large Arbor]

Here is the difference. LED lights on the left, 1157's right.

[patrickt]

Excellent shot! LEDs are clearly the way to go, and they won't catch your shirt on fire when you throw it in the trunk and it finds its way to the back corner of your car.

[Robert McLinden]

I also have had good experience with the LED lights. Also run the ERA reflectors which also serve as a shield between items in the trunk and the bulbs.

[Large Arbor]

I also think the picture understates them, as they seem much much brighter.

Thanks for the tip Patrick!

Phil

[Large Arbor]

Here is a pic without my license plate number as someone suggested.

[DanEC]

I was browsing through Walmart yesterday and thought I would see if they had any older model halegon bulbs (which they didn't). I again looked at the Pilot, red LED 1157 bulbs they sell and thought, well for another $15/pr they might be worth trying so I bought them.

Soo - I thought I would plug one in the driver side front turn signal first as an experiment since it's easy access. I plugged it in and turned on the park lights and it worked. Then I turned on the driver turn signal and all four lights started flashing like emergency flashers. Well, this didn't bode well for my $15 but what the heck, it's cold and raining, so I reassembled the front light and went to the trunk.

Pulled the reflector off the driver side and exchanged it with the 2357 Sylvania bulb I put in a few months ago (supposedly much brighter on the brake circuit than 1157). Turned on the parking lights - and the dang thing lit up!!! That never happened with the Superbrite bulb. Turned on the turn signal and it flashes (and driver side only too). Pushed on the brake pedal and it gets brighter.

Put in the passenger side and dang, it works too. Everything works.

Driver side LED - pass side is a 2357 bulb which is brighter than standard. The reflector is not mounted yet.



Both sides - reflectors mounted



Pilot bulbs - $15/pr at our Walmart



So, I'm stumped but it works and only took me about 20 minutes after spending days with the Superbrite bulbs. All I can figure is there was some sort of internal issue or incompatibility of the Superbrite bulbs with my light sockets, or ??? I'll let Patrick lie awake at nights trying to figure it out. At least they seem to work fine in my GTX so maybe they have a preference for 47 year old, marginal in their day electrical systems.

The Pilot bulbs are really a value at $15/pr. I can't directly compare them to the Superbright bulbs. I looked up their website and they have a lower lumens rating than Superbright - but still way, way more than 1157 and 2357 bulbs. They don't have as many LED units. My impression is that the flasher and brake element are not especially bright and I think are noticeably less than the Superbright bulb from memory. The tail light portion seems about as bright from memory but is rated lower. I paid about $50/pr for the Superbright bulbs.

Using my friend Google, I found some lumens rating info:

Std 1157 bulb 3/38 lumens - tail/brake

2357 bulb 3/45 lumens

Pilot 1157 red 180 lumens (didn't list dual levels)

Superbrightled
1157 red 120/301 lumens

Pretty sure the 180 for the Pilot is the brake circuit lumen level.

It's remains a mystery to me.

[kevins2]

Got the 1157-R45-T Superbrights today and everything works fine in my double rounds. I think we've seen enough comparison photos so I'll spare you that. In addition to the brightness, LEDs are instant on/off so I like how the turn signals are really crisp.

When I was researching these, I came across a number of posts in other car and motorcycle forums questioning why use a red LED when "white" is brighter? If you already know this, you can skip the rest of this post. I also saw a post from someone indicating "Don't waste your money on LEDs - they're not even as bright as the standard bulbs". I looked up the part number he listed and, of course, he had used a "white" LED. So, in case someone stumbles on this thread and is considering upgrading their lights - make sure to use red LEDs! And, if you're comparing LEDs to incandescent or halogen bulbs, don't waste your time comparing specification charts for lumen output - it doesn't apply. Why? Incandescent and halogen bulbs generate white light, which consists of the entire spectrum of visible light. So, even though an incandescent or halogen bulb may put out more light, when you slap a red taillight lens over it, all but the wavelengths in the red band are filtered out. So, comparing lumens is worthless. LEDs make "white" light in a couple of different ways, but essentially lose much of their efficiency behind a red lens for the same reason. Red LEDs put out a single wavelength of red light that will entirely pass through the lens.

Hope this saves someone the hassle and money of buying the wrong bulbs. I certainly saw a lot of that out there on other forums. Didn't see it on Club Cobra anywhere, though, so maybe all you Cobra guys are just smarter

[patrickt]

Hurray -- another success! It's hard to believe that my original LED Thread is four and a half years old now. LED Upgrade to Rear Rectangular Lights

[DanEC]

As a follow up - I installed a set of the Walmart Pilot 1157 LEDs in my old Corvette today. I now realize that the 3 LED groups on the top or end of the bulbs are the ones that light up for brakes and turn signals. the LEDs around the bulb barrel are the ones that illuminate for tail lights. That works great with bullet type tailights like the Corvette or the round lights if used on the rear of a Cobra. My ERA has rectangular lights on the rear which means the LEDs for the brake and turn signal are pointing up into the top of the light housing - rather than directly to the rear - thus the reason they didn't seem especially brighter on brakes or flashers. On my Corvette, since they are pointing out the rear, they are very bright.

For a Cobra replica with the round tail lights these are a very cost effective way to get LED tail lights - costing around $30 for 4 bulbs. I doubt they can be distinguished in brightness from the Superbrightleds which cost roughly $100 for 4 bulbs.

For rectangular tail lights they are not quite as good but OK - at least on brake and turn signal brightness.

[Large Arbor]

Dan,

If you send me a set I can take comparible pictures...(:

Since I already pulled the trigger I will live with being $75 poorer....

Phil

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by Large Arbor

Dan,

If you send me a set I can take comparible pictures...(:

Since I already pulled the trigger I will live with being $75 poorer....

Phil

But they are so convenient, right down at your local Walmart. You can kill time picking out a set while your wife is doing her grocery shopping.