I'm heading in to Jacar today to pick up a set of LED brake lights. Saw them in a catalogue and I was sold straight away.
Pretty much they are a replacement for the globe in teh tail lights, a cluster of LEDs said to have instant response, and heaps brighter. They have them for tail brakes and tail indicators at $14.95 per unit. Will install them this evening and let you know how they perform.

Dave

I looked at these as well - would be interesting to see how they perform, but, unfortunatly, they are not ADR approved. Probably wouldn't get picked up on them though.

Cheers
Heath Young

some BMW have them, so how can they be illegal?

Easy - the BMW's use superflux leds, rather than the lower brightness (and lower MTBF - mean time between failure) 5mm LED's - and - the led arrays have been tested to comply with the correct illumination intensity/vs. distance. (telemetry)

The LED lamps do not take into account differing designs of reflectors - for something to be ADR approved it must go through a very specific set of tests, and be mounted/aligned/powered in the specified way.

Been through ADR / ECE regs - it's a nightmare!

Cheers
Heath Young

STOCK-CODE: ZD0316 - New Product RRP: $14.95
Qty 1+ $14.95 Qty 10+ $13.35 Qty 25+ $10.35

Red 19 LED Stop / Tail Light Replacement Globe for Cars

Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology is rapidly becoming the preferred light source over incandescent globes. LEDs provide far better efficiency, are much less fragile than a filament globe, and boast a failure rate of only 1/1,000,000 when operated correctly. A typical incandescent stop/tail lamp takes between 120-160 milliseconds to fully illuminate (depending on the voltage drop in the wiring loom). This translates to over 4 metres at 100km/h. An LED stop/tail lamp illuminates instantly. The extra 4 metres may be the difference between a crash and a near miss. The initial cost may be slightly more than a filament globe, but they are likely to outlive the car. Uses an offset bayonet base for correct polarity.


Pity it's not ADR compliant. I whipped out to Jaycar ... not in stock yet! Grrrrr!

My advice would be, If it looks good, do it.

You just have to be careful though. I tried some of these on my clear tail lights i had on my old TE but they were duel stage, ie come on when my headlights were on and come on brighter when i brake.

They look cool, but I don't know about your model, but my TJ has that brake bulb that you have to push in, whereas the one on the Jaycar site is the push down and twisty type....

Or do they come in push in style too? :confused:

Now there's a thought! I hadn't even checked that one! It's push in and turn for TE-TH.

i just went to jaycar...
the bulbs wont fit the TH.... different "teeth"... the two bits on the side...

kev

I was planning to drill into my tailights and basically use the reflector as a panel to hold up to 50-60 LEDS, use all of them for braking and use say 20-30 or just half of the panel for when the lights are on.

Just a thought, don't know how good it would be.

Could work, I'm not that game! I'd prefer a plug and play solution. But that's coz I'm no craftsman!

pretty sure it cant work

thats not a bad idea... when your gonna attempt that??

kev

Hey preacher man, did u ever try these out??

I wanna know if they fit so i can chuck em into my 2nd Gen, theyd be the same id assume..

I'm still waiting on them to arrive at Jaycar.
They did have, however, the DIY kits - you take your existing bulb, break the glass off, solder in the PCBs and LEDS - I wasn't game to do that. I'd rather buy the whole unit.

Ah yep, fair enough man..

Hey i dunno about 3rd gens, but in the 2nd Gens the brake lights are a 2 stage bulb, one for parking lights and one for braking.. does the LED light cluster thingo do this aswell? or..?

Ah yep, fair enough man..

Hey i dunno about 3rd gens, but in the 2nd Gens the brake lights are a 2 stage bulb, one for parking lights and one for braking.. does the LED light cluster thingo do this aswell? or..?
Should do. Don't quote me on that though! Blake had some that were 2 stage LEDs in his TE.

yeh ill be grabing some soon. left taillight just went, and theyre startng to go pink again. hopefully this will be a nice bright red

Trav

For those that don't know, LED cluster replacement bulbs are not as bright as the standard
bulbs. Its good that they light up faster than normal globes but whats the use if they are not
as visible on a bright sunny day with the sun behind you. Just my 2c worth.

From what I understand LEDs are more visible, and appear brighter and more intense, just that a projected beam does not travel as far - Like with LED torches, where the LED appears so bright you can't look at it, but the beam wouldn't light damn thing. All LED lights I've seen really do appear much brighter than their incandescent counterparts.

The only LEDs that I have personal experience with are the ones in my Vienta's rear spoiler. They are not mounted inside a lens like your ones here would be, they are like any rear spoiler, in an array with a purpose built cover/lens. Hopefully the lens wouldn't make them not really bright.

They are extremely bright, reflect off signs a long way away behind when you brake. I used to feel sorry for the cars that pulled up behind at lights, as the driver's face was glowing red. They do also come on before the incandescents in the normal brake lights (momentarily).

All brake/tail lights have two filaments, one for brake, one for tail, brake being brighter. As the ad says, they have a polarised bayonet base. I haven't seen any main brake lights that weren't like that before (push in type??). My eye level brake light under the rear spoiler in the galant has three reflectors, and three globes that are the push in type.