:idea: Does anyone have information on using HID LED's for taillightes and turn signals, etc. ? Would they use up less electricity than the stock lights ( not the headlights)?
They would use up a lot less electricity. Overall, it would be less than 1 watt. I wish they would have done this. The break lights are LEDS. But for some reason the rest are not. Other companies like Cadillac and Infiniti are using all LEDS.
Pre popular in Japan, Im planning swich side turn signal to LED in few weeks.. I still cant find replacement bulb yet
http://www.superbrightleds.com/1157.htm try here.. not sure if any of these would work.. but it's a start. i'll look up the bulb sizes along with the possibility of them working. These might work for the blinkers. I'm not sure if they would work for the running lights though.
Unfortunately, you are going to need a load resistor for your turn signals. If you do not, they will not flash or flash too fast unless you replace the flasher. You usually can't replace all of the lights and still get good flashing. Nate
Just read about an 8" diameter high intensity lamp made up of high intensity white LEDs. Inerestingly, the article stated that these high intensity LEDs draw quite a lot of current, and heat dissapation is an issue to be worked out. The cost of their prototype was several thousand dollars. Their goal is to have commercially available high intensity LED lamps available in the not too distant future at competitive prices.
BTW, but just a bit off the subject. Speedracer, a lot of americans would like it alot if you bought a dozen or two stock ev switches from Japan. Then you could sell them off of ebay and make a nice profit.
I have bought and installed LED's on many of my other cars from superbrightleds.com. There a good site but expect to pay 8-9$ for amber LEDs and 6-7$ for Red ones. Also.. the 30w load resistors cost about 8$ a piece and completely defeat the reason for power efficient LEDs. Also, the load resistors get very hot. And they need to be in a place thats not close to any plastic and is always cool. I've had them melt completely though a wiring harness on my Jaguar. Other problems that can occur is that they can over heat. Which will cost problems for your electrical system. They also need to be replaced over time. LEDs are cool, however, installing them in something like the Prius would be costly, inefficient, and could potently cause major electrical problems. They are also not going to work very well as parking lights. The LED bulbs that you can just buy and install in the 1156 socket aren’t very bright. Their light is focused straight out and doesn’t provide much light bounced out of the sides of the bulb. Because of the design of the parking lights, I doubt little if any light would actually be reflected from the LEDs/ The factory design uses only 5 LEDs. Which is only ½ of the LEDs found on a typical 1156 or 1157 bulb. But the design of the lights uses a wide focus lens and the lights are directed straight out the back of the car (rather than being reflected). What would be cool, if someone made an After market Tail light that has LEDs built in… Same design as the factory brake lights. That would be the only real way we could get LED parking lights. Hint Hint, to anyone in this business. I’m sure they will be out there some day… They make aftermarket lights for just about anything now. What I would like to see though, is more LEDs. Not just 5. I think the brakes should be atleast 10… and parking could be 5 or 6. And for parking… Doing like what BMW and Benz do where they focus the light though fiber optic beams that give perfectly straight even amounts of light. But… It would be expensive.
