LED replacement taillamps has anyone tried this?

Discussion in 'General Motoring' started by Rob Guenther, Dec 14, 2004.

  1. Rob Guenther

    Rob Guenther Guest

    Hello

    In the interest of safety I am looking for LED replacement lighting for the
    1993 965 and my 1999.5 VW Golf. The VW has a rear centre brake light that is
    LED's, but its side brake lights are standard bulbs, the Volvo uses standard
    bulbs everywhere. I want to at least upgrade the brake lights to LED's as
    they light up quite a bit faster then normal bulbs.

    I am worried about the light not scattering correctly in my reflectors - is
    this a concern?

    Does anyone know of a source for these lights, or know of anyone who tried
    this modification before?

    I am actually more worried about faster acting LED brake lights on the VW
    (and have posted in the correct group for it as well) - it's my daily driver
    (diesel TDI... good fuel economy) and I have upgraded the brakes on it... so
    I tend to stop a little faster then some people on the highway if there is a
    slowdown (I've seen some cringing faces in my rearview mirror - then I have
    to reduce my braking inputs by modulation of the pedal).... so whatever
    helps my car be seen would be great... I have read that on the highway the
    difference in the faster reaction time is a noticeable/usefull span of quite
    a few meters of road travelled... The reasons for upgrading the Volvo would
    be the same - plus it's a Volvo, gotta try to make it as safe as possible
    ;-)... Think I might wire up the fog lights as brake lights too if I get
    LED's for it :)...
     
    Rob Guenther, Dec 14, 2004
    #1
  2. Rob Guenther

    James Sweet Guest

    They're junk, well the bulb retrofits are anyway.

    If you want to do it right, get some taillights at a junkyard (or mod your
    own if you're brave) and a bunch of bright red LED's, try www.surplusLED.com
    for cheap ones. Wire them in groups of several in series and build a little
    bi-level PWM driver circuit and you can have real LED taillights.

    You could skip the PWM idea and use a few power resistors instead, less
    efficient, but probably no worse than the incandescent bulbs.
     
    James Sweet, Dec 14, 2004
    #2
  3. Rob Guenther

    Rob Guenther Guest

    So it's what I feared? Unless I create an array of LED's like the
    current-gen high end Euro/Japanese luxo sedans have I will have one ugly
    looking dot of light shinning poorly from the back of my car?

    ..... I think i'll stick with incandescant

    Thanks for the info.
     
    Rob Guenther, Dec 14, 2004
    #3
  4. Rob Guenther

    James Sweet Guest

    Not so much a dot, more of a blob, but nowhere near as bright or uniform as
    it should be. Also when used on turn signals it causes them to blink fast,
    looks pretty stupid if you ask me.

    Probably wise, LED's are great, but in this case they really need to be
    designed into the product from the start.
     
    James Sweet, Dec 15, 2004
    #4
  5. Rob:

    The problem with LEDs is they use too little electricity. Volvos have bulb
    out detection so when a bulb goes out, a light goes on in the dashboard.
    LED's use so little voltage that the system thinks there's a bulb out when
    there's not one. I googled this a while ago and ran across an article for
    MB or BMW conversions. Some work needs to be done to trick the system.

    Hella makes some nice aftermarket VW lamps.

    Jeff
     
    Jeff Lesperance, Dec 15, 2004
    #5
  6. Rob Guenther

    James Sweet Guest


    LED lights should work just as well in a Volvo as anything else. The bulb
    failure indicator works by measuring the difference in current draw on the
    two sides, so long as you have LED's on both sides the sensor should be
    happy.
     
    James Sweet, Dec 15, 2004
    #6
  7. Rob Guenther

    Rob Guenther Guest

    I saw the Hella lamps... they look okay, too aftermarket-ish tho, unless
    they look better in person... I like my OEM look too much.

    The bulb checker is a current comparator... LED's would draw the same
    current so i'd be okay... or at least should be.

    I think i'll just wait until cars start coming out with this technology as
    standard...
     
    Rob Guenther, Dec 15, 2004
    #7
  8. Rob Guenther

    Joe Guest

    This is a concern as the reflctors are designed to reflect the light from
    the back of the bulb forward too and increase the light output the LED bulbs
    dont do this
    the quick turn on of LED lamps is good as this increases the warning to
    motorists coming behind you any increase is an advantage, LED lamps have to
    be designed to use LED's
    Joe
     
    Joe, Dec 15, 2004
    #8
  9. Rob Guenther

    Mike F Guest

    Starting with the '88 760, all 960s, all 850s and all S/C/V named cars
    don't have comparison type bulb failure sensors. They all use a current
    sensing type sensor - too little current = bulb failure light no matter
    how balanced the current is from left to right. Only 200s (and the '74
    and '75 140/160), early 760s and 740/780/940 have balance sensing bulb
    failure sensors. And all with a 3rd brake light have a current sensing
    element for that bulb, since there's nothing to balance it.

    --
    Mike F.
    Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

    Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
    (But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)
     
    Mike F, Dec 15, 2004
    #9
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