LED replacement taillamps has anyone tried this?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rob Guenther
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Rob Guenther

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 said:
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?
Click to expand...

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.
 
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 said:
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?
Click to expand...

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.

.... I think i'll stick with incandescant
Click to expand...

Probably wise, LED's are great, but in this case they really need to be
designed into the product from the start.
 
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 said:
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.
Click to expand...


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.
 
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 said:
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?
Click to expand...

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
Does anyone know of a source for these lights, or know of anyone who tried
this modification before?
Click to expand...
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 :-)...
Click to expand...

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
 
James said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.)
 
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