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I was just wondering what everyone thought of these. I noticed that Joekd had a set in his intrepid, but i've never actually seen them at night. Are they brighter than the stock bulbs?
LED turn signals
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the led's are about the same brightness as stock, I have them in my turns and brakelights
I looked at the big amber bulb in the front one day and decided it had to go. I like the visual difference it made both on and off
The brakelights look exactly like OEM but at least I now have lifetime warranty on all my bulbs.
I looked at the big amber bulb in the front one day and decided it had to go. I like the visual difference it made both on and off
The brakelights look exactly like OEM but at least I now have lifetime warranty on all my bulbs.
joekd, I'm wondering where you got them and how much they cost? Unless they made some engineering marvel in the type of LEDs they use for those and then jacked up the price quite a bit, I find it hard to believe they are as bright as stock bulbs. 
I don't mean to rain on your parade, burst your bubble, or prove you wrong ... just making sure people aren't getting the wrong idea about these retrofit bulbs
They look cool, I like them and use to have them but I realized that in the summertime when the sun is shining, people really couldn't see my brake lights... which is why someone honked at me and pulled up along side me to tell me that. I haven't been able to find the amber colored ones... I would still want to use them in the front like you did since that blinker isn't quite as important. I have bright side marker blinkers anyway so it would still be known that my blinker is on from the front view. If you have pictures, I would like to see the rear to make sure I'm not talking out of my ass ... but I'm sure they can't be as bright as #3157 incondescents.
The type of LEDs used in those are standard 5mm LEDs. They can't dissipate heat very well to achieve enough brightness as a standard brake light or turn signal... not even 15 of them. The brightest LEDs that are available now put out 55 lumens per emitter in red, 36 lumens for amber (which I have for my side markers) They are mounted on an aluminum circuit board which has to be mounted to a heat sink to get that bright (the steel quarter-panel is a good heatsink)... the average brake light puts out about 150 - 200 lumens (estimated because a white reverse light puts out about 300 - 400 lumens. With the red lens, it filters out some of the brightness). The 5mm type LEDs put out less than 1 lumen per emitter... straight on their pretty bright because their beams are focused, but stand at an angle and the brightness falls quite a bit, especially with the pillow lens of the tail light it passes through.
Also, yeah, LEDs turn on faster... All LEDs turn on as fast as the ones on the Cadillac Deville
Anyways, enough of my rambling. I would like to know how much your amber colored ones up front were because I would like to get those to do the same. All I can find are the red ones.
[ January 28, 2002: Message edited by: Bart ]
I don't mean to rain on your parade, burst your bubble, or prove you wrong ... just making sure people aren't getting the wrong idea about these retrofit bulbs They look cool, I like them and use to have them but I realized that in the summertime when the sun is shining, people really couldn't see my brake lights... which is why someone honked at me and pulled up along side me to tell me that. I haven't been able to find the amber colored ones... I would still want to use them in the front like you did since that blinker isn't quite as important. I have bright side marker blinkers anyway so it would still be known that my blinker is on from the front view. If you have pictures, I would like to see the rear to make sure I'm not talking out of my ass
... but I'm sure they can't be as bright as #3157 incondescents.The type of LEDs used in those are standard 5mm LEDs. They can't dissipate heat very well to achieve enough brightness as a standard brake light or turn signal... not even 15 of them. The brightest LEDs that are available now put out 55 lumens per emitter in red, 36 lumens for amber (which I have for my side markers) They are mounted on an aluminum circuit board which has to be mounted to a heat sink to get that bright (the steel quarter-panel is a good heatsink)... the average brake light puts out about 150 - 200 lumens (estimated because a white reverse light puts out about 300 - 400 lumens. With the red lens, it filters out some of the brightness). The 5mm type LEDs put out less than 1 lumen per emitter... straight on their pretty bright because their beams are focused, but stand at an angle and the brightness falls quite a bit, especially with the pillow lens of the tail light it passes through.
Also, yeah, LEDs turn on faster... All LEDs turn on as fast as the ones on the Cadillac Deville
Anyways, enough of my rambling. I would like to know how much your amber colored ones up front were because I would like to get those to do the same. All I can find are the red ones.
[ January 28, 2002: Message edited by: Bart ]
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I was looking at getting the LED turn signals also. I believe I saw some amber LEDs that replace the #3157 bulbs at Murray's. They were made my APC and were like $8 per "bulb".
As for the tail lights, I really want to do some custom LED setup. For when I have the head lights on (or just the parking lights or fog lights), I would like to have LEDs line the outside of the lights (including the center piece from full left to full right) and in the center of each tail light I would like to spell out "R/T". I think that would look awesome. Of course when I hit the brakes the whole thing would light up one solid block.
As for the tail lights, I really want to do some custom LED setup. For when I have the head lights on (or just the parking lights or fog lights), I would like to have LEDs line the outside of the lights (including the center piece from full left to full right) and in the center of each tail light I would like to spell out "R/T". I think that would look awesome. Of course when I hit the brakes the whole thing would light up one solid block.
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Do those LED turn signals connect right to the standard wiring? No other hardware needed? If so, that's kewl. Sounds like something cheap I could get and install myself.
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As long as you get the LED bulbs to replace a 3157 it will slide right it
The only way I can think of about frying your harness with these is if you put it in backwards. They have diodes in them to protect the LEDs if you put them in backwards... which may send the current right back into the wiring as a short circuit. Chances are very unlikely though. When put in backwards, the diodes shouldn't let any current go anywhere. One of the metal leads on the bulb might have bent sideways and touched the other terminal inside the female end of the harness. Then again, even if that happened, a fuse should have popped... that's what they're there for.
LED Turn Signals
I hate to disagree, but they certainly are NOT as bright as the original bulbs. Anything less than looking at them "head on" and they dissapear. For safety sake, I will mostlikely put the original bulbs back in.
It's too bad because the do look a little "different" when they go on and off. But they have to be seen first ........
I hate to disagree, but they certainly are NOT as bright as the original bulbs. Anything less than looking at them "head on" and they dissapear. For safety sake, I will mostlikely put the original bulbs back in.
It's too bad because the do look a little "different" when they go on and off. But they have to be seen first ........
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LEDS
go to www.jamstrait.com they have links to other sites that sell leds look for (3157-hr hyper bright red) (3157-hr hyper bright amber) (lb194rj hyper bright red mini 4 digit wege led side markers)
go to www.jamstrait.com they have links to other sites that sell leds look for (3157-hr hyper bright red) (3157-hr hyper bright amber) (lb194rj hyper bright red mini 4 digit wege led side markers)
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Re: LED Turn Signals
Depends.............did you cheap out??? If you bought the APC bulbs or the Super bright Jamstrait, they will probably not be as bright. If you bought the Hyper bright Jamstrait bulbs, I HIGHLY DOUBT that they are dimmer than stock.mferrara said:
I have Jamstrait Hyper-Amber bulbs in my front turn signals...
I wouldn't really say that they are less bright..... but I would say they are less visible. The issue is that the LED's have a pretty narrow field of view and all face directly forward. If you are viewing it head on, it looks fine --but I know that from the side it is not as visable.
I've thought about replacing them with the regular ambers..... until I can find (or build) LED front turn signals that have a much wider field of view..
I think the Jamstraits are probably among THE brightest LED assemblies out there. I tried a couple cheap brands, and they are very mediocre. The hyper-ambers head on ARE bright.
Moral of the story is... if you are going to get front ambers - get Jamstrait (not some cheap ricer brand).
I wouldn't really say that they are less bright..... but I would say they are less visible. The issue is that the LED's have a pretty narrow field of view and all face directly forward. If you are viewing it head on, it looks fine --but I know that from the side it is not as visable.
I've thought about replacing them with the regular ambers..... until I can find (or build) LED front turn signals that have a much wider field of view..
I think the Jamstraits are probably among THE brightest LED assemblies out there. I tried a couple cheap brands, and they are very mediocre. The hyper-ambers head on ARE bright.
Moral of the story is... if you are going to get front ambers - get Jamstrait (not some cheap ricer brand).
I have not bought any as yet I was seeking advice/opinions first. If I were to get them I was going to get them from superbrightleds.com but I guess if they are not as good as jamstrait I may go for those instead. I must say though it concerns me that they may not be as visible from the side it would be a "bit of a downer" to have a fender bender because of it.
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14,490 Posts
An alternative to the LED turn signal bulbs is the Chromax bulbs.........they are incandescent but have a chrome tint over them so when they're off they're chrome and when they're on they're either amber or white. They AREN'T as bright as the stock bulbs but they sure look a lot better. I have them in right now and they are a cheap alternative to LED bulbs (plus you don't need a resistor to solve the fast blink associated with LED bulbs).
I bought my Chromax from www.midnightmoose.com ..........$10 each I think.
I bought my Chromax from www.midnightmoose.com ..........$10 each I think.
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