Has anyone tried the LED bulb replacements for teardrop tail lights? They are LED clusters, and plop right into the bulb socket. They are advertised in Streetrodder and Street Scene. Just wanted to know if they are brighter than conventional bulbs.

Are these what you mean?
http://www.streetrodstuff.com/Products/Lighting/Super_Bright_LED/

If so, we offer a 30 day guarantee if you'd like to try them out.

Jason

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Jason Long
Streetrod Stuff Webmaster

Jason, Ive been looking for these for a year and a half. I thought I saw them in some magazine but couldn't find them anywhere. I'm going to put my order in Right Now!
Rochie

Jason, do the turn signals still work with these snazzy gadgets, or will I have to change out the flasher? Also are they available in red?
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Roadsters Rule.

Cruzer, you should have no problem with your directional signal and flasher units. Don't know if they they come in red, but I'll find out. By the way, we can get beautiful red lenses for many old cars...and they're made in the U.S.A.
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Dick Z

I ordered some from SRS. They are red. The LED elements are clear glass, but the light that is emmitted is red. They didn't work for my aaplication. I have Teardrop tail lights, which are mounted on an angle on the the rear fender. The normal 1157 bulb will appear MUCH brighter than these LED's because you have to look DIRECTLY into the LED's HEAD ON for them to be really bright.

Just want to give everyone considering these a heads up!

Thanks for the heads up tip. I'm running 41-48 chevy tailights, set on a rather flat surface and they seem to work okay. I installed crinkled aluminum foil inside the light bucket and they show up pretty well. Again, thanks for the tip.
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Roadsters Rule.

Mrwillys
I am running angled teardrops on my '35 coupe. I ordered some LED's from SRS too. I haven't installed the LED's yet. Is there nothing I can do to make the LED's work? Did I spend my money haphazardly?

Al, You won't know until you try them.
LED's do have a narrow viewing angle though and should be "pointed" in the direction you want the light to travel.
You must have an LED bike light kicking around? Look it over, test it in the garage with the lights out. Look at the lens, you'll notice that these tend to use smooth "non refracting" lenses directly infront of the LEDs.
You may find that you have to re-shape your light buckets so that the LED's are pointed rearward rather than skyward to get the most out of them. This is where Fred's custom biult innards for his LED tail light win out over the 1157 replacement.
Mike

Guys, I have just tested the bulb myself and its terrible. Its not nearly as bright as the 1157! We are going to pull the bulbs from the site and will send a note to all who purchased them to return the bulbs for a full refund. We are very sorry for any inconvenience this caused. We will take steps to make sure something like this doesn't happen again. Our goal is to offer only quality products and services.
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Dick Z

Dick, Yearwood sells replacement bulbs for the 1157 and 2057
There brighter and they don't get hot. There conventional bulbs. They sell them for $6,00 each. Ron Francis sells them too. which i guess Yogi's probly gets them from Ron.
I use them on my 34, I got 39 ford taillights on it.
You might want to see if you can get any to sell on the SRS
I got two left, and i can mail you one to check out if you want to try to sell them.

Rick
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awsum34

Dick i for got. If you want me to send you one. e-mail me your address.


Rick
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awsum34

Rick,

Yes, pls send one to:

Streetrod Stuff, Inc.
1704 Cedar Knoll NW
Massillon, OH 44646

They are bright when you look straight into the LED, but put a lens over the ones we we're selling and it kills that brilliance. I'll do a side by side comparison with yours and mine.

Thanks Rick!
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Dick Z

Dick, my follow-up article is now on my site; www.NESSTRONICS.com. However because of all the technical disscusion about L.E.D.'s, I am now doing a technical write up on these bulbs; comparisons, temp rise, (different types of bulbs), reflectors, lenses, the whole "nine yards". This will take a bit of time to gather all the info., but will send to you as a possible Tech Article when done.

Dave
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DAVE NESS

Thanks Jason, and everyone else. Your advise has been very helpful. I am going to try them!
Bob
AKA: MRWILLYS

What kind of heat do these LED generate? Will they melt by housing? I have a glass lense so I am not worried about that.

LED doesn't typically generate a great deal of heat, we use LED indicators here at work, and they usually aren't hot.

I stuck a stick between my brake pedal and dash and left the brake lights on for about 5 minutes. There was very little heat with the LED's....way less than with 1157's.

I installed quartz bulbs in mine before the led lights came to the market.They are bright but do have me concerned about the heat and current draw...Ray
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Grump

I was in electronics for almost 32 years and worked on some very sophisticated communications equipment as well as being a "ham radio operator".....just to let you know that I am the type that loves to tinker on the work bench and when it came to finding both red and yellow "bright" led's at the local electronics surplus store, I had to have some to play with. I put together about 22 of the red's on a small piece of circuit board and when i applied power all I saw was spots for 10 minuets! These things are not only bright but draw very little current compared to a bulb. So little in fact, that I just read of a company(advertised in Street Rodder) that has a special flasher for these led array units. Another advantage is not having to use a reflective background. A model "A" tail light housing could hold probably 40 or so of these led's and knock yur night sight a bit off kilter! Fred P
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Fred P.

Hi Fred, from another "ham" KM1H. Where did you get those LED's and are they 12V or did you need a dropping resistor?
Carl
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Carl
Automotive gold is everywhere; you just have to learn how to dig for it

Hey Merc! got the LED's at a local surplus shop for 39 cents apiece which may seem steep but were new. The LED's have the typical .6 vdc rating, same as the drop across a diode and a current limiting resister is needed. This is a series/parallel arrangement for an array of this size(number of LED's). If the system is 13.8 vdc, use a number of LED's and resistor that will still allow operation down to about 10 vdc as a lower cuttoff point.
I have seen several cars on the street that use a long and very bright in the "spoiler" third light system that I'm going to go looking for in a wrecking yard. The price might be worth it plus it will have the dropping resistors and run off of 13.8 vdc. Basically, just rearranging the layout. One other point of interest is the aiming of the LED's. They are directional and if using a PCB to mount them,tilt the outer row or rows outwards slightly to give a wider angle of visibility. Nice to meet another gearhead "HAM"! My call is WA5WZD. Used to work for ICOM for 17 years in this area before they "abanded" the hams here and had my own shop for several more years.
Sorry for the late reply...Fred P
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Fred P.

TRY LOOKING FOR HONDA THIRD EYE BRAKE LIGHT ASSEM. SORRY, DON'T REMEMBER YEAR, BUT I THINK IT WAS SOMEWHERE IN THE '90'S. I HAVE BEEN USING THE THIRD EYE ON THE BACK OF MY 1941 FORD STAKE BED DELIVERY, WORKS VERY WELL. HAS 40 BULDS AND COULD PROBABLY BE MODIFIED TO FIT IN VARIOUS HOUSINGS. A WORD OF CAUTION, MODIFYING THE ASSEMBLY REMOVES THE S.A.E. (SOCIETY OF AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERS) AND/OR D.O.T. (DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORT) APPROVALS. MIGHT EFFECT INSURANCE COVERAGE USING UNAPPROVED PRODUCT. HATE TO BE A "DRAG", BUT I HAVE HAD EXPERIENCE WITH THIS SITUATION. REMEMBER- SHINEY SIDE UP!!
DAVE
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DAVE NESS

Hey Dave, good to see you!
Now find the Caps Lock key on your keyboard and unlock it before everyone thinks you like to shout.

Fred. Those LED's you found, you sure the bias voltage wasn't 1.6-1.7 volts?
Most I've found are.
Most "third" brake light strips I've taken apart, have had the LED's wired in series groups of 4 each group gets a 220 ohm 1/4 watt dropping resistor.

A typical auto electric system runs at about 13.8 volts
subtract the 4 diode drops (4*1.7) or 6.8 V leaves 7 to be taken car of by the dropping resistor
wattage is Esquared/R= 49/220 =.223 w
Current will be about 7/220 or .032 amps for each group of four LEDs

Heat output will be minimal, the dropping resistors will be the greatest source of heat, and in a 16 LED rig will only be a 1 watt heater.

mike

Sorry about the "SHOUTING", my dad taught me to type on an old Underwood typewiter that had a broken shift key so I fell into the habit of typing everything in caps.

As Mike indicated the current draw is very small using the setup he discussed. This can cause regular types of signal light flashers to flash very rapidly; this was to warn you that a bulb is/was burned out. If you are going to use LED bulb combinations, you may need to use a variable load flasher, (usually used with vehicles that tow trailers, that way you didn't need to change flashers when you hooked/un-hooked the trailer to your vehicle), you might find them listed as "solid state flashers".

Mike is the editor of our club's news letter, (Foothills Street Rod Association), and should be posting a follow-up to a couple of articals shortly dealing with LED's for tail lights. You can also have a look at; www.NESSTRONICS.com.

Will try not to shout too loud next time!!


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DAVE NESS

Mike, you're right about the bias voltage. I went back and checked my jury rigged pcb and I did indeed use 4 LED'but with a 330 ohm res. I tried the 220 ohm but couldn't see any difference.. Current draw would be slightly lower with the 330 ohm but not really enough to make it worth changing.
I found on page 285 of the May issue of Street Rodder, the flasher used with LED's.The company name is Hotronics and the flasher works with either LED's or bulbs. Cost is $29...My idea of using the LED "3rd lite" system for other projects such as the brake/tail light is simply repackaging to fit the brake lite housing since it's already set up with the proper resisters and LED's.. Fred P
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Fred P.

I just picked some up at a swap meet and they are quite a bit brighter if your light housings are mounted so they aim directly towards the back of the car since they are somewhat directional. I've seen some tail lights mounted on fenders and different places in such a way that the bulbs would point up or out a little. With lights mounted like that, there isn't much difference in brightness if you are directly behind the car.

By the way, I should have checked here first. I paid 24.95 + tax.

More LEDs in the housing is better. In my 40 ford I used a larger grouping by cutting the mounting flanges from the original housings and welded a 3" round exhaust tube to them. Then I mounted the circuit board in the housing at an angle that will shine directly behind the car, not up at a 45 degree angle as the lense does. If you are running cruise control, you'll have to wire a relay into the circuit to ground the cruise, as the LEDs do not provide a ground.