led tail lights

sonoma · Post by **sonoma** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 12:13 pm

thinking of converting my taillights over to led and found these on the web
what do you think silver or red???
http://www.migicute.com/s10led.html

anyone convert theirs over and how difficult was it??

Steventruck · Post by **Steventruck** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 1:01 pm

Wow. Those look nice. I don't like the bubble look that a lot of companies have gone with. These are really clean. Too bad they are $200.

Steve

Snoman002 · Post by **Snoman002** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 2:26 pm

They may look nice but the light output is probably subpar.

I have yet to hear of a set of bolt on LED lights that will match the output of even the stock housings, let alone a set of good LED tail lights.

Steventruck · Post by **Steventruck** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 2:49 pm

Thaose are LED taillights. The sub-par-ness comes from sticking and directional 3157 into a stock capsule. The normal incandessant lamp utilizes the reflector, the LED doesn't. These have like 30 LEDs in them. I think it would look that the back of an Acura.

daevans315 · Post by **daevans315** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 8:50 am

Be careful with those. If they don't have the DOT approval on them you can get a ticket or impounded. The Rice'rs around here have been getting busted for the clear tail lights and HID headlights that are not DOT approved. They should have DOT imprinted into the glass or plastic. If they don't it makes your car illegal to drive on public roads. Now the chances of getting busted in a S-10 is far less but you can always get that one Officer thats either having a bad day or thats his "thing".

sonoma · Post by **sonoma** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 11:33 am

wow they are that strict down there??
here in ontario they dont seem to care about the hid and led conversions
they worry more about street racing

BobbleSmitty · Post by **BobbleSmitty** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 11:50 am

Funny you mention the DOT approval... I don't think my 6" 100 watt driving lights are approved... I know on the box it said for offroad or show use only. But I use them everyday morning and night!

I occasionally get somebody flashing their brights at me, but I've never had a problem with the police.

daevans315 · Post by **daevans315** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 11:56 am

sonoma wrote:wow they are that strict down there??
here in ontario they dont seem to care about the hid and led conversions
they worry more about street racing

I'm guessing many times its "I didn't see you doing anything wrong but I've gotten reports of you screwing around. So this is what you get your ticket for."

I've been running no Cat on my 97 S-10 for 5 years now. Never had a problem. I know of two Hondas that were ticketed for no Cat on the first time they were pulled over. In the 10 years and 130,000 miles on the 97 S-10 with 17"s and a sticker in the back window that says "Hauls more than Firewood!!" I was pulled over once or twice and never ticketed. In the last year and a half in the stock CRX, I've been pulled over 6 times and ticketed once.

Rice = teenager = noticed = ticket.

I don't think the cops expect to see a professionally dressed 30 something guy in the front seat of the CRX so I generally get let off with a warning. I've had one officer almost be apologetic for pulling me over.

Sorry. got me going on a rant there..

Snoman002 · Post by **Snoman002** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 12:43 pm

Steventruck wrote:Thaose are LED taillights. The sub-par-ness comes from sticking and directional 3157 into a stock capsule. The normal incandessant lamp utilizes the reflector, the LED doesn't. These have like 30 LEDs in them. I think it would look that the back of an Acura.

No, the "sub-par-ness" comes from the components. I am WELL aware of the drawbacks of putting a LED 3157 bulb in a incandescent housing, but that is NOT what I was refering to.

Every aftermarket manufacture of LED tail lights that I have ever heard of uses cheap low output LED's in the construction of the taillamps. I have YET to hear of a manufacture using quality components, but that is probably because quality components cost four to five times as much as the cheap crap from Asia.

purduecrew · Post by **purduecrew** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 1:33 pm

Snoman002 wrote:
Steventruck wrote:Thaose are LED taillights. The sub-par-ness comes from sticking and directional 3157 into a stock capsule. The normal incandessant lamp utilizes the reflector, the LED doesn't. These have like 30 LEDs in them. I think it would look that the back of an Acura.
No, the "sub-par-ness" comes from the components. I am WELL aware of the drawbacks of putting a LED 3157 bulb in a incandescent housing, but that is NOT what I was refering to.

Every aftermarket manufacture of LED tail lights that I have ever heard of uses cheap low output LED's in the construction of the taillamps. I have YET to hear of a manufacture using quality components, but that is probably because quality components cost four to five times as much as the cheap crap from Asia.

its not so much that they are "cheap" components, some of the best brands out there are foreign made such as "lumiled" and "nichia". the problem is that they lower the candela output, the cheaper, hence they go with "cheaper" leds that are just not as bright. You can combat this by changing the resistors to a slightly lower value.
Heres what you oughtta do if you want to maximize their output:
Test the output voltage at your taillight . Take that actual voltage and replace with lower resistors so that the voltage crossing the led is as close to 3.1 volts as possible. Red wavelength LEDS are the most durable of any wavelength, so a little over three wont harm anything. 3v is more than acceptable. hope this helps!

Snoman002 · Post by **Snoman002** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:28 pm

Be carefull with that though, if the LEDs start to get warm they will start pulling more current and they might burn out. In fact I don't recomend going that route at all, resistors just cannot accuratly controll the voltage to the LEDs which will result in the LEDs burning up.

A proper LED setup will use PCB mounted LED's from the same BIN number, they will also use voltage regulators to help prevent the LED's from blowing up, along with a PWM to vary the brightness for running and brake lights.

In the end it's a double edge sward. They use inferior LEDs that are more prone to going out, and along with that they use resistors to limit the voltage, if the LEDs start to heat up the resistors can't properly limit the voltage and you end up with bad blank spots. Oh yeah, the ouput from the LEDs is far less than it could be in the first place.