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LED bothering


bezzabsa

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3 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Depends on your MoT tester. I had my Borat's LED side/marker lights fail a few years ago because the tester at the time thought the colour shade was wrong - the white had too much blue element in it. His predecessor never had any problem with LEDs.

Yeah, fair point. Fortunately, LEDs come in many shades these days. "Cool Blue" or "Warm White" are the most common. I'll use the latter.

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1 minute ago, TheOtherStu said:

Yeah, fair point. Fortunately, LEDs come in many shades these days. "Cool Blue" or "Warm White" are the most common. I'll use the latter.

"Warm" white seems to be difficult to come by on eBay these days, as all the suppliers seem only to offer "pure" white (which tends to give off a slight blue / purple at the very edge of the glow).

If in doubt, use the only two major brands to have done any proper research into LEDs: Osram and Philips.

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3 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

"Warm" white seems to be difficult to come by on eBay these days, as all the suppliers seem only to offer "pure" white (which tends to give off a slight blue / purple at the very edge of the glow).

If in doubt, use the only two major brands to have done any proper research into LEDs: Osram and Philips.

I think they are probably the only brands I would consider anyway. As they say, buy cheap, buy twice!

On my old car, I used Osram nightbreaker Lasers for H7 headlights (They're dual). On the new car, I've just fitted the Philips RacingVision. Neither are obnoxious on dipped beam, but much better on main beam. Both are road legal. I would definitely recommend either.

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I think DRLs are a good idea, but should be all round, not just front.  Something like 70% of accidents are one car hitting another in the rear, so anything which makes you more visible at the back has to be a good thing in my view.  Consequently I leave my lights on all of the time.  

Therefore, LED bulbs for lights which don't need an accurate pattern seems like a really good idea to me, and whilst I've been able to find half decent sidelight bulbs, I haven't had any success at all finding 'dual-filament' LEDs which work - the ones I've tried have only illuminated on the '5w' 'filament', and having two tail lights with different bulb types looks, a) odd, and 2) confusing.  Has anyone found a brand that works?  

Reading that last paragraph back with all the quotation marks, I sound like an old codger.  It could only have been made worse by prefixing the references to 'filaments' with 'so called'.  

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I’ve got some of those new-fangled so-called “dual filament” LED stop / tail light bulbs in the F150 which, being a yank, means they also serve as the indicators. They work perfectly - i’ll dig out the details and post them here. The LED bulbs in the reverse lamps are also a vast improvement on the standard bulbs too, but I’ve never got the white / amber combination LEDs to work in the front marker / indicators though. 

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9 hours ago, robinmasters said:

...., I haven't had any success at all finding 'dual-filament' LEDs which work - the ones I've tried have only illuminated on the '5w' 'filament', and having two tail lights with different bulb types looks, a) odd, and b) confusing.  Has anyone found a brand that works?  

Osram (if you can find 'em), closely followed by Philips Ultinon. I use Osrams in the CX's 21/5w brake/tail, and they are the only ones that have perfectly replicated dual-filament bulbs without triggering the bulb failure warning. 

The rest (generic / made in China), nowhere. 

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Saw a video on YouTube recently which suggested LED upgrades aren't a good idea in tail lights as the reflectors and lenses are designed to work with a filament bulb in a set orientation, so LEDs may not actually work any better other than lighting more quickly.

Go to 15:50 (or watch all of it, it's quite interesting)

 

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8 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Saw a video on YouTube recently which suggested LED upgrades aren't a good idea in tail lights as the reflectors and lenses are designed to work with a filament bulb in a set orientation, so LEDs may not actually work any better other than lighting more quickly.

Go to 15:50 (or watch all of it, it's quite interesting)

 

This is the video @LightBulbFun highlighted a few weeks ago.

I can't say I totally agree with the findings - whilst the majority of aftermarket LEDs are generic Chinese shite, Osram and Philips have actually done some proper research into the practicalities of LEDs replacing incandescents. if their products didn't work effectively, they wouldn't have gone to the trouble of selling them on the open market.

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2 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Which ones did you test?

Halfords ones. 

I'm going to try the Osram ones. I do believe things like brighter brake lights are a safety thing. Everything else has gotten brighter. I was even considering a high level brake LED too, just for belt and braces. 

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1 hour ago, Spurious said:

..... I was even considering a high level brake LED too, just for belt and braces. 

I fitted one in the 635CSi and it worked alright, although the adhesive pads dried out and it proved difficult to find new pads that would stay on the rear glass.

I'd fit one in the CX but the louvres over the rear screen would obscure it.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/8/2021 at 11:46 AM, bunglebus said:

Saw a video on YouTube recently which suggested LED upgrades aren't a good idea in tail lights as the reflectors and lenses are designed to work with a filament bulb in a set orientation, so LEDs may not actually work any better other than lighting more quickly.

Go to 15:50 (or watch all of it, it's quite interesting)

 

This applies to any LEDs, not just tail lights, and it's because the cheapy ones have the LED chip in a different place to where the filament would be on an incandescent bulb. 

Technology Connections is well worth watching though. 

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On 08/09/2021 at 17:57, Tadhg Tiogar said:

I fitted one in the 635CSi and it worked alright, although the adhesive pads dried out and it proved difficult to find new pads that would stay on the rear glass.

I'd fit one in the CX but the louvres over the rear screen would obscure it.

I have just fitted a breaker sourced Picarse Mk1 hi-brake light, into SuziQ.

I replaced the 5 bulbs (actually the car guys robbed them...) with Chink W5W White LEDs.

Performs as Advertised...... £13, the lot!

IMG_20210916_135029.jpg

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