Has Anyone Replaced Their Sidelight Bulbs With Leds?

[jim shady]

One of my sidelights has gone and I was looking around for a replacement and have found tons of LED replacements listed.

Has anyone fitted these?

Are they as good as a traditional bulb?

Do they actually last any longer?

Thanks in advance for any info

[C_U_Jimi]

One of my sidelights has gone and I was looking around for a replacement and have found tons of LED replacements listed.

Has anyone fitted these?

Are they as good as a traditional bulb?

Do they actually last any longer?

Thanks in advance for any info

LEDs will definitely last longer than bulbs and will use less current (not that saving current makes much difference on a car).

I'm interested in using them, any links to who supplies them?

Ta.

[jim shady]

The question came from a search I did on eBay and they are in abundance on the auction site.

There are lots of different typres/price ranges, that is why I was asking for any previous experience with them?

[Jan van de Wouw]

There seem to be a lot on eBay for 107's and 206's that will fit too, but some members on the

Dutch forum found that they had to do some rewiring, as the polarity is the wrong way round...

The SHOULD last longer (allmost indefinately) opposed to incandescents,

but IMHO they lack in brightness, no matter what type you have.

[C_U_Jimi]

There seem to be a lot on eBay for 107's and 206's that will fit too, but some members on the

Dutch forum found that they had to do some rewiring, as the polarity is the wrong way round...

The SHOULD last longer (allmost indefinately) opposed to incandescents,

but IMHO they lack in brightness, no matter what type you have.

Hi Jan,

Modern LEDs should be brighter than bulbs. Ever sat in traffic behind a car with LED brakelights when the driver is sitting with his foot on the pedal?

Maybe the ones that lack brightness are being fitted with too high a series resistor.

[C_U_Jimi]

There seem to be a lot on eBay for 107's and 206's that will fit too, but some members on the

Dutch forum found that they had to do some rewiring, as the polarity is the wrong way round...

The SHOULD last longer (allmost indefinately) opposed to incandescents,

but IMHO they lack in brightness, no matter what type you have.

Hi Jan,

Modern LEDs should be brighter than bulbs. Ever sat in traffic behind a car with LED brakelights when the driver is sitting with his foot on the pedal?

Maybe the ones that lack brightness are being fitted with too high a series resistor.

Just had a look on e-bay and found this:-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TOYOTA-AYGO-2006-501...=item4a9e9a8267

I don't see why an LED substitution should give canbus errors. Any ideas anyone?

[AygoIronman]

There seem to be a lot on eBay for 107's and 206's that will fit too, but some members on the

Dutch forum found that they had to do some rewiring, as the polarity is the wrong way round...

The SHOULD last longer (allmost indefinately) opposed to incandescents,

but IMHO they lack in brightness, no matter what type you have.

Question for Jan Van de wouw"

Leds do last lobger but I heard that if you fit LED as indicators, you need to install a flasher "relay" . Is this true. I ve been scouring the net about 3 years ago for a Peugeot 106 LED read light cluster but read some people had problems with their circuitry as they needed a replay?

[Raistlin]

I have LED's on my side lights and my brake lights.

The brake lights are brighter and they light up faster, I have also used them on my interior light so now when it's on I can see :D.

I have had no issues with any of them.

[Jan van de Wouw]

Ever sat in traffic behind a car with LED brakelights when the driver is sitting with his foot on the pedal?

Yes, but those taillights were designed with LEDs as their lightsource.

These usually dont have series resistors, but use Pulse Width Modulation

at 60 or 70Hz to vary the effective brightness. LED-replacements for

incandescent bulbs cannot compete, as the mirror they end up in is

designed to use incandescents and not LEDs. LEDs SEEM brighter,

but they lack in opening angle, so directly behind the ARE bright,

but a few degrees to the left or right and they're WAY dimmer...

I don't see why an LED substitution should give canbus errors. Any ideas anyone?

CANbus usually measures current going through the bulb. If the current is too low the buld is blown.

An LED-replacementbulb uses WAY less power, which can cause a CANbus-system to think the bulb is defective.

It can also give problems with systems in which the bulb is not fed 100% of the time,

like on some Audi's with adaptive brakelights: the taillights are actually the same as the

brakelights, only dimmed electronically instad of with a separate filament in the same bulb.

Leds do last lobger but I heard that if you fit LED as indicators, you need to install a flasher "relay" .

Is this true. I ve been scouring the net about 3 years ago for a Peugeot 106 LED read light cluster

but read some people had problems with their circuitry as they needed a replay?

Most Flasher-systems have system that is dependant on the current used to get the correct blinking rate. When a bulb

blows the flasher goes faster to indicate so. Don't know about the UK, but in The Netherlands this is mandatory!

LEDs use less current, so the flasher goes faster to indicate a blown bulb. To cure this you need to either replace

the original flasher relay with a "load independant flasher relay", or you need to get current consumption up.

In our cars the flasher-relay-system (two actually: one for each side) is actually integrated in the speedocluster,

so you can't replace this. That's why a lot of people simpley put in "Load Resistors" that consume the same

amount of power as the original incandescent lights did. Sort of a stupid system, as all this extra current

is converted straight into useless heat, which can possibly melt stuff you want to keep intact too!

And it completely counteracts one of the positive things about LEDs: the low current usage...

[jim shady]

I'm going to bow to your superior knowledge on this Jan and get myself some regular replacement bulbs :D

Thanks for all the input from everyone.

[Charlies Angel]

Cheap LEDS can fail sooner!!

I replaced all the dash bulbs on my hilux and they started failing and flickering. :(

[Jan van de Wouw]

Cheap LEDS can fail sooner!!

I replaced all the dash bulbs on my hilux and they started failing and flickering.

True, usually those cheap LEDs have resistors that are too small (like less than

a quarter Watt) or there's no series-diode to cope with reversed polarity.

A standard LED can't handle much more than about 5V reversed voltage...

The LEDs from the ebay-auction mentioned above might be very bright, but they're stupidly

expensive too! You can get a xenon retrofit-kit for the headlights for that kind of money!

[DONFRAMAC]

One of my sidelights has gone and I was looking around for a replacement and have found tons of LED replacements listed.

Has anyone fitted these?

Are they as good as a traditional bulb?

Do they actually last any longer?

Thanks in advance for any info

LEDs will definitely last longer than bulbs and will use less current (not that saving current makes much difference on a car).

I'm interested in using them, any links to who supplies them?

Ta.

Yes, I splashed out big-style on a pair of PIAA H520 501 T10 type capless sidelight bulbs, using 3 SMD emitters each, with the electronics bonded to a heat-sink, and a plastic front shield. Japanese in origin, so NOT cheap at £52 inc P&P, from PRIRacing, or MOTAMAN Bristol, or other official dealer, as found on main PIAA website. I also have a pair of PIAA H4 XENON- enhanced 60/55W headlight bulbs, putting out 110/100watts of light. (HE303 @ £48, fully legal, yellow filtered out, good upgrade but only 3 months warranty;-- there is an even more expensive ruggedised version @ ~ £78 the pair, both from the Extreme White Plus range. The colour temperature is 4000 deg kelvin, whereas ordinary halogens are 3200 deg kelvin;--quite yellow.)

I used an "IFFY" website to buy 5-SMD 501 T10 bulbs, and put one into the boot-light, as the theatre-dimming electronics reacted badly to it, so I have a spare. I had to chase that firm 3 times to get a delivery, and they are regular sellers on eBay, but I went via the Internet. They were less than £15 the pair, but the quality is obviously just not there,

The PIAA H520 3-SMD emitters are bright and point in useful directions, 120 deg apart, but not straight ahead, nor sideways. The cheapies had 4 SMD's facing sideways, and only one forwards. (P.S., the PIAA 501's have reverse connection protection built-in, but so had the cheapies, the chinese ones).