Need an advice to change LED

[Nadee7]

I need your valuable advice ,I'm going to change my existing tail lights,Number plate light & interior doom light to white color LED Lights.

Is it normal or do i need to do some wire change ?

I have attached a sample .

Thank you.

[Rumesh88]

No. You do not need any changes to existing wiring. LED lamps like the ones in the above example are simple drop-in replacements. Just be mindful when you are replacing rear parking lights to use red color LEDs not white ones. 

[Davy]

Just be mindful when you replace indicator (signal light) bulbs, because it can result in "hyperblinking" (indicator flashing rapidly) depending on the year of the car. Most cars after 80s or so have a simple circuit to detect the loss of load and cause the indicator bulbs to flash rapidly. This is to inform the driver that one or more bulbs are at fault.

When you use LEDs, the load it puts on the circuit is less than a tungsten bulb. So you might have to use a load resister to compensate for the loss of load.

[Magnum]

1. First of all LEDs aren't pure white. They have a slight hint of blue, but it isn't immediately noticeable. There's also a warm white led option, which has a golden yellow colour.

Most common type of LEDs are SMD based of COB based. Higher the SMD higher the brightness(there are some high power LEDs too). I have no idea how COB based LED works.

2. If you are buying from eBay you need to make sure you are getting the correct bulbs. 

That is they come with different connectors. Common ones are T10, festoon, ba9s and ba15s(I think this only comes from brake lights). Those LEDs which come as a panel have all three connectors except BA15S.

3. Try to get good quality LED atleast for the parking lights especially if your parking light sits in the same compartment as your headlight bulb(that is without a separation). As the heat from the headlight will kill the poorly made LED. You get good quality LED from Osram and Philips but these will be $20. However you also get high quality LED for parking light other unbranded manufacturers too which will be $10-20 a pair.

4. If you install led for signal light your vehicle will read it as if the bulb is dead due to lower power consumption of led bulbs. Hence you will have to use a load resistor as Davy mentioned or you won't be able to identify if one of bulbs actually die. 

No matter if you have a load resistor or not the actual turning on and off process of a led bulb is faster than a filament based bulb.

5.  LED for tail lights isn't really a good idea as the light beam from an led bulb is sort of directional similar to a spot light hence the light wouldn't spread well around the housing. Which means you will have a bright spot of light in one area which in my opinion is ugly in comparison to a light that's well spread across the whole tail light housing

Also the difference between rear parking light and the brake light of a led bulb isn't that noticeable as a filament bulb as brightness in the filament bulb doubles up. Hence there's a chance of someone rear ending your car. I per wouldn't take this risk

It's a similar story with reverse lights as well.

6. For interior lights pick an LED bulb based on the amount of space you have in the housing. 

Edited October 23, 2017 by Magnum

[Nadee7]

3 hours ago, Rumesh88 said:

No. You do not need any changes to existing wiring. LED lamps like the ones in the above example are simple drop-in replacements. Just be mindful when you are replacing rear parking lights to use red color LEDs not white ones. 

Actually Im changing only front parking interior doom light & number plate.

Thanks for your advice.

[Nadee7]

1 hour ago, Davy said:

Just be mindful when you replace indicator (signal light) bulbs, because it can result in "hyperblinking" (indicator flashing rapidly) depending on the year of the car. Most cars after 80s or so have a simple circuit to detect the loss of load and cause the indicator bulbs to flash rapidly. This is to inform the driver that one or more bulbs are at fault.

When you use LEDs, the load it puts on the circuit is less than a tungsten bulb. So you might have to use a load resister to compensate for the loss of load.

Actually Im changing only front parking , interior doom light & number plate only

Thanks for your advice.

[The Stig]

4 hours ago, Nadee7 said:

Actually Im changing only front parking , interior doom light & number plate only

Thanks for your advice.

Park lights should be T10 (check your vehicles service manual for the exact type).

I bought these and they are a lot more brighter than the type you have shown. Your type is actually barely visible inside the headlight so dont waste money.

 

Dome lights are called festoon lights and there are 2 types, one which is multi directional which is also more expensive and another which is unidirectional. Get the uni directional ones like this as there is no point in a multi directional bulb for the reading lights. They come in millimeters, 33mm, 34mm, 36mm etc. Find out the length of the bulb in your dome.

 

Number plate lights should be t10 again but dont need higher end ones for this. The type you have shown is sufficient to light up the plates.

 

8 hours ago, Rumesh88 said:

No. You do not need any changes to existing wiring. LED lamps like the ones in the above example are simple drop-in replacements. Just be mindful when you are replacing rear parking lights to use red color LEDs not white ones. 

Found this out the hard way, i replaced with bright white and now the center brake light is orange

 

6 hours ago, Davy said:

Just be mindful when you replace indicator (signal light) bulbs, because it can result in "hyperblinking" (indicator flashing rapidly) depending on the year of the car. Most cars after 80s or so have a simple circuit to detect the loss of load and cause the indicator bulbs to flash rapidly. This is to inform the driver that one or more bulbs are at fault.

When you use LEDs, the load it puts on the circuit is less than a tungsten bulb. So you might have to use a load resister to compensate for the loss of load.

Need to add a load resistor for this for each bulb.  a pair is about $ 4-5

5 hours ago, Magnum said:

 

Most common type of LEDs are SMD based of COB based. Higher the SMD higher the brightness(there are some high power LEDs too). I have no idea how COB based LED works.

 

COB leds have multiple diodes inside one chip area, it achieves the same effect as using multiple smds. But you can pack more diodes per area so light output is better compared to the smd of similar size and power.

Edited October 23, 2017 by The Stig

[Magnum]

4 hours ago, The Stig said:

Park lights should be T10 (check your vehicles service manual for the exact type).

I bought these and they are a lot more brighter than the type you have shown. Your type is actually barely visible inside the headlight so dont waste money.

 

Dome lights are called festoon lights and there are 2 types, one which is directional and another which is unidirectional which is also more expensive. Get the directional ones like this as there is no point in a uni directional bulb for the reading lights. They come in millimeters, 33mm, 34mm, 36mm etc. Find out the length of the bulb in your dome.

 

Number plate lights should be t10 again but dont need higher end ones for this. The type you have shown is sufficient to light up the plates.

 

Found this out the hard way, i replaced with bright white and now the center brake light is orange

 

Need to add a load resistor for this for each bulb.  a pair is about $ 4-5

COB leds have multiple diodes inside one chip area, it achieves the same effect as using multiple smds. But you can pack more diodes per area so light output is better compared to the smd of similar size and power.

In SMD based led generally higher the number of SMDs brighter it is.

I checked couple of COB led on eBay and some sellers have mentioned quantity of chips/beads. I assume they mean the number of diodes

Little bit of reading tells me that COB is an advanced led technology in comparison to SMD. They are brighter and spread the light better than SMD.

I avoided COB mainly cuz I couldn't figure how one bulb is brighter than the next one.

Edited October 23, 2017 by Magnum