67-427ci

I have been following this thread about LED light bulbs so I thought I would give them a try. I am pleased to agree they are much brighter and come on noticeably faster. While they are very expensive, I think they will give better illumination to cars approaching from the rear. These bulbs can be purchased at SuperBrightLEDs.com. I got the 1157-RLX3.

As a test I installed the outer bulbs first and took a small video of the results.
Roy

david srour

The 3 watt Luxeons from Superbrightled are very nice and bright. The problem, though, is radio frequency interference. Not from the LED itself of course, but from the driver, which is the small regulated power supply that is in the base of the bulb. If you have a decent FM radio you will not be happy w/ these. On a postive note, it does remind you if you left your turn signal on.

Plastic Pig

I just bought these for the '57 and they were plug and play. OE flasher
works fine.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...2509%26fvi%3D1

They are brighter and come on noticeably quicker. Don't know what other years they offer.

Brian VH McHale

Are their any heat issues? Will they melt the lense?

67-427ci

Interesting comment. I took a ride after installing them and had the radio on. I did not notice any RFI. My radio has been converted to modern internals (AM/FM stereo). Maybe it is not sensitive enough to pick it up (or maybe the side pipes helped mask the noise). I'll have to pay more attention the next time I take her out.
Roy

Plasticman

Instead of LED's, I use brighter incandescents such as the 2357 LL (long life) from Sylvania. Puts out 40 mscd instead of 32 for the 1157 or 1034 bulbs used originally (for the brake filament, 3 mscd for all of them for the park/tail filament).

The 2357 LL draws only slightly more current (2.23 Amp) vs. the 1034/1157 (1.8/2.1 Amps) for the brake lights, and lasts longer as well.

See the data here, and click on the Miniature Incandescent bulbs, and then the S-8 bulbs:

http://www.sylvania.com/ConsumerProd...ting/ECatalog/

Plasticman

Plastic Pig

Mine came with lenses. Hasn't melted them yet..

Plasticman

LEDs run a lot cooler than incandescents, so I would expect no heat issues at all! Now if you changed to halogens, that is another story!

Plasticman

david srour

They definitely won't melt your lenses and put out much less heat than a stock bulb.
The RFI is more noticeable on a weak signal or w/ turn signals on. I found it quite objectionable on my Wonderbar repro.
It may be specific to SuperbightLED's bulb since there are different drivers out there and some may not produce the RFI. I experimented around a bit w/ loose 3 watt LEDs and a commercially available driver and did not get RFI.
You also will need an electronic flasher. LEDs in front markers result in turn signal indicators on dash both lighting up when parking lights on. Must have something to do w/ low resistance of bulbs

Kensmith

You can run the LED bulbs either front or back but to do both, you have to buy a special flasher. The manufacturers usually sell them.

66jack

Sure would've liked to see them in the dark in the video

jack

jim lockwood

Am I right in thinking that all ultra-bright LEDs these days are pulsed?

Back in my day, to light an LED, all we did was connect it thru a current limiting resistor to a Voltage source. No RFI was possible since the circuit was DC.

So the only way I can imagine RFI generation in an LED circuit is if there is some switching going on. True?

Thanks,

Jim

Plasticman

Jim,

Don't know for sure, but I think the RFI is coming from the flasher. Since the LED's draw a lot less current, they need an electronic flasher (an old electromechanical flasher relies on a bi-metallic element to heat and "flash" on/off and this requires the higher current to operate).

Plasticman

david srour

Initially I thought RFI was coming from electronic flasher as well, until I noticed RFI w/ taillights and brake lights.Regular LEDs often have just a resistor to drop the voltage The high powered 3 watt LEDs have a regulated power supply (a driver in LED lingo) Its on a small printed circuit board that is in bulb base.This is what gives off the RFI. The LED itself produces no RFI. It may be peculiar to Superbrightleds bulbs. I tried an antenna filter which did not help.

Plasticman

If that be the case, a small capacitor across the power lead to ground should help. If it is higher freq., a LC filter (inductor and capacitor) may be required. But sounds like it is probably line transmitted noise, rather than air transmitted.

Try a 100 microfarad capacitor (16 WVDC or higher) across the power lead to ground at the LED supply (and make sure you attach the -lead of the cap to ground). If that does not do it, then need to work up the LC filter, or go to the local Radio Shack and see what they have for line RFI filters.

Plasticman

67-427ci

Here you go jack. I took this video tonight and put the incandescent bulbs back in the inner lights for a comparison. Looking at this video you can clearly see the incandescent bulbs never go completely out.

As far as heat goes the lenses with the incandescent bulbs are warm to the touch and the led's are cool.
Roy