Buying LED lights to replace stock braking bulbs?

[Gladiator]

I see them for sale a lot. Do they work well since its just a replacement bulb instead its a while bunch of LEDs?

I.E. http://www.midnightmoose.com/marker.htm

Supposedly LEDs are brighter and have a nicer shine. What you think?

[Ken_]

I believe that the stock bulbs are 2157's. I bought the 1157's and they did not work. I wasn't able to find any 2157's. Good luck.

[pinoyesv6]

well all the lights in the rear tails are 2057 except for the reverse lights. those are 1156.

but yea if you want brighter stop lights i don't think LED's would be a good way to go. i think you should go with a normal bulb. LED's mainly shoot light in one direction so the light is concentrated more in one area. with a regular bulb its spread out in many directions and well thats good for your tailights since your tailights have reflectors inside to help disperse the light.

[onlyphases]

but yea if you want brighter stop lights i don't think LED's would be a good way to go. i think you should go with a normal bulb. LED's mainly shoot light in one direction so the light is concentrated more in one area. with a regular bulb its spread out in many directions and well thats good for your tailights since your tailights have reflectors inside to help disperse the light.

i agree, keep regular bulbs if you desire brightness[/quote]

[Elwenil]

Ok, I know this is an old string, but I thought I'd post my findings on this particular subject. I have done this and it looks great at night, but you are looking for a good rear-ending if you run them in bright sunlight. The 1157's will work in place of 2057's. You just have to be careful about what brand of LED you buy. Some of them don't make good contact and so they don't work half the time. APC's are junk. They don't work half the time and aren't very bright when they do. Here's where I get mine: Autolumination.com They have just about every bulb made in some sort of LED configuration. And damn near every color too. Now, onto the next problem with LED's. They won't blink, or blink way to fast. The problem here is that all turn signal flashers work off of the resistance in the circuit to make them blink, ans LED's don't have no where near as much resistance as the factory incandesant bulbs. So, in this case, my Galant thought I had a bulb out, and started the "Hey, I'm blinking fast cuz your to lazy to change my bulbs" thing. How do you fix it? Ok, you can put a resistor in the harness to compensate for the lack of resistance in the LEDs. It works fine. You can also get some flashers specifically for LEDs from Signal-Stat, but my Galant (an 02) has a light control module that does all the flashing, so you must use the resistors. The best ones I've found are on the site above. The stuff is expensive, but it's the only way I've found to make it work. Also, the front turn signal/marker lamps are a pain to see if you go to LEDs in them. I have yet to find any amber bulb that can be seen in this application. As stated above, the LEDs are focused on a central point, and if oncoming traffic ain't in line with it, they aren't going to see it. Oh, one more. The third brake light is a pain also. Mine is like a 912 bulb or something, but the LED points straight up in this application. So I took it and my soldering iron and extended it up and bent it 90 degrees so it would shine backwards. Only problem was it would glow softly after you hit the brakes (which is kinda kewl looking) and it kept the cruise control from working. So I just went back to the factory bulb in that case. You need to watch LEDs and how you put them in too. Some, like 194s, can be put in two ways. Meaning turned 180 degrees. They will only work one way. They have a positive and a negative side. This is no problem for the 1157s as they have locating posts that only let you put them in one way, but the "plug-in" style bulbs you need to test them to see what way they work. Don't leave them on with them plugged in backwards, it will short something. Ok, I think that's about all I can think of. Sorry about all these long posts, but I like to be thorough. It causes less confusion in the long run, but I caught hell for it on the Mopar forum I was on before.

Later...

[Fishboy55]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Elwenil)</div><div class='quotemain'>Sorry about all these long posts, but I like to be thorough. Â*It causes less confusion in the long run, but I caught hell for it on the Mopar forum I was on before. Â*
Â*
Later...</div>

Dude, First, Welcome to TGC. Check the mid-atlantic site out in my sig if you haven't already. Where in the lovely commonwealth of Virginia are you?

Second, never apologize for dispensing accurate and thorough information here. It's what the board was originally based on when Rich started it back in the day. As a "show me" modder, I trust genuine experience more than word of mouth. Just be prepared to get pounded with questions, a lot of them being repetative. Hope you can type fast :laughing:

[Elwenil]

Hey, thanks for the welcome. As for where I am, I'm in Covington, out at the west end of I64, but my work makes me travel all over the state. I'm still not sure if I'm going to be at VA Tech next week or Orange County. Go figure. Anyway, I'm kinda new to the whole import/sport compact scene, but I've been building cars and trucks for years and I wanted to try something new, and I really liked this Galant I found, so... I have a good bit of experience, which means I'm old, lol. I mostly built Mopar muscle cars before, I even built a 72 Dodge Charger for road racing. It would cruise at 160, sweet, eh? I've done all the old stuff I can stand, and I have to admit, The Fast and the Furious got me thinking about something new and more high tech, so here I am. Most of my questions will be centered around the whole ECM thing and trying to get more power out of an engine without swapping on a 4 barrel Holley like I'm used to, but I'll contribute what I know now when I can.
Thanks again...
Later...