LED Taillight Replacement for an 86 - options?

[darthracing]

Hi,

A few years back I swapped out my incandescent taillights with clustered LED. One failed
in December, and I was horrified how DIM the other was in comparison with the new incandescent
replacement.

So I put the old bulbs back in the center and left light.

Has anyone found a good LED solution for their P-Cars since 2008? I use terrific LED
lights for riding bicycles in the dark, just can't imagine this has not been figured out.

Best,
-T

[Kidasters]

I've been buying LED lights from superbrightLED.com for all of my cars. Just installed some LED lights this weekend. My observations:

The signal lights look great. Very bright. I used the 30 LED bulbs with 180 degree light.

I also upgraded the bulbs in the fog lights to LED.

Brake/tail lights (1157 type) didn't work so well. With two LED lights in - faint glow from both bulbs. With 1 LED, 1 incandescent, no glow. I'm thinking of adding a resistor to one side, and see if that will allow me to run two LED's.

I will let you know. Parts have been ordered. Just in case, I've ordered 2 resistors. We'll see.

Ken

[darthracing]

Yes, the superbrightled site has improved a lot

Super Bright LEDs - Brake Light, Turn Light and Tail Light Bulbs

Those 45 LED 360's for the 1157 are tempting....much nicer than the clustered version that died on me...

[darthracing]

Okay, so I ordered one of the 45 LED Tower 360's for the center brake light for starters, I'll post results here.

45 High Power SMD LED 1156/1157 Tower Bulb Specifications

[haycait911]

one thing about LED's, they come on MUCH earlier than incandescent. change out one side of you brake lights and have someone stomp the pedal. you'd be amazed. a good safety thing if you can get one bright enough.

[DRACO A5OG]

I went back to proper spec OEM (not 1157) incandescents because though the LED LUXEN (the brighten LED on the market) is extremely bright, it has issues during sunset when the rays of light are almost at the same angle of the LED lights, they get diffused and loose illumination as opposed to the incandescent which will glow no matter what.

I think the issue is our lenses are not designed to accept the narrow beam of the LED's. I deduce the lens will need to be clear to gain the benefit of the LED's like modern cars. But it will kill the OEM/Concours Look i.e. too RICEY

I was thinking of ordering the PANELED LEDS to fill in the square-ish area of the Brake Light and see if that will work.

The Resistor will work but defeats the low wattage benefit and will shorten the life of the LED.

my 2 cents and my humble observations

Jim

P.S. I would recommend Daniel Stern's LED third brake light as an Upgrade to your year third light.