Brake Lights: how about LEDs?

Hello,

I am aware of how old this thread is and it is an interesting one. Has any further development occurred since January 2012? I am very curious of the results.

Peter

The website shown in Robbie's post currently offers only the equivalent of single-filament bulbs. But in a line at the bottom they say they are working on dual-filament applications.

Note too that the bulb is intended to be mounted in a horizontal position. That is, the bulb points along the same axis as the base. That won't work in Cords in the stock configuration.

I'm working with the company on both issues -- trying out in Cord taillight housings, with lenses, etc. The slant of the Cord taillight housing is an issue too, since LEDs are directional -- their light points straight back, so the "bulb" will have to be canted in the base. Etc.

If anything comes of this we'll see if they will make up a run for us. Price will, of course, be an issue so we will see how that goes too.

Will report when something interesting happens. (Don't plan on spring 2012 yet

I found this source for LEDs on the Porsche 356 Registry forum.
www.culayer.com/BA15S-HP.htm
They offer single filament lamps, 6 volt compatible, standard or offset bayonets, white, red or amber. Price $199 per set of two.

Robbie Marenzi

ACD Club Member
Buenos

Hi Aris, Thanks for the sites you listed. Very informative.
CORDially Mike

I just found this site that answers most questions, more or less: www.watsons-streetworks.com/help ... ights.html

And here is another about 6V Porsches, I don?t know if they are neg or pos grnd, but that is only a matter of wiring properly the positive on to where the resistor is. thirdbrakelight.blogspot.com/

I?m halfway done to try out the mod on the Mercury, where the taillights have ample space inside, so I'm going to try adding about 50 LEDs in each, to work on the brake/turn function and I will post the results.

I am suspecting that a lot of you are having grounding issues (especially from something like a Cord trunk lid). God love it - I have an electrical engineer for a father. On the 851, I have a separate ground wire soldered to the sockets for taillight bulbs (and run such to a good clean spot under a screw to the frame - on a Cord perhaps even run wire up to the subframe or battery ground strap) and sure candlepower is not as bright as new bulbs, but lights really do stand out at night. Usually, I use a green cloth braided wire of about 12 gauge - and that seems to never be an issue in CCCA judging (though may be in ACD). Test such with a jump wire with alligator clips on it - you will be surprised.

I have never used the new LED tail lamp assemblys..

Does using these new LED lamps in place of conventional lamps cause any trouble with using your old style turn signal flasher ?
When using conventional bulbs a turn signal filament burn-out may cause the turn signal flashing action to stop.

Since the LED lamps use so little operating current~~~ Is this also a flasher operating issue ?

Make sure you have a gauge of wire that will support halogen bulbs - I am suspecting that just as too small a gauge wire can be an issue, Mike found the weakest link in the system is the bulb contact itself.

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationHappy New Year everyone !!!!!!

Thanks all for the input! In the past I?ve had some ?very close encounters? especially on bright sunny days, so I?ve been long experimenting on this issue. Modern new cars have extremely bright Leds along with ?third brake lights?, making our classic?s lights even more inconspicuous. Swapping originality for safety to me depends on how one's classic is used, and I plan to drive mine while I can.

First I tried Halogen bulbs. They are brighter than regular ones, but burned much hotter and melted my ?54 Mercury?s inner plastics. They also burn out much faster. After that I also went for BOB DRAKE?s brighter ones that make a difference. But with so many Leds around I?m in the process of trying them out first on the Mercury which is also 6v pos. grd.

Leds come in many forms, and are available fitted on sockets with uneven pins for dual use.

Here is one, but not for 6volt pos grd, yet anyway.

I have bought the next one, it?s made for 6 v pos grd and you can see it in the comparison pic below. It has small flat Leds fitted 3 each on a number of small plates. Next to it is an individual glass round led

To me the most interesting are the individual glass Leds, because one can fit together a whole bunch of them, in any shape. They have like a magnifying glass-tip which directs and amplifies the light, when viewed straight from behind. They draw almost nothing, come in many colours and in 3,5 volts, very good news for us because we can use them with a 470 ohm resistror fitted in line on it?s positive terminal, (it?s the longer of the two terminals). Polarity should be observed, but that is no problem really because they can be properly wired and finally they sell around ?0.50 each .... not bad!
Here is a pic of a round glass Led, it?s 5 milimeters ( 0.197 inch) in diameter.

And here is a 7-Led setup that I have connected together for the below comparison. Pic is from the back and shows the 470 ohm resistors welded on each positive terminal.

To get an idea of the brightness I took the following pic. From right to left, on the far right is a regular incandescent lamp, then Bob Drake?s brighter one, then the Led tower I showed above ( all three of them connected to their ?high? watt terminal) and lastly to the far left is the 7-Led Setup.

The incandescent bulbs give out a warm light, while the Leds all have more of a whitish, ?neon? light. I dont know yet, but it might be better behind a red reflector. Anyway, the 7-Led Setup is the most bright one with a naked eye.

Next for me is to try everything on the Mercury, it's my driver till the Cord gets ready as well one day. For the turning signal, I plan to install 10 or so yellow individual Leds in each of my two backup and driving lights, because they have clear reflectors. When lit, the signal will be yellow and I trust it will be visible, the original incadescent bulbs will stay in there as well, to fullfill their purpose. For the brake lights, I?ll try first the Led Tower bulb, and if it does not work well, I?ll try a 3d Brake light on the rear window, ebay is full of cheap ones, I could replace their resistors for our 6 volts . here is a link of one I've ordered to test ? ... 1423.l2649
And a pick

Of course a 3d brake light is out of the question for the Cord, where whatever is done will have to be inside the taillights. There is space for many leds, if the the bulb and socket is removed, a few for driving, and more for break/turning signal. But that?s after I've experiment first on the Mercury.

One note on Turning signals: With Bob Drake?s bulbs and their higher wattage, the signal would blink too fast, so I got a special relay for them. With Leds drawing nothing, this would be reversed, but I have seen on line relays for Leds and anyway I guess one could leave the incandescent bulbs in there for that purpose. However, one thing at a time.

If you have any ideas for me to try out, let me know while I?m at it!

The 14/50 watt bulbs I'm talking about using are regular type bulbs not halogen ones like my earlier articles suggested using. I have had a number of people tell me that they were having trouble with the halogen ones so I found these which I think are just as bright as halogens without the problems. The Part # for Bob Drake's $3 light bulb is 40-13465-HP6V. The phone number is 800-221-3673.

I found the filament posts melt, but the filament its self stays intact but the bulb will not light. After replacing three in one driving season I switched back to a conventional bulb. I was afraid I would break a lens with so many replacements.
CORDially Mike

Tom, thats why they did away with the rear sway bar, to many failed taillamps

I've put several thousand miles on mine and have not had a failure. Might be because the Cord has such a gentle ride?

In order to get them brighter, they would need a longer, thinner filament that would burn much hotter.
Unless they designed more filiment supports and some kind of cooling within the bulb road vibration would shake the hot filament apart, causing shorter bulb life.
Kind of like overclocking a computer processer.

Mike,

How are they not reliable?

I have found the 14X50 bulbs bright but not reliable.
CORDially Mike

The three dollar bob Drake price is great and reason not to explore Led's today as the light bar is over $400 and probably not made in six volt.
The biggest concern with higer wattage bulbs would be the two brake lights draw at 50 watt X 2 may drain the battery in a parade setting.
This is mostly an explority topic as bulbs are widely available now, but in the future filament bulbs may go the way of vacuum tubes, oil and kerosene, acetylene burning front and side lamps.

Using LED bulbs in Cord taillights will require changing the sockets. I don't know of any two-level LED bulbs that have parallel pins to fit the Cord socket. Also, the LED bulbs will sit too high in the stock socket and not be centered vertically. Lastly, (and less important), they show as dots of light which shrieks "LED" in an old car.

As far as brightness, Tom's Bob Drake bulbs are much brighter than the originals and require no adaptation.

Still, if LEDs are even brighter they might increase safely. A story with photos on adapting LEDs to Cords (or other ACD cars) would be welcome for the Newsletter.

You can buy brighter standard tail light bulbs from Bob Drake in Grants Pass, Oregon. They are 14 watt for the running lights and 50 watts for the brake lights. Thet really makes a diffence. It helps if you paint the inside of the tail light housing white. I have had several write ups in the "Newsletter" on making Cords tail lights brighter but the idea is the same for other cars. The bulbs cost $3 each

The soft glow of the original blubs is charming but modern cars following will plow you down as they look for lighting. I have had followers lock up all four wheels screaching to a stop because they did not see the single stop light on my 39 that is completly legal.

The new bulbs seem like a good idea as they need less wattage, should last longer and do not require any changes in the sockets. Are these new LEDs polarized? I would guess they would work in a + or - grounded car.

From what I could find out this is the way of the future as there will be LED headlamps also. The wattage draw should be less and they should run cooler. I hear 90 % of a 100w bulb energy is disposed of as heat. Home 100w filament bulbs are phased out 1/1/12 in US. Check out this video link below of LED accessory headlamps, as bright as halogen. Also very light in weight.

Hi and Merry Christmas to everyone !!!!!

Has anyone tried LEDs in our 'not so bright' taillights?

LED bulbs in 6volts pos.grd. are already being sold and I'm contemplating them already.

Then I read about LED strips that can be mounted in various ways within the lights.

Has anyone tried them?