Alan, I’ve purchased them for the rear, but haven’t installed them yet. So I don’t have any meaningful input.

I installed LED front parking lamps and rear LED bulbs. you’ll need to replace your mechanical flasher with an electronic unit. There is not enough resistance in the circuit to trip the mechanical unit. I also found the LED bulbs weren’t very bright and put the conventional bulbs back in.

Hmmmm…that looks like the metal backing plates could be trimmed to fit inside original TD taillights or the Lucas L549 taillight.

Kent, would you please measure the circuit board/LED area?

PMOSSBERG2013-12-12 23:37:13

Now that is a whole different animal. That’ll work much better than just changing the bulbs to LED. Nice find.

Are these actually brighter than the incandescent? 

I saw the video, yeah.

Paul,

I don’t.

A car made in 2011 with standard LEDs–yeah, brighter than my car, by a lot.

But it does not follow that an aftermarket kit, inserted inside my 1950 TD taillight housing, will do as well. Or even that it will do better than the 1157 that is there now.

That’s why I’d like to see at least a standard output rating in lumens. Then we could start to compare.

I’m reposting this in the hope of  shedding more light on the current discussion: 😕

“<i>I came across a few bits of information which may help members evaluate LED replacement lamps.
</i>

<i>Since most LED replacement lamps are rated in lumens (a measure of light output) comparison to watts is best left to the engineers. A more useful comparison for us mortals is:</i>

<i>#194 bulb (common in marker lights and instrument panels) has an output of approximately 24 lumens. Therefore to find an LED replacement of comparable brightness you should look for one with about 24 lumens at 12 volts. Likewise, an #1156 bulb (single filament tail light lamp or I presume one filament of a #1157 stop & tail) is rated at 400 lumens.</i>

<i>I know that there are many other parameters such as beam angle, actual socket voltage etc. but I hope this will provide a frame of reference.”</i>

💡

@pmossberg I had the car repainted several years back. The original got beat up by the South Florida sun over it’s first 15 years of life. The paint job isn’t perfect, there’s a bit of “orange peel” and a few defects. Nothing I can’t live with.

I like the color too 🙂

The tail lights are good and bad.

• They are nice and bright (good)
• I’m not getting the ‘hyper-blink’ too badly. They are usable as-is but a resistor might help (meh)
• Activating the turn signal “takes over” the light. E.g. if the brakes are on, both lights are on, when you hit the turn signal that light “blinks” completely off and on (bad)

To install I had to remove the separator in the tail light lens. A small metal plate in mine that separated the turn and running/brake light.

So far the stock switch/relay works without too much trouble. I did not have to replace anything other than the light sockets and mounting.

I may, with my infinite time on the planet, take to design my own replacement that does not have these problems. Then I can accumulate another 1,000 LEDs and play more with micro controllers, which is always fun to do. …or maybe just give feedback to the original designer about the changes I’d like to see.

The collective brain power of this club is amazing! Weve really got some smart cookies here! The lights look great! I just used the packaged led for my tail lights.