Total vehicle LED lighting...

[Kit Sullivan]

The LED taillights and dash lights have given me the LED "bug".

I have replaced or soon will every bulb on the car, inside and out, that I can with an appropriate LED replacement bulb.

I bought every bulb I could for the entire vehicle and it cost about $80 for everything.

The only bulbs I did not buy replacements for are: headlights, "sportlamps" and the overhead dome lamp. Those are not available.

LED headlights are recently available but they are around $500 for the pair, and they do not have a stock appearance in the daytime. Too rich for me...I'm sure they'll come up with some "vintage"-appearing versions for a more reasonable price soon.

So far, I can-t think of any drawbacks to using LEDs in our cars...other than the cost over regular bulbs.

The advantages seem to be numerous:

Far less power consumptuon

Far less heat generated

Less resistance running through old and crispy wiring

Much better visibility

Longer bulb life

No degradation of light output over time.

Am I missing anything? Is there any reason I am not considering that would be a detriment to using LEDs across the board?

 

[Knoxferatu]

If you want to do it, just do it. There's absolutely no need to try and rationalize it, except maybe to your wife. If you have old and crispy wiring, it might be time to address that, however.

 

[Kit Sullivan]

I don't have to rationalize anything to my wife or anyone else. I just do whatever I want to as long as I can afford it. I take care of her too (shoes, purses, furniture, booze cruises every few weeks, etc...), so she doesn't bitch about much.

 

[Jeff73Mach1]

I don't see any downside to using LED's for basically every function in the car-with the exception of the headlights. Turn signals and hazards will need modification to function properly, but either a resistor in the circuit l or a flasher such as this https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/flashers-load-resistors/fl3-red-led-bulb-electronic-flasher/780/834/ (I didn't check application) will be necessary if the entire circuit is running LED's

I think LED's are the next evolution in automotive lighting technology and the cost on the front end is recouped by the durability and long life as well as the improved performance.

Also LED's preserve our cars by working faster, brighter and more reliably than incandescent bulbs so they reduce outages to near zero, and they reduce changes that are hard on wiring and plastic sockets that tend to fail with use.

Our cars were not built with a 40+ year life span in mind and anything that reduces wear and tear is a good thing.

And they look so f'ing cool too!

 

[Kit Sullivan]

My concerns are that they must appear stock, or close to it. I compromised that already on the taillights...they don't look even close to stock, but the tradeoff there was worth it to me: All three lenses lighting up, faster & brighter illumination.

The rest of them look pretty close to stock, as long as you buy the correct bulb for the application.

I have the EL (electronic) flasher installed already. Is that all that is needed to "modify" the system so it will flash the all-LED system correctly?

 

[Jeff73Mach1]

Yes. The standard flasher is calibrated for incandescents and needs the resistance to operate-it is made this way so as to indicate a dead bulb by flashing faster. Your hazards are on a different flasher and it should be changed as well. I'm just a lawyer though-I don't know why you would listen to me

 

[MechEng]

I have the EL (electronic) flasher installed already. Is that all that is needed to "modify" the system so it will flash the all-LED system correctly?

Yes, the original circuit relied on the heavy current draw created by the incadescent bulbs to heat a small piece of metal that would then curl and "pop" to open the circuit, once the metal cooled it would uncurl, and complete the circuit, allowing the flow of electricity again and repeating the process. This is the "clicking" you hear from the flasher unit.

LEDs draw very little current, so they wouldn't ever generate the heat needed to curl the metal, or if they do, it's VERY slow, so you get 2-3 flashes a minute, way too slow. The electronic flasher unit uses a solid state electronic set-up to make and break the flow of electricity, restoring normal function. No other changes are needed.

 

[mdan575]

I got my dome buld from Hi-Po Parts garage. At the same time I also replaced the partially melted cover. The LED's make it so I will enver have to worry about it ever again. The palstic melted many years ago before I got the car. LED's don't give off near the heat the incandescent bulbs do.

 

[72HCODE]

you will need to modify the Hazard blinker by the steering column as well in addition to the blinker above the glove box.

the resistor pack mod, is a REALLY bad idea it will just generate massive heat and you could start a fire with an underrated resistor , best is a digital timer for the blinker, which requires a 3rd input wire.

after 8 years; i actually removed LEDs i had different problems with LEDS and switched back to incandescent.

i had a sequential blinker in the back, led sportlamps, led, blinkers, running lights, after about a month i didn't like it any more and switched back to stock.

oh i had led headlights also that was an utter disaster and disappointment, the headlights were the hardest to deal with because i needed to find 35w/55w replacements and 90% of the market is like 65w/120w now. had to get really good reproductions to be happy.

some of it was causing problems and some of it was aesthetics so its up to the owner.

i left a couple LEDs in the Dashboard instrument panel and that is good enough for me.

melted plastic is a concern and something to watch for, because they switched many incandescent lights to either halogen or Long Life/extra bright, which suck more heat and amps.

for me 100% leds was bad, i had to really mix exactly where to put them to avoid issues i was having.

but don't let that hold you back you have to try it to know if it works for you or not.

 

[Knoxferatu]

I don't have to rationalize anything to my wife or anyone else. I just do whatever I want to as long as I can afford it. I take care of her too (shoes, purses, furniture, booze cruises every few weeks, etc...), so she doesn't bitch about much.

Well, Kit, I hope that I didn't offend you with my little joke about rationalizing things with your wife.

 

[mdan575]

You can change over to a mechanical blinker relay I think it is. Thats what I used on my mustang when I switched to LED's. Had to replace both of them one used in the driver side and the one in the passenger dash. Used the same kind on my Jeep for many years when I switched to LED's on it. I'll look up the part number for the relay I used.

 

[Kit Sullivan]

Nah, of course it doesn't offend. It's just thsat sometimes people make statements like "will your wife let you do this..." and it rankles me.

I'm no kid and I learned a long time ago not to let my girlfriend or wife (or anyone else) ever make demands on me or to try and "control" me or my actions if I have my own mind to do something. To be fair, it is not all just arrogance on my part, I encourage (and also expect) my wife to do whatever she wants to. I tell her not to compromise herself for anyone...me or otherwise. We have had a fairly healthy relationship this way for over 25 years now.

Of all my kids (6 of 'em!), my soon-to-be 18 year old daughter is my "pal" and we are of a like mind on most everything. She even manages to pull off a miracle: She looks just like me but somehow makes it look beautiful!

She has my attitude about most things, and is very "alpha". She doesn't cower or take shit from anyone for any reason...but she is not as arrogant as I sometimes get. (guilty as charged!).

I teach all my kids to not open your mouth and enjoin in conversation and make staements about anything unless you know what you are talking about, and even more so: have something worthwhile to add to the conversation. So, she hasn't realized it but she has developed the same habit as me: Endless research to find out precisely the correct answer to questions she can't answer.

Her teachers all think she is a genius, but she defers as always this way: "Not really: You have a smartphone attached to your hip, just like I do. The world's information about everything is at your fingertips, 24 hours a day. There is no reason to hunger for an answer to anything already known by someone else." She's awesome...

I don't drink or "party", and never really did much anyway. The wife, however does still like to go out with friends and have a good time occasionally, and I don't begrudge her. Who am I to tell her what she can and can't do?

And by the same token...(took the long way around here), who is she (or anyone else) to tell me what I can and can't do?

I see my friends sometimes trying to hide big purchases from thier wife, and I just shake my head and chuckle at them. what a sucky life that must be.

 

[Knoxferatu]

Sounds like you're a lot like me. Anyway, it would have been wiser of me to have clipped it down the essentials: Do it, if you want. Replace any crusty wiring. Of course, you were already there.

 

[71_resurrection]

I am actually doing the same thing to my car right now, with the exception of the headlights, I went super bright halogen H4 bulbs with the halo ring around the edge. I was looking at these the other day. http://www.cjponyparts.com/led-front-turn-signal-light-kit-dual-color-white-amber-1965-1973/p/HW3051/

 

[Kit Sullivan]

My wiring isn't so worn out that it is giving me problems...yet. But, it has lots o' miles on it ( 350K+) and several sections of various harnesses have been repaired and "fixed up" over the years.

I figure that however much the efficiency of the wiring has been compromised over the years, it is still very capable of supplying sufficient current to LEDs and produce bright, factory-like levels of brightness.

My taillights have been weaker-than-stock looking for years: a little dim, and slow to illuminate when braking or signalling.

When I added the LED taillights I was immediately very impressed with how bright and visible they were. The fast rate of full illumination when braking or signalling is head and shoulders above what it was before. This is what convinced me to go full LED for the whole car.

 

[Mike429cj]

You can change over to a mechanical blinker relay I think it is. Thats what I used on my mustang when I switched to LED's. Had to replace both of them one used in the driver side and the one in the passenger dash. Used the same kind on my Jeep for many years when I switched to LED's on it. I'll look up the part number for the relay I used.

What does the flasher on the passenger side above the glove box control? I noticed a small wire hanging loose on mine. I have no dash lights right now. Could this be the reason?

 

[Kit Sullivan]

The flasher module above the panel in the top of glovebox is for the turn signals.

The flasher module for the hazard flashers is next to the fuse box, near the steering column under the driver-side dash.

I have always wondered the reason for putting these two flashers so far apart from each other. I'm sure there is a reason...just can't imagine what it is.

 

[mdan575]

Sorry it is an electro-mechanical flasher made by Tridon Part# EL12. Fixed my fast flashing signals from the upgrade to leds. I don't have video of before with the stock flasher installed.

http://www.amazon.com/Tridon-EL12-Flasher/dp/B00064LOJ6

I will have video posted shortly.

 

[OMS]

My taillights have been weaker-than-stock looking for years: a little dim, and slow to illuminate when braking or signalling.

Ok I'll bite...

How can a ligth be slow to illuminate ?