LED tail lights

I'm looking to install some LED 'globes' into my brake lights but not sure what the effectiveness will be. Some LED replacements don't seem to work with the reflectors on cars & the end result is a duller light.

 

Before I get flamed, yes I've searched but there aren't many pics of the end result.

 

If anyone's got before & after shots of their 03-06 Legacy *sedan* tail lights with LED replacements, could you please post pics along with what brand & part number of LED globe they used?

 

Thanks heaps.

There is someone who did it just recently... i'll try searching it for ya

Here

http://www.legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48426&highlight=LED+Tail

Thanks for that but I'm looking to just replace the bulbs with LED 'bulbs', not pull apart the entire light assembly (don't trust my ability to put it back correctly!).

I think if you got the bulbs it would definatelly make it brighter but i dont think you would be able to tell they were LEDs through the reflective material. So if your goin for the bling factor i dont think youll have luck..But i should be brighter.

 

You could always just buy some install it on one side and compare if they are lame then return em. hit up dem ricer section at Autozone yo'

A buddy of mine developed these:

http://www.spiderlite.com/

 

Haven't talked to him in a long while, so I don't know if they have one that would work for the LGT. They plug in like a regular bulb and then open up, and they DO have LED's on both sides, so that the reflectors are being used for maximum light dispersal.

I just looked at the web site and they do have the 3 arm model that matches the bulb number for the LGT:

Rear turn signal

7440

 

Tail light

7443

 

Stop light

7443

 

3 Arm Model Price $39.99/each

http://www.spiderlite.com/img_store/PV-3A-X2.jpg

3X2WDGA

3X2WDGAX (CROSSOVER)

http://www.spiderlite.com/img_store/BV-3A-A.jpg

holy fark those are expensive! for the x2's they want $50 EACH, plus shipping!

 

Cough!

 

I like them, but I $15-$25 like them, but $50 like? I don't think so. You are looking at $100 JUST for brakes, and another $100 for running/turnsignals. $200 plus shipping? And don't forget you will need load resistors, else if ya's don't, yer gunna be gittn them really fast blinks.... and gawd only knows if subaru re-routs power when it detects that situation like it does with headlamps being burned out....

 

just a thought.

holy fark those are expensive! for the x2's they want $50 EACH, plus shipping!

 

Cough!

 

I like them, but I $15-$25 like them, but $50 like? I don't think so. You are looking at $100 JUST for brakes, and another $100 for running/turnsignals. $200 plus shipping? And don't forget you will need load resistors, else if ya's don't, yer gunna be gittn them really fast blinks.... and gawd only knows if subaru re-routs power when it detects that situation like it does with headlamps being burned out....

 

just a thought.

 

x 2

 

Damn.

.... and gawd only knows if subaru re-routs power when it detects that situation like it does with headlamps being burned out....

que?

DON'T.

 

I exchanged some e-mails with Daniel Stern, a recognized automotive lighting consultant and here is what he says:

 

LED signalling lamps (brake, tail, turn...) are appearing on cars, and are

widely used on trucks, but it really is not a "retrofit" item in the sense

you're thinking of. The rear lamps of your car rely on a point source of

light (glowing filament), collecting that light with a parabolic reflector

and dispersing it with pillow optics in the lens. An LED is a vastly

different *kind* of light source. Unlike a glowing filament, it does not

produce light in an even sphere. Instead, it projects a very narrow beam

of light in ONE direction. That's why these so-called "LED retrofits"

consisting of a 1" diameter matrix of LEDs on a bayonet or wedge base are

unsafe; there's no way you can get enough light through a wide enough

angle (horizontally and vertically) to create a safe and legally-compliant

lamp. There are other considerations, too -- it is tricky to get the

right ratio of bright-to-dim intensities both on axis (straight behind the

lamp) and also through the entire vertical and horizontal beam spread.

This applies even to the fancier "LED bulbs" that have side-facing as well

as rear-facing emitters. The problem is not with any marketer's particular

implementation, the problem is with the concept, which does not (cannot)

work.

 

Look at the optics of the Cadillac DeVille that has Hewlett-Packard LED

tail/brake lamps, or the high-end Mercedes S-class that has LED brake

lamps. You'll see some *very* fancy optics used to coordinate the light

from a *LOT* of LEDs to get everything right in terms of brightness in

both dim and bright mode, uniformity of brightness throughout the

visibility angles required by law, ratio of intensity between "bright" and

"dim" mode, etc. These kinds of optics are not something you can kludge

in your garage, let alone achieve with these unsafe "LED bulb retrofits".

 

I agree with unclemat completely on this one.

 

 

Whoever in the aftermarket decided that LED tail light replacement bulbs were a good idea was licking frogs that day.

 

I worked at a car audio and accessory distributor for many years and we wholesaled APC, Toucan Industries, etc, type lighting and other ricey accessories.

Friends and customers have put them in various vehicles over the years to 'experiment' and the results are always the same: two very specific light outputs that are about the size of a quarter coming out the back of your car. THey look like two little Terminator eyes lit up. That's it.

 

There is zero light dispersion that fills up the entire tail brake light housing.

 

And forget about even seeing the light output in sunny weather during the day.

 

These 3-arm lighting devices above won't be any kind of improvement and will just leave you feeling completely ripped off by a company that is just making gimmicky 'improvements' on something that never worked in the first place.

I agree with unclemat completely on this one.

 

 

Whoever in the aftermarket decided that LED tail light replacement bulbs were a good idea was licking frogs that day.

 

I worked at a car audio and accessory distributor for many years and we wholesaled APC, Toucan Industries, etc, type lighting and other ricey accessories.

Friends and customers have put them in various vehicles over the years to 'experiment' and the results are always the same: two very specific light outputs that are about the size of a quarter coming out the back of your car. THey look like two little Terminator eyes lit up. That's it.

 

There is zero light dispersion that fills up the entire tail brake light housing.

 

And forget about even seeing the light output in sunny weather during the day.

 

These 3-arm lighting devices above won't be any kind of improvement and will just leave you feeling completely ripped off by a company that is just making gimmicky 'improvements' on something that never worked in the first place.

 

Its not so much the intensity of the lamp, it is that the replacement bulbs only disperse light in one direction. From straight on they might look bright, but at an angle they are useless. I wasted about 80 bucks trying different bulbs.

These 3-arm lighting devices above won't be any kind of improvement and will just leave you feeling completely ripped off by a company that is just making gimmicky 'improvements' on something that never worked in the first place.

 

Whoa, hey now, easy there - this is my buddy you're talking about!!

 

haha. I'm not trying to push this product here, just wanted to offer it up as an option for the O.P., since it seemed to fit what he was looking for. To each, their own, and all that. And I really don't want to get into an argument, but I feel the need to defend my friend a little as I fear you underestimate the amount of engineering development that went into these. Two consecutive SEMA awards are no small achievement, after all - especially when you discover that this isn't any big company peddling 'gimmicks.' Rather, it's just two guys trying to make a name for themselves by offering up something innovative-yet-functional. An amazing amount of development work went into these, and engineering-wise, they are pretty impressive. (I'm engineer, so I feel entitled to say that.)

 

That's not to say any of the light-output concerns aren't valid. Of course they are: OEM development budgets are many orders of magnitude higher, and the lamp housings designs are optimized for the bulb they choose! But,.... hmmm, how do I want to phrase this... I guess what I want to say is that anyone set on going with LED's isn't going to be disappointed with these, especially the new X2's. Each taillight housing is different, of course, but my impression is that from the rear, the direct path light from these LED's will be brighter than stock, but reflected light output will probably be lower; even though these have forward-facing LED's, they are not properly positioned (at the focal point of the parabola) for ideal optics. But these are going to be significantly better than most of the other LED retrofit options, IMHO.

 

You like, you buy. If these ain't your cup of tea, that's fine, too - it's not mine either, to be perfectly honest - although I did replace the CHMSL on my Miata with an LED board, and I've been very happy with that.

 

Peace, out!

Just offering up experiences with other types of LED bulbs over the years. True, I'm speculating about this new style... if they work, that's great! But I went to the site and the look is about what I expected...

 

People can judge for themselves.

We've all heard many reports of LED replacement 'bulbs' not working well with the optics in the taillight and resulting in a dimmer light. That's why I asked the question - has anybody out there *successfully* replaced their globes with LED retrofits and has pics to prove it?

 

Since nobody's posted any pictures, I'm guessing the answer here is no.

 

Scooter, why don't you get your friend to supply you with a set of Spiderlights to put in your Legacy and take some night pictures to show us the result??

Are you looking at LED's to improve lighting or change the apperance of the car? If so, I added the tail light function to the turn signal area of the rear light so it is a signal/running lamp. I left the stop lights on the lower two. I had posted the mod some time back. I just searched it and found the pictures are gone!!!!!!

 

 

If your interested I'll post the pics back up.I did mine because the car was awfully dim from behind......and the LED's didn't work out.

Are you looking at LED's to improve lighting or change the apperance of the car?

 

I only want some LED's at the back of the car because they light up faster and may give some small extra layer of safety over bulbs. Not really fussed about the look. I had looked at getting a lip spoiler for the car but they're over US$800 here in Oz PLUS painting and installation, which is a ripoff.

 

My previous 3 cars all had LED high mount stop lights, but not the Liberty. It's interesting how Subaru made the Liberty right up-to-date in some respects but don't use LED's for any tail lights and don't have gas struts for the bonnet! Weird...

Whoa, hey now, easy there - this is my buddy you're talking about!!

 

haha. I'm not trying to push this product here, just wanted to offer it up as an option for the O.P., since it seemed to fit what he was looking for. To each, their own, and all that. And I really don't want to get into an argument, but I feel the need to defend my friend a little as I fear you underestimate the amount of engineering development that went into these. Two consecutive SEMA awards are no small achievement, after all - especially when you discover that this isn't any big company peddling 'gimmicks.' Rather, it's just two guys trying to make a name for themselves by offering up something innovative-yet-functional. An amazing amount of development work went into these, and engineering-wise, they are pretty impressive. (I'm engineer, so I feel entitled to say that.)

 

That's not to say any of the light-output concerns aren't valid. Of course they are: OEM development budgets are many orders of magnitude higher, and the lamp housings designs are optimized for the bulb they choose! But,.... hmmm, how do I want to phrase this... I guess what I want to say is that anyone set on going with LED's isn't going to be disappointed with these, especially the new X2's. Each taillight housing is different, of course, but my impression is that from the rear, the direct path light from these LED's will be brighter than stock, but reflected light output will probably be lower; even though these have forward-facing LED's, they are not properly positioned (at the focal point of the parabola) for ideal optics. But these are going to be significantly better than most of the other LED retrofit options, IMHO.

 

You like, you buy. If these ain't your cup of tea, that's fine, too - it's not mine either, to be perfectly honest - although I did replace the CHMSL on my Miata with an LED board, and I've been very happy with that.

 

Peace, out!

 

I think they are cool... Pricey but cool.

Lighting up the back of the car might add more visibility than just how quick a single bulb iluminates. I'm with you....I'd love to see a display of led's rapid fire..but I settled on this mod since there was not much of an LED option.

It's interesting how Subaru made the Liberty right up-to-date in some respects but don't use LED's for any tail lights and don't have gas struts for the bonnet! Weird...

 

Wagon gets the 3rd brake LED lamp.

que?

 

 

try installing HIDs in the high beam slots.... if you are using an aux wire harness (like you should) then the car will do all sorts of goofy thing b/c it thinks that the high beam is burned out. I found this out when I did my full HID (all 6 lights up front) retrofit. Really bummed me out. Fixed it though. Took a little creativity, but I got it working right.

Dont waste your time or money on LED bulbs. I purchased some for my rear running/stop lamps and the high mount stop lamp and they're just too dim. Even with LED's on the bulb facing back towards the reflectors they just cannot reflect the light that an incandecent bulb does. At night it looked like two really bright dots inside the tails with little reflection and during the day it was worse. It actually ended up looking a little too Pep Boys ricey to me. And I saw no effect on voltage or amps or whatever. If you do end up running them in the turn signals you need to install a resistor in line or you can buy OE underhood replacement LED turn signal relays.

I like my LED taillight

 

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c228/power_getter/IMG_04.jpg

I like my LED taillight

 

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c228/power_getter/IMG_04.jpg

 

Where the F did you get those? Only the turnsignal is offered?

 

I was looking at these, anyone try them?

http://frickinbrite.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=28_66&products_id=132