Anyone using LED replacement 1157 tail light bulbs ? • The Dodge Challenger Message Board

by **purple1** » 05 Oct 2008 13:15

I am burning up turn signal switches. Because of the exta load from the trailer lights, my brake light curcuit keeps burning up. :cry:

I want to replace all 4 bulbs in the car and in the trailer (8 total bulbs) with more efficent LED bulbs.

Does anyone know what kind of replacements will fit? There seem to be so many choices now. I found this site with quite a few.

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/ ... roduct=CAR

Any one try these replacement bulbs yet? :?:

by **jh27n0b** » 05 Oct 2008 13:57

Check out this guys experience and see if that helps. He does not seem someone trying to sell something.
http://www.roaminangelsinc.com/htmls/te ... ights.html
Bob

by **dave-r** » 05 Oct 2008 14:45

If you replace ALL of your turn signals (front and rear) with LED lamps they may not work as they do not draw enough current for the turn relay to work.

I have experimented with tail lights and compaired LED with normal lamps. LED lamps do not come close to either being as bright OR giving an even distrubution of light behind the lens.

The BEST way to light large tail lamps like on a 1970 Challenger (for example) is to paint the reflectors WHITE and to use a normal stop/tail lamp.

Here are some photos of the tail lights on my wifes Neon. The colour is off a bit but concentrate on the brightness and distrubution of light.

by **dave-r** » 05 Oct 2008 16:45

Forgot to say. This is with the BRAKE pedal jammed ON in daylight.

by **drewcrane** » 06 Oct 2008 0:03

man the normal bulb looks much brighter, it looks like led is close, but not quite enough :s023:

by **Moparman1972** » 06 Oct 2008 0:47

LED's are much more directed light, too, so it depends on how it is reflected around the lens. Look at a plain LED light straight on and they'll blind you pretty good, but from an angle its not that intense. They're much brighter implemented in modern car lights from the beginning, rather than adapted into something designed for a bulb.

by **dave-r** » 06 Oct 2008 8:12

These were 22 (or more?) LED lamps with angled and reversed diodes to try to get around the lack of all-round lighting. They still do not do a good job of it. Yet they seem bright enough when you look at them. Maybe something to do with the filtering of a red brake lens?

For example. The red LED lamp did not look as bright as the white (which actually hurt my eyes looking at it) yet behind the red plastic lens it looked much darker. Suggesting there is not much in the way of the red wavelengths immitted by these things.

by **drewcrane** » 06 Oct 2008 20:26

interesting, i have a shop light hat is led, and it too if looked at right on its is very bright, but from the side the light is almost non existant
, it seems that different colors are brighter, i have some cheap christmas lights and the blues and the purples, kinda hurt or do funny things to the eyes not that any one would use that color but it is interesting that certain colors are more intense than others:s025: :nod:

by **drewcrane** » 06 Oct 2008 20:33

check out these lights,

by **Moparman1972** » 07 Oct 2008 2:25

Yeah, the lens of the light has to be designed from the start for LED's or its just recovery mode kind of engineering trying to point LEDs in all different directions to compensate. Who knows, maybe they wouldnt be bad in a challenger taillight housing. But try a lot of them.

by **dave-r** » 07 Oct 2008 8:22

Yep. White behide clear plastic works fine. It is the tail lights that are the problem.

by **patrick** » 22 Feb 2009 9:41

I'm going to give the white one's a shot. They are 31 LED's, wide angle. And will fit. I'll post some pic's. With what Dave said, I won't do all at once. Flasher has to have enough current, to do its job. I'll mix and match. I have four 1157's coming but, as you all know, I have a small car lot, of old vehicle's. :roll:

I'll be able to use them in something. :wink:

Thanks guy's. Patrick