Side marker LED not as bright

[DMC-Ron]

Ron, did you ever make a decision among those 5 side marker bulbs? Which did you like best?

I got sidetracked with a curiosity about the plasma LEDs. I built a lighting test box that allows me to compare light output of bulbs. Currently its set up to test the 1156 bulb, and I'm comparing red plasma LED to red segment LED. These would primarily be used for our brake lights. I have done one round of tests and hope to complete a second round to repeat the results. In the meantime I got sidetracked (sound familiar) with installing a battery disconnect solenoid in my car. All this and I also have to do real work, so bear with me. I'll write up the results and put them on the forum soon. Just to titillate, the results were certainly a surprise to me.

Testing of side markers will follow at some point, but may be a while.

Ron

[Christian Dietrich]

Christian, your side marker bulbs... the "BA9s LED Bulb - 5 SMD LED Tower".... would you say they have an even glow all around like the original incandescents? Do the ambers appear much brighter than the reds? Or does it look as equal as incandescents? I'm trying to match the look of the originals as closely as possible.





Ron, did you ever make a decision among those 5 side marker bulbs? Which did you like best?

For the most part i'd say amber is a touch brighter than the red but the red is a deep full red color. The amber isn't much more brighter. They are so bright when driving at night, i can look out the window and set the guard rail lite up with red and amber! Here is a updated pic from a few weeks ago. Sorry for the delay in getting back with you as I've been so busy at work plus trying to finish my rear bumper modification as the letters in the bumper are now backlit and I'm sending the bumpers out to get painted today. And before you say anything lol it's not as bright as it looks as my camera phone wasn't adjusted for any glare but it's actually a nice soft red light!

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[Christian Dietrich]

I used these Putco LEDs in my running and brake lights after my wife noticed how washed out the DMCH led kit looked in direct sunlight. Incredibility bright, but expensive bulbs, but if it improves visibility cost doesn't matter.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/put-241156r-360

I run these in my parking lights, brakes and reverse along with the front bumper lights. Very bright and can be a eye sore when behind me. Both of The DeLorean 's in the picture below have that same bulb I just posted a picture of. My car is the one on the right and this is inside my garage and you can even see how bright my tag lights are and each bulb is 105 lumens each. That's why you can see the light shining down on the floor

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[DL4567]

If you're only matching what's already there, why are you even looking into LED's at all? If you want it to "look stock", leave it stock, nothing else will in the side markers, it's an optical minefield of a nightmare. 360° light converted to weird gradients of cones of light in a long and narrow lens with dams before the long parts and being on the underside of a retroreflector, there's just far too much at play for me to even think about, let alone someone who would make a product.

5 SMD LED variants are a dime a dozen. Buy a few and test them out. I think you'll find they're not quite as large a difference as you might be expecting.

Now the rear lights aren't bad on their own, and LED varieties exist that match stock brightness fairly well (I have bought some), but the small bulb size of the side markers and awful geometry leaves very few options to match an incandescent perfectly.

EDIT: I should probably tone down a bit, geez my unwarranted crankiness is showing there (sorry about that), did want to clarify one thing: the 5 SMD LED isn't the only LED on the market for that spot, others exist too, they're just the most common. I run them myself, and am looking to upgrade after not finding them bright enough, if that's any indication.

Haha no worries! The reason I'm wanting to add some more LEDs is to prevent my headlight switch from ever melting (and to be able to run the lights parked for display without worry of too much battery drain). Seems the agreed consensus is that the more bulbs you replace that run through that circuit, the less of a "burden" it is on the headlight switch. It's arguable how 'necessary' that is, as my switch has been fine for the many years I've had my car, but whenever LED technology improves my interest gets re-ignited and I think about replacing more bulbs. That said, I do like the stock look of the incandescents the best, and will only convert a light to LED if it matches the look very closely.

I got sidetracked with a curiosity about the plasma LEDs. I built a lighting test box that allows me to compare light output of bulbs. Currently its set up to test the 1156 bulb, and I'm comparing red plasma LED to red segment LED. These would primarily be used for our brake lights. I have done one round of tests and hope to complete a second round to repeat the results. In the meantime I got sidetracked (sound familiar) with installing a battery disconnect solenoid in my car. All this and I also have to do real work, so bear with me. I'll write up the results and put them on the forum soon. Just to titillate, the results were certainly a surprise to me.

Testing of side markers will follow at some point, but may be a while.

Ron

That's ok, I keep an eye on the forum all the time, whenever you post your results I'll be sure to see it. Sounds interesting.... "plasma" LEDs? Haven't heard of those yet.

For the most part i'd say amber is a touch brighter than the red but the red is a deep full red color. The amber isn't much more brighter. They are so bright when driving at night, i can look out the window and set the guard rail lite up with red and amber! Here is a updated pic from a few weeks ago. Sorry for the delay in getting back with you as I've been so busy at work plus trying to finish my rear bumper modification as the letters in the bumper are now backlit and I'm sending the bumpers out to get painted today. And before you say anything lol it's not as bright as it looks as my camera phone wasn't adjusted for any glare but it's actually a nice soft red light!

Thanks for the reply! It wasn't slow at all -- I just posted my question last night. Yeah, for $20 a set, I just might give them a try. The 5-light LEDs look more promising than the other style where the lights are all on the tip, making it look more like a "dot" of light inside the side-marker lens rather than an even flood of light all around. As for brightness, off-hand I don't remember if the stock bulbs look like even brightness between red and amber, as I imagine the lens color must affect it somewhat.

Has anyone used these for the front bumper turn-signals? It's what superbrightleds.com recommends for that spot in the DeLorean:
https://www.superbrightleds.com/more...fit/2625/5699/

[Christian Dietrich]

Haha no worries! The reason I'm wanting to add some more LEDs is to prevent my headlight switch from ever melting (and to be able to run the lights parked for display without worry of too much battery drain). Seems the agreed consensus is that the more bulbs you replace that run through that circuit, the less of a "burden" it is on the headlight switch. It's arguable how 'necessary' that is, as my switch has been fine for the many years I've had my car, but whenever LED technology improves my interest gets re-ignited and I think about replacing more bulbs. That said, I do like the stock look of the incandescents the best, and will only convert a light to LED if it matches the look very closely.





That's ok, I keep an eye on the forum all the time, whenever you post your results I'll be sure to see it. Sounds interesting.... "plasma" LEDs? Haven't heard of those yet.




Thanks for the reply! It wasn't slow at all -- I just posted my question last night. Yeah, for $20 a set, I just might give them a try. The 5-light LEDs look more promising than the other style where the lights are all on the tip, making it look more like a "dot" of light inside the side-marker lens rather than an even flood of light all around. As for brightness, off-hand I don't remember if the stock bulbs look like even brightness between red and amber, as I imagine the lens color must affect it somewhat.

Has anyone used these for the front bumper turn-signals? It's what superbrightleds.com recommends for that spot in the DeLorean:
https://www.superbrightleds.com/more...fit/2625/5699/

Go with the ones I just posted in the 1156 style because that's what I also run also for the front turn signals because there are dual function LED. They are extremely bright and work really well with the turn signals and I got the turn signal relay from DMC.

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[Christian Dietrich]

Go with the ones I just posted in the 1156 style because that's what I also run also for the front turn signals because there are dual function LED. They are extremely bright and work really well with the turn signals and I got the turn signal relay from DMC.

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This is what I use for the tag lights and the engine compartment light along with the trunk light and both dome lights and these are 105 lumens each the only thing different I had to do with my car with these bulbs for the interior is to remove the white relay for the dome light Auto dimming after you close the doors because the lights will just stay on so I simply unplugged it so they just come on and turn off with the opening and closing of the door because with the circuitry that's on them they won't fade out because of that Factory dimmer module and I have the same version of this light in a newer car that I have and they were fine with the slow dimming out

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[Shep]

Oh yeah, forgot about the headlight switch, that's a good point. The 5 SMD guys like I said though are brighter, you'll want something different. Experiment! I think there's 5 5mm LED versions that might be similar, those would be abysmally dim like the originals, worth a try. They look like what you expect a 5 SMD to look like if they swapped the SMD's for 5mm LED's

Go with the ones I just posted in the 1156 style because that's what I also run also for the front turn signals because there are dual function LED. They are extremely bright and work really well with the turn signals and I got the turn signal relay from DMC.

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NO, false, fronts are 1157, that is what the dual filament designation is. Parking light is low, turn signal high. Also additional note: avoid switchbacks unless you have a clear lens (still looking for this to exist myself), it will be white when parking and amber when turning, and will look horrible parking.

@DL4567: that's the same style (in 1157 and 1156) that matches incandescent perfectly front and rear (respectively). I have a picture somewhere of this, I think the 24 SMD (is that the right number? Next quantity up) style is what did perfectly, 18 SMD was a touch dimmer than stock, but not at all noticeable. Oh, and look out for the reverse and remember incandescent is soft white by default, if you want to match stock color, try and find soft white.

@Last post here, that's what I run too. VERY bright and do wonders for prolonging spectators at night as a result of the engine bay and interior being well lit (trunk area if you open yours also). I don't have any dimming in/out, mine are all switched directly. PWM dimming is a bonus feature that I typically try to avoid if I can help it. I prefer on/off unless I have a need to adjust it (binnacle lights, for example). Fancy stuff is more $$$ and another possible failure point.

While we're talking LED mods, I'll share a neat one I've done to my car. Footwell lights that tap into the relevant door switch. Driver's footwell lights up if driver's door is opened, passenger if that side is opened. Especially useful in diagnosing a jittery door switch (just have a passenger look down long enough to spot which side lights up), but overall for "neat" looks. I think I tapped into the Lambda warning light for that because extension plugs are readily available and I already have a bypass speedo cable. Mine are blue, but you should be able to get a fairly stock look running soft white, and having people wonder how it took 20 more years to finally make it a thing again.

[Christian Dietrich]

Oh yeah, forgot about the headlight switch, that's a good point. The 5 SMD guys like I said though are brighter, you'll want something different. Experiment! I think there's 5 5mm LED versions that might be similar, those would be abysmally dim like the originals, worth a try. They look like what you expect a 5 SMD to look like if they swapped the SMD's for 5mm LED's



NO, false, fronts are 1157, that is what the dual filament designation is. Parking light is low, turn signal high. Also additional note: avoid switchbacks unless you have a clear lens (still looking for this to exist myself), it will be white when parking and amber when turning, and will look horrible parking.

@DL4567: that's the same style (in 1157 and 1156) that matches incandescent perfectly front and rear (respectively). I have a picture somewhere of this, I think the 24 SMD (is that the right number? Next quantity up) style is what did perfectly, 18 SMD was a touch dimmer than stock, but not at all noticeable. Oh, and look out for the reverse and remember incandescent is soft white by default, if you want to match stock color, try and find soft white.

@Last post here, that's what I run too. VERY bright and do wonders for prolonging spectators at night as a result of the engine bay and interior being well lit (trunk area if you open yours also). I don't have any dimming in/out, mine are all switched directly. PWM dimming is a bonus feature that I typically try to avoid if I can help it. I prefer on/off unless I have a need to adjust it (binnacle lights, for example). Fancy stuff is more $$$ and another possible failure point.

While we're talking LED mods, I'll share a neat one I've done to my car. Footwell lights that tap into the relevant door switch. Driver's footwell lights up if driver's door is opened, passenger if that side is opened. Especially useful in diagnosing a jittery door switch (just have a passenger look down long enough to spot which side lights up), but overall for "neat" looks. I think I tapped into the Lambda warning light for that because extension plugs are readily available and I already have a bypass speedo cable. Mine are blue, but you should be able to get a fairly stock look running soft white, and having people wonder how it took 20 more years to finally make it a thing again.

My apologies and when I posted that picture of the two different bulbs I meant to say 1157 not 1156. I will say these 26 SMD bulbs are very bright and they look good at night time and are very visible during the day. I also have footwell lighting but it's on all the time when I turn on my running lights and everything and I also have another mod that I'm working on designing

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[Shep]

No worries! I was wondering based on the way your post was written, but had to clarify before someone bought the wrong bulb based on that.

[Christian Dietrich]

No worries! I was wondering based on the way your post was written, but had to clarify before someone bought the wrong bulb based on that.

Yes most definitely and the 1157 is the Dual stage and they 1156 is a single stage!

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