LEDs: Where to buy 'em?

[AugustneverEnds]

Happy February all! I need to replace my fuse block and decided to replace several burned out A/C panel bulbs. Who offers LED bulbs for that? Also are there LED bulbs available for the taillights and parking lights too? I think I will be leaving the instrument cluster alone for now as everything there is ok and the pics I've seen with LEDs are borderline too intense for me.

[Ozzie]

Greetings.
You can check out the link on my signature for a guideline on LEDs for our cars.
Hope you find it useful.

[kings1527]

Ozzie's page was instrumental for me to convert to LEDs. He's done a tremendous amount of legwork for all of us on the board.

In short, I've had great luck with superbrightleds.com but make sure you have enough room on your credit card. That's a fairly $$$$ place. Some eBay sellers are good, as well, but I did have some trouble with a front flasher that was a cheaper Chinese version. I've had zero trouble with anything from superbright.

[AugustneverEnds]

Ozzie's page was instrumental for me to convert to LEDs. He's done a tremendous amount of legwork for all of us on the board.

In short, I've had great luck with superbrightleds.com but make sure you have enough room on your credit card. That's a fairly $$$$ place. Some eBay sellers are good, as well, but I did have some trouble with a front flasher that was a cheaper Chinese version. I've had zero trouble with anything from superbright.

He really has made a super page. Thanks for all of the assistance

[johnyrottin]

I just did mine with Superbrightleds. Ian was here in town so he helped and saved me loads of "experimenting" time. He had done his previously so he knew the pitfalls. I am sure that saved me a few hours! Very happy with them.

[FLYBOY]

Ozzie's blog is Absolutely a must for anyone doing any
Kind of LED conversion. Incredible link

It was the number #1 reference for me when doing my 100%
LED conversion and then some, the only thing is the $$$
In the end I went with Superbrghtleds.com(which are the best)
But Had I'd known I'll spend $400+. I might go the ebay route but
Atleast I know they will last forever.
Very happy with them and having said that I'd probably
Spend the $$$ again anyway because it looks great.

[DeLorean03]

I had multiple ones from Superbrightleds burn out on me. None of my eBay (non-China ones) LEDs have burned out on me. Had one DeadOnArrivals, but the company in California was ready to send me another one without any trouble.

With Superbrightleds, you are paying for the convenience factor - big time.

[AugustneverEnds]

I had multiple ones from Superbrightleds burn out on me. None of my eBay (non-China ones) LEDs have burned out on me. Had one DeadOnArrivals, but the company in California was ready to send me another one without any trouble.

With Superbrightleds, you are paying for the convenience factor - big time.

This is really good to know. My luck on eBay has generally been pretty good so maybe I'll see if I can save a bit that way

[sapphirexae]

I am going insane trying to find Blue LEDs for the doors! I have no idea what size or type and can't seem to find a clear cut answer. I am completely mechanically dumb, can anyone tell me exactly what I need? That would be amazing!!!

[Ozzie]

Thanks for the nice words on the site, all.
Am glad to see that it has been, and continues to be, useful to other owners.



I am going insane trying to find Blue LEDs for the doors! I have no idea what size or type and can't seem to find a clear cut answer. I am completely mechanically dumb, can anyone tell me exactly what I need? That would be amazing!!!

Here is the Superbright link for: Blue, Door LEDs (http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/miniature-wedge-base/194-led-bulb-5-led-wide-angle-wedge-base/199/)

Is it bright enough for you? Will you like the blue color? Is it too expensive? ...I don't know, that is subjective and I've never ordered these, BUT if you follow my link and the
LED PDF Reference (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8tZLEiyQMrAQVFraXNnbUpFalk/edit?usp=sharing) that I published, it will state that these are the right size. Let us know how they work out if you get them.

BTW:
I have no association with SuperbrightLEDS other than I have used many of their products for my D and other cars, and the one LED of many purchased that failed, was only because of rough service (engine bay light), which they don't even make anymore now (the replacement has been great for a few years now). So while they are certainly not the cheapest, I know for a fact (based on trips to China) that some of the eBay China components are either rejects or outside of production in some way. SuperbrightLED must have more formalized business relationships with China LED vendors, so they can guarantee the quality, thus why they are more expensive than the eBay ones - which is why I continue to purchase and recommend them.

[DeLorean03]

This is really good to know. My luck on eBay has generally been pretty good so maybe I'll see if I can save a bit that way

A bit ...? More like a flipping fortune.

Here's a good example:

So, tail light LEDs, 1156 Red - will need 6 of these for the tail lights.

So here's SBL's version at $18 a piece (or $108 before shipping):

http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/tail-brake-turn/3156-led-bulb-single-intensity-18-smd-led-tower/396/


And here's an American company in Georgia selling LEDs on eBay at $15 for a pair with free shipping ($45 total for 6 lights):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/GP-Thunder-Pair-1156-1073-1141-7506-SMD-LED-Turn-Signal-Tail-Light-Bulbs-Red-NEW-/380236989920?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr&hash=item5887e405e0

Now, two things here:

1. Those are what I use on my car. I am happy with them. Not everyone is happy with my choice, but I love them. No one's rear-ended me yet, so going into 3 years now with them installed - so I am going to assume they're bright enough for the average driver behind me. Now whether I get rear-ended for another factor is out of my control.

2. I bring this option to light to help others. I am NOT doing this to poo-poo on Ozzie's work. He went through quite a bit figuring out the bulbs and putting together a reference guide. He did an outstanding job. I just wanted to try something different, and I wanted to "stray elsewhere" and try other things than what was documented in his pdf file. Some people love the convenience factor, and heck yes, he sure has delivered on that.

I strongly encourage people to try things out for themselves. If we are willing to pop $400 for a binnacle, $3000+ for an EFI conversion, or $700 for Toby TABs - I find it hard to believe that we would "hesitate and turtle shell" over a $15 pair of bulbs.

That's just me.

[RIUM+]

One other thing you're paying for with superbrightleds (and the dealbreaker for me) is you know exactly what you're ordering. They list the power consumption, voltage tolerance, lumen/candela output, peak colour wavelength, spread pattern & a complete rundown of all the dimensions. On eBay, you get a description of just "9 SMD, 12V, cool white T10 bulb" or something similar. A couple sellers provide more information than that but superbrightleds has it all. If you're trying to match the stock setup exactly you're often shooting in the dark with eBay.

It's possible to match the existing system almost exactly by carefully picking superbrightled bulbs, though I had a few changes from Ozzie's fantastic list... I should send him my findings!

Here's a photo of my before/after with superbrightleds, with each bulb within 8% of stock brightness according to my lux meter (except for my reversing lights which were out by 16% but I wasn't too concerned about them, and my indicator is brighter thanks to the way it instantly switches on to full brightness). Note that the left indicator is darker than reality because it's hard to take a photo of the indicators at peak brightness since my stock incandescents just pulse up/down in brightness, rather than actually turn on/off. So much resistance & induction in our old, thin wires. Photos taken with a proper DSLR camera, calibrated with a colourimeter & tagged with an ICC colour profile so this image looks true-to-life (at least, it does if you're not using an old version of Internet Explorer).
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/tail_light_comparison2.jpg

[AugustneverEnds]

A bit ...? More like a flipping fortune.

Here's a good example:

So, tail light LEDs, 1156 Red - will need 6 of these for the tail lights.

So here's SBL's version at $18 a piece (or $108 before shipping):

http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/tail-brake-turn/3156-led-bulb-single-intensity-18-smd-led-tower/396/


And here's an American company in Georgia selling LEDs on eBay at $15 for a pair with free shipping ($45 total for 6 lights):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/GP-Thunder-Pair-1156-1073-1141-7506-SMD-LED-Turn-Signal-Tail-Light-Bulbs-Red-NEW-/380236989920?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr&hash=item5887e405e0

Now, two things here:

1. Those are what I use on my car. I am happy with them. Not everyone is happy with my choice, but I love them. No one's rear-ended me yet, so going into 3 years now with them installed - so I am going to assume they're bright enough for the average driver behind me. Now whether I get rear-ended for another factor is out of my control.

2. I bring this option to light to help others. I am NOT doing this to poo-poo on Ozzie's work. He went through quite a bit figuring out the bulbs and putting together a reference guide. He did an outstanding job. I just wanted to try something different, and I wanted to "stray elsewhere" and try other things than what was documented in his pdf file. Some people love the convenience factor, and heck yes, he sure has delivered on that.

I strongly encourage people to try things out for themselves. If we are willing to pop $400 for a binnacle, $3000+ for an EFI conversion, or $700 for Toby TABs - I find it hard to believe that we would "hesitate and turtle shell" over a $15 pair of bulbs.

That's just me.

I hadn't looked at the prices yet; you're right, "a fortune" definitely fits better than "a bit" :smile:

[Bitsyncmaster]

Some of those EBay bulbs are worthless. I bought a couple cheap ones that I planed to use on my Malibu but they barely had any intensity. Could not use any LEDs on the Malibu because the flashing is ECU controlled and it would fast flash.

[DeLorean03]

Some of those EBay bulbs are worthless. I bought a couple cheap ones that I planed to use on my Malibu but they barely had any intensity. Could not use any LEDs on the Malibu because the flashing is ECU controlled and it would fast flash.

Did you buy them from the seller I listed as an example? Just curious.

[Bitsyncmaster]

Did you buy them from the seller I listed as an example? Just curious.

Don't remember but they were shipped from China.

[DeLorean03]

Don't remember but they were shipped from China.

Gotcha - mine came from CA and GA.