What lights can I replace with LED's

Stu · Postby **Stu** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 11:09 pm

Ok guys,

Time to really make use of the new topic

I have an NB8B, and am wanting to make the lighting around the car brighter, without being jacked by the cops for illegal lighting.

What can I legally change to LED's?

Alex · Postby **Alex** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 4:31 am

the cops can't get you for illegal lighting as long as the colours of the lights are the same, they work, and they are above the minimum brightness for that type of light.

It's not much help really but if it were me I would do brake light, all rear lights and indicators but leave the headlights as they are or replace with brighter bulbs not LED's

Garry · Postby **Garry** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 10:46 am

You might find problems finding LED replacements for the brake and indicator lights. NB8B's use a wedge style globe in their rear lights. You can buy an LED replacement centre brake light though.

bruce · Postby **bruce** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 2:58 pm

I know Jaycar stock some replacement LED globes.

Stu · Postby **Stu** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 9:54 pm

I have now replaced the rear plate lights and front parking lights with LED's.

I went for the pure white LED's with 6 LED globes that I got at Autobarn.

Alex · Postby **Alex** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 5:33 am

what do they look like? better than standard globes?

Hammer · Postby **Hammer** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 4:21 pm

Stu wrote:I have now replaced the rear plate lights and front parking lights with LED's.

I went for the pure white LED's with 6 LED globes that I got at Autobarn.

Stu, are they similar to these LEDs (parkers)?

They are available from eBay.

And here are the tail lights:

Do you mind me asking how much they cost from Autobarn?

ZenArcher · Postby **ZenArcher** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 9:22 pm

I've tried several different types of LED's in both the parkers and the indicators.

IMHO they were a total waste of money. The big problem with them is they seem to be directional light. That is with a normal bulb it sprays light everywhere. Hence the chrome reflectors behind say the indicators help make the indicators bright as they reflect the light coming from the bulb back towards on coming traffic or traffic behind you. They also serve to make the light source look bigger than it is. With the LED's they only throw the light in one direction it seems and as such they don't throw light at the reflectors behind the bulb area. Hence the indictor light then only becomes the size of the LED itself. I tried them in both a set of altezza rear lights as well as the normal OEM tail lights and thought the LED's were worse than standard bulbs. I've also tried them in the front parking lights and again, they were much worse than the standard bulbs.

IMHO waste of money. I took them back for a refund.

Matty · Postby **Matty** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 8:15 pm

Agree with Zen. Indicators will also have the problem of fast blinking (like when a globe blows)

I built myself a LED centre brake light which was really effective. Did a writeup on the miataforum...

http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=90487

Hammer · Postby **Hammer** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 9:04 am

Matty wrote:Agree with Zen. Indicators will also have the problem of fast blinking (like when a globe blows)

I built myself a LED centre brake light which was really effective. Did a writeup on the miataforum...

http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=90487

Hey Matty,

Not all the images from this links do not work. It would be good to see the final product.

Stu · Postby **Stu** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 6:38 pm

After a couple of weeks of driving around with the ED parkers, I noticed the parkers had started blinking. I have now pulled out the LED's and put the originals back in.

As for the look. They were horn, but offered little to no lighting assistance.

mr_rotary · Postby **mr_rotary** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 10:16 am

I HATE LED's as tail lights on cars :evil:

. Trucks are fine as they only push the break pedal once when slowing down however when you follow cars (especially auto's) where they like to keep tapping on the break pedal, the LED's are too fast in switching on and off. It's like \"I thought they braked or did they?\"

Benny · Postby **Benny** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 11:15 am

I also find that a lot of the LED tail lights are far to bright at night.
They're OK during the day, but they should do something about dimming them a bit at night.