LED's anyone?

[Willy]

Has anyone tried to put LED  bulbs in their old cars? Do they fit, or do they need modifications? It would seem they would produce more light, with less battery drain.

Edited May 4, 2018 by Willy (see edit history)

[Brass is Best]

Snyder's sells a nice conversion for Model A Fords. 

[tripwire]

Willy,

Yes, you will find LED bulbs to replace incandescent bulbs in single & double "filament" configurations.  Most of the websites that sell them offer 6v negative or positive ground but you have to read the specs to be sure the particular bulb is right for your application.  Way more light with way less electrical load.

The ones I bought to replace the 1154 bulbs I have in my car fit in the sockets just fine.  What I found is these LED bulbs are VERY fussy about proper grounding.  Anything less than a pristine socket will cause them not to light up.  

 

I bought mine from these people: https://www.ledlight.com/6-volt-automotive-led-lights.aspx

[Matt Harwood]

 

In addition, I just ordered and received LEDs for the taillights, back-up lights, and license plate lights of my wife's '56 Chrysler wagon. I'll have those installed this weekend. I also plan to install them in my '29 Cadillac, which has TINY taillights.

 

I have had excellent luck with the LEDs from www.superbrightleds.com. No affiliation, just a satisfied customer.

 

Here's an article I wrote on the subject, mostly a summary of that thread above, but with some additional information that might be useful, especially regarding choosing the right color LEDs: LED Article.pdf

 

 

Edited May 4, 2018 by Matt Harwood (see edit history)

[60FlatTop]

Just a side on LED lights, I am replacing my garage fixtures with LED eight footers, four-4 foot lamps. I was hesitant and bought the first fixture a year ago, sampling and doing a little at a time.

The new technology is far better than what was out there ten years ago. I am on my way to installing 9 of the 8' and a few shorter.

 

The first fixture and lamps totaled $97. Two weeks ago I bought two more at $62 each with 8' cords added. Working my way from the rear to the front as I get time and very happy with the results.

[Spinneyhill]

Just to reiterate, LEDs are polarity sensitive, whereas incandescent bulbs are not. If you have +ve earth, you need +ve earth LEDs.

[Matt Harwood]

45 minutes ago, Spinneyhill said:

Just to reiterate, LEDs are polarity sensitive, whereas incandescent bulbs are not. If you have +ve earth, you need +ve earth LEDs.

 

That's not necessarily true. Check with your LED vendor, but many of the newest LEDs are compatible with either positive or negative ground. I test fit one of the Buick's LEDs in my '29 Cadillac, which is positive ground, and it worked just fine (the Buick is negative ground).

 

As I mentioned in the article above, the problem in my Cadillac is that the taillights also have the license plate light and side marker lights, and they don't get much illumination from the LEDs, which are directional. That's the only reason I haven't upgraded the Cadillac yet--I'm hoping to find a set of LEDs with side-aiming diodes or at least a wider beam angle so that I can get some illumination on the sides, just for safety.

[TerryB]

The old style turn signal flasher relies on the current drawn by the incandescent bulbs to operate properly.  The low current draw of led bulbs usually requires a new flasher that can be manually adjusted to work with the draw of the led bulbs.

Edited May 4, 2018 by TerryB (see edit history)

[Matt Harwood]

As I point out in both my post on LEDs and the article attached up above, having one or two incandescent bulbs in the circuit seems to be sufficient. In my '41 Buick, I kept the front marker lights incandescent while the rear turn signals are LEDs. Flasher works properly. I prefer the look of the soft, yellow light of incandescent bulbs for the front marker lights, and since they have 180-degree lenses, a directional LED would not work properly anyway. There are resistors you can wire into the circuit to make flashers work properly with the LEDs (most LED companies sell these), or even simply keep the dash indicators incandescent which might be sufficient. Or just wire in a spare bulb in the circuit and hide it somewhere or cover it in duct tape so it won't be seen. That's an easy problem to solve.

[Durant Mike]

Matt

 I read your article and it really makes sense for our older cars to be seen.  Great for the tail lights etc. For my TR6 I've just purchased all new LED's for the tail, turn and dash lights. I'll install a ballast resister for it so the turn signals flash. I ordered the tail and turn signals from superbright LED's and the dash lights from a British company.  In today's traffic you need all the light you can get!

[Willy]

Thank you all for the input. I didn't see anything about the front headlights. That's the light I was mainly interested in. I revamped my RV to all LED's and the difference was amazing - my batteries lasted much longer, and I didn't have to do the "Green Acres" with my wife, who thinks all lights should be on at night. I think the new "cob" LED's would be sufficient, as they've put LEDs on the sides, stacking them. And my 1918 DB is 12 volt, which is available everywhere.

[vermontboy]

One possible problem with LED's on a car you drive everyday is the lack of heat. They replaced the bulbs in the traffic lights around here and there are two drawbacks - the first is the directional aspect of the lights and often when approaching a light NONE of the lights appear on - is ite red/yellow or green ?? Tbe second is in the winter with a lot of wind the lights fill up with snow and the LED's don't burn the snow away so the light is basically worthless and they have to send trucks around and the crews spend their time digging snow out of the lights so people can see them.

 

I can only imagine driving through slush with no heat to melt the ice - the headlights will become covered with ice. I even had trouble with that happening with my 2004 Impala - once you got off the interstate onto a back road with no lights you couldn't see where you were going until you stopped and chipped the ice off.

[Matt Harwood]

Headlights are problematic, since cars prior to about 1940 use a separate bulb and a reflector to focus the light. As LEDs are highly directional, they probably wouldn't throw enough light to the reflector to produce a wide beam that works as a headlight. You'd just have a very bright single spot in the middle of the housing but it wouldn't scatter much light on the highway for improved visibility. An incandescent bulb is still the best choice for an old car with a separate bulb and reflector assembly inside the headlight bucket. They do make halogen bulbs (55 watts, I believe) that show a marked improvement--just make sure your wiring and switches are up to the added load. A relay is not a bad idea at that point. Easy to install and can handle the current better than the original switch. Polish your reflector, improve your grounds, etc. I'll bet your lights are 20-30% dimmer than they should be just because of simple maintenance stuff. The lights on my '29 Cadillac, while not fantastic, are adequate for night driving at the speeds that the car was designed to operate (40 MPH).

 

I do know they make round LED sealed beams for 12V cars, but they always look weird because they're supposed to be cool, not blend in. I suppose you could do a sealed beam conversion and stick these in there, but... ew.

 

 

How much night driving do you actually do? Is it worth changing the look of the whole front end for a bit more light that you'll only use rarely? I don't know. I would personally try to make sure that the factory lights were working as well as possible before cobbing the car up with odd-looking headlights.

 

Here's a wiring diagram I made if you want to install a relay (this is for fog lights, but headlights are exactly the same--use two relays if you have high and low beams, one for each circuit). Easy to do and completely takes the load off the switch. You can put it close to the headlights and run larger wires to ensure all the power is reaching the bulbs. You might be surprised by the improvement good grounds and putting a full 6V to the lights will make.