LED Taillights?

[WoofWagon]

I purchased some LED taillights at a recent swapmeet but was then told by an associate there that I needed some other load circuit for the directional signals to work?

Does this sound right to you guys? I know that LEDs have little to no internal resistance, is that going to fool the signal relay into believing that there's no light there (as you know, incandescent bulbs have a resistance)?

[Aceshigh]

Plug them in and find out.
I have pulled every incandescent bulb out of both of my classics in favor of LED's.
Lower power draw, 100x the longevity, and no heat to burn outlets if resistance increases. Win/Win/Win.

Usually a single LED requires a certain level resistor.
But if you put strings of them on a PCB in a single outlet they were designed to have enough of a load.

I have 4" housings with 30 LED's in them for my 2nd gen Camaro's tail lights.
Couldn't be happier with the results.....they're outstanding.

Just make sure they are bright......not all are very bright. Mine were made for Semi's......so they're obnoxiously bright.

[WoofWagon]

They're a LED with a 1157 plug so that they set right into the existing sockets. I'll do your suggestion and just put them in to try out.

[MDchanic]

Originally Posted by WoofWagon

I know that LEDs have little to no internal resistance, is that going to fool the signal relay into believing that there's no light there (as you know, incandescent bulbs have a resistance)?

You've got it backwards.

LED's have very high resistance, light bulbs have a relatively low resistance when on, and an extremely low resistance when first powered up, until the filament gets white hot.

Because of the high resistance of LEDs, there is minimal current flow through them, which is not enough to heat up the coil of the flasher, heat up the bimetallic strip, and make it bend, thus opening the circuit and causing the lights to go out (and then cooling off, making contact, and repeating the cycle to flash the lights).

There are three ways to make your signals flash:
1. bypass the high-resistance LEDs with low-resistance resistors, which just wastes the current that would have gone through the LEDs.
2. change to an solid state LED flasher, which is electronic and doesn't rely on current flow to work.
3. Use LOTS of LEDs (and I do mean LOTS).

- Eric

ps: those commercial 1157-type LED bulbs are often overrated, and have less light output than the equivalent light bulb. Install them in one side only and your eyes will tell you.

[WoofWagon]

thanks, I'll give them a try tonight.

[Redog]

Exactly what Eric said.

I just stay away from them. There is something that plugs into the socket, then the light plugs into that to light it up correctly. At least I think. It's been so long since I looked at them.