I'm just curious if anyone has replaced their standard tail lamps (brake and turn signal as well) with LED bulbs. Is it worth the money? Locally, I see LED bulbs to replace the 1157 bulbs are over $10 each ($22 for a 2 pack) compared to $4 for the standard bulb. I believe brighter is better, but that's a lot of coin for a light bulb.

 

I have put these Brishine 1157 replacements in many of my vehicles. They are considerably brighter than the incandescents. I highly recommend them.

 

I will have to get some of these for my current project 66

 

You'll also need to replace the signal stats.

 

I put LED's in my 75 Hurst in the tail/brakes lights and in the parking front turn signals. Much brighter but as Eric mentioned, you will need to change the signal stat (flasher for us old guys).

 

It depends. I've only used them in the back. On my 62 and 67 I did not need to change the flasher. On the 69 wagon I did.

 

Dave:
I researched LED bulbs back in 2023 for my '72 442 convertible. I was looking for neon bright and fast response time; really concerned about the slow response time of the incandescent bulbs with inattentive drivers behind me. I tested several options, including the Brishine bulbs that Joe mentioned. I settled on the Phinlion brand I found on Amazon. You can see from this pic that there are considerably more SMD chips on the Phinlion bulbs. One thing to watch out for, most of the LED bulbs have a square shoulder where the incandescent bulbs have a smooth curve at the glass. The square shoulder prevents many of the LED bulbs from fitting into the factory tail light sockets. I rebuilt my tail light assemblies and installed new sockets that were compatible with the LED bulbs so I didn't have this issue. Here's a link to my build thread, the LED bulbs are at Post 350.

https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...e-57404/page9/

Rodney

 

One thing I would caution about. Don't get them so bright that people think you have your foot on the brake when driving normally.
I had a guy in my neighborhood that had tail lights so bright that it looked like he was hitting the brakes. I can't imagine following him and expecting him to stop at any moment.

 

Ditto, on my 67 Cutlass, replaced the taillights only and had no problem using the original flasher,

 

I replaced my backup lights, rear tail/brake lights and from front turn signals with LEDs on my 67 and it's quite an improvement. Had to replace BOTH flashers too.