View Single Post
  #1  
Old 12-10-2003, 05:33 PM
The Warden's Avatar
The Warden The Warden is offline
Certified diesel nut
 
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Pacifica (SF Bay Area), CA
Posts: 2,946
Question LED replacement bulbs

Hello!

I'm looking at putting LED's in place of the stock light bulbs on my truck (I haven't seen any LED bulbs that are compatible with my 123; does anyone know if they exist?). Only thing is, I've only found one place that has LED's that'll replace standard 194/1156/1157 bulbs, and they don't appear to have any bulbs that put out light similar to what you'd see from an incandescent bulb (there's one that's "super-white", but it looks to have a blueish tinge to the light put out). Of course, except the back-up lights, every light on my truck's got a lens that dictates the color people see. My question is, would it be better to use the super-white bulbs (from this site, they're more expensive, in addition to being more of a blue/white than just white), or would it be better to use a bulb that's colored similar to the lens color (i.e. use a yellow bulb for the front turn signals and cab lights, red for the tail lights, etc)? Will the light output be diminished by the lens, if the bulb color and the lens color are one and the same?

Also, this is a dumb question, but can LED's be dimmed by lower voltage? i.e. if I put LED's in the instrument cluster lights, could I still dim them with the stock rheostat?

Also, I know that LED's will last longer than incandescent bulbs, but does anyone have a figure on how much longer they last?

Any thoughts and comments would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!
__________________
2001 VW Jetta TDI, 5 speed, daily driver
1991 Ford F-350, work in progress
1984 Ford F-250 4x4, 6.9l turbo diesel, 5 speed manual
Previous oilburners: 1980 IH Scout, 1984 E-350, 1985 M-B 300D, 1979 M-B 300SD, 1983 M-B 300D
Spark-free since 1999
Reply With Quote