http://www.dialight.com/pdfs/prodgroup/586-460x-10x.pdf

They are a maker of most of the LED lamps you see on buses and trucks. They have a product that will fit a 1156 base.

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1984 380SL-driving and service privileges.

They'll work to produce light but they won't have as dispersed a flood of light as an incandescent bulb so you might end up with a bright central spot in your taillights rather than an evenly illuminated section.

Sixto
95 S420
91 300SE
87 300SDL
83 300SD

LEDTronics makes LED tail light bulb replacements that have additional LEDs aimed to the side so that the car reflector distributes the light around like an incandescent bulb, and are better than the directional LED bulbs. However the review I read of them indicated they were still a pretty intense hot spot, only moderately better than other LED brake light bulbs, but not as difuse as a regular bulb. They are also about $40 per bulb!

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John

2003 Firemist Red/grey leather SL 500
2015 Palladium Silver/black mbtex GLK 350
1987 Smoke Silver/burgundy mbtex 300E Sportline (SOLD)

Click to see 87 300E

Would LED replacement bulbs trip the burned bulb detector? Since LED lights do not draw much current and may appear as burned to the burned light detector. Has someone actually installed one of these lights in a MB to see how they work on the car?

I bought the latest, greatest, lifetime warrantied drop light about six months ago. All LEDS. What a POS. In a darkened room one could find it if one plugged it in. But, it don't put out any light. One must set it on the exact thing one is looking at.

Don't have a clue about their use in auto illumination except to relate those results. Based on how poor they do as a drop light I imagine there must be some gimmicy look they give off as I doubt they do well in the only purpose they should be compared on: candlepower.

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Steve Brotherton
Continental Imports
Gainesville FL
Bosch Master, ASE Master, L1
33 years MB technician

This Site sells a 6 ohm 'load equalizer' to address the burned out bulb indicator problem. However, given that the LED bulbs usually are accompanied with a "Not DOT Approved/Show car-off road use recommended" label, I would not want to bet they were as effective as traditional bulbs. Likewise, I would suspect that your liability might increase (depending on where you live) for having non-standard brake light bulbs in your car during an accident.

I have toyed with the idea of adding these to the unused rear fog lamp sockets on my 87 300E as supplemental brake lights, on the theory that the instant on effect would give a 'sequential on' effect to the brake lights - the eye is attracted to motion at night, and this sequential instant-on/normal-on motion effect might have some small safety advantage. This theory comes from the original intent, design, and tests of the 3rd center brake light which was for for an extra center brake light that flashed: The rate of flash increased with the rate of deceleration during braking. Tests showed this had a dramatic effect on decreasing rear end collisions. The feds, however, said cars couldn't have a flashing red light to the rear, as people would think theyu were police cars. They nonetheless mandated the use of a non-flashing center light, even though the control group in the tests, as I recall, showed that non-flashing center brake lights had no effect on the frequency of rear end collisions.

I may try the rear LED bulbs in the fog lamp socket idea at some point, but spending $80-100 and messing with the bulb out circuit are not real high on my honey-do lists. The rear end collision liability is not a major issue for me, as CA generally rules that if you rear end someone, it is your fault. Other states/countries may see things differently, so proceed with care.

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John

2003 Firemist Red/grey leather SL 500
2015 Palladium Silver/black mbtex GLK 350
1987 Smoke Silver/burgundy mbtex 300E Sportline (SOLD)

Click to see 87 300E

Many trucks have LED brake lights and many new cars have LED third brake lights. They seem pretty bright but certainly very directional and they don't shine through a diffuser. Might work in your case if you remove the tail light lens

Sixto
95 S420
91 300SE
87 300SDL
83 300SD

JCE is right, LED lights will trip the bulb fault indicator on the dashboard.

LED lights throw light differently. They can't replace bulbs one-for-one. The whole taillamp assembly needs to be redesigned to take advantage of LED lighting.

We may see more and more of LED lights in the future. The biggest drawback for the manufacturer is cost. I'm surprised the DOT isn't pushing it. LED lights light up instantly, whereas regular tungsten bulbs need a fraction of a second to get hot and light up. All things being equal (braking, reaction time, etc.), this fraction of a second increases stopping distance of the car behind you by something like 10 feet at 60 mph. Ten feet is quite significant. Plus they don't burn out as quickly as tungsten bulbs. And auto designers can design thinner taillamp housings to increase trunk space.

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95 E320 Cabriolet, 159K