Incandescent to LED rear lights
The LED's made a nice bright spot, but mostly just in the center of the lenses (…) The 3496 bulbs fill the entire lens area with light due to the design of the lenses and off axis reflection assistance of the internal housing of the light assembly. The 3496 bulbs that Dan suggested are very much brighter than the original 1157 bulbs by about 140 lumens and draw about an amp less power than the original 1157's (…) End result is brighter brake, tail and turns with less power draw on your electrical reserves. Also ended up being cheaper by about 12 bucks than the LED's. I'm keeping the 3496 bulbs.
Glad to help out. Photo illustration of this what you found is
here.
I'm going to make my original backup lights into brake and turns also, by wiring them into the brake/turn circuit only of the outer lights.
(All four on with brakes on, and two at a time for the left and right signals)
Can't recommend this unless you are planning on running new, heavier-gauge wire to the brake light switch, from the brake light switch to the turn signal switch, and from the turn signal switch out to the back of the car. Otherwise you are overloading the entire circuit by 100%. You probably won't have a fire, but you will starve the bulbs which will drop their output considerably. Of greater concern, you will significantly slow down their rise time to full intensity.
Better idea: separate the brake and turn functions so you have two brake/tail lights inboard, and two turn/tail lights outboard. Use two pairs of stock outboard lenses. This way you also have four tail lamps, doubling your conspicuity while just driving around at night and in the rain. Use two pairs of 3496 bulbs. You'll have to move the rear retroreflector and reversing light functions whether you do it my way or your way. You can use '62 Valiant (+67 Barracuda + numerous other applications) reversing lights, which mount to the rear valance under the bumper. The rear reflector function can be handled by opening the trunk, finding the vertical "wall" that hides under the lip of the trunk lid (but is visible with the lid closed) and applying red peel-and-stick retroreflective tape such as
this.
Since these backup light sockets are a single pole contact, what bulb should I use in those to match the 3496 bulbs Brake and turn performance?
Get a pair of 3497 bulbs (Honda dealer, p/n 34903-SF1-A01). Pick up a pair of
these dual-function converters to operate the single-filament bulbs at two intensities, dim for tail and bright for brake or turn. They are not make/model-specific; the seller puts up a bunch of auctions with different makes and models to appeal to different searchers. Easy 3-wire hookup. These operate the single-filament bulb at a dim intensity when the taillights are on, and shoot full voltage to the filament when you step on the brake (or put on the turn signal, depending on how it's hooked up). The original intent of the module is to operate a single-filament front turn signal as a park/turn; they think this is nifty and cool in Europe because American-type amber parking lights aren't legal there, they have to be white. But the module has no way of knowing whether it's operating a front turn(/park) or a rear brake(/tail). If you are smart you wire up this module to make the brake light (not the turn signal) into the single-filament/dual-function lamp. This is because by operating the filament at the low intensity, it
preheats the filament, so the brake light comes up to full intensity much faster at night. Better safety.
-DS (posting live from the Society of Automotive Engineers Lighting Committee meetings...)