1157 LED Lamps

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Hell yeah!!! That's what I'm talkin about!! Bright is bright. That's what I want in a taillight. I want to be seen. Them babies come on I want the half comatose driver behind me on their ******* cell phone to wake the hell up. I have something similar to these that are also push n twist 1157 replacements. I got em in red and amber for the front signals.

I am sure theres some knuckle heads here that are gonna spout off some sort of DOT B.S. regarding the taillamps bulbs, and these being a bozo no no. There always is SMH. I say piss on em. The only DOT information i know on taillights applies to the taillight lens design, approval, and minimum lamp brightness etc.
 
I just put 3157 LED's on my 09 charger. I like them, too, but there is a down side to mine, anyway. Because the electrical load is less with the LED's, it blinks like you have a bulb out, much faster than with the oem incandescents. Sylvania says something on their website, about maybe needing a "load equalizer" or some such thing, but I couldn't find any more info than that. They're a little spendy compared to incandescents, but they appear really well made and should last for a very long time. I've left mine in for now, I figure I'll see if the fast blinking thing continues to bother me.
 
moparmat2000 said:
Hell yeah!!! That's what I'm talkin about!! Bright is bright. That's what I want in a taillight. I want to be seen. Them babies come on I want the half comatose driver behind me on their ******* cell phone to wake the hell up. I have something similar to these that are also push n twist 1157 replacements. I got em in red and amber for the front signals.

I am sure theres some knuckle heads here that are gonna spout off some sort of DOT B.S. regarding the taillamps bulbs, and these being a bozo no no. There always is SMH. I say piss on em. The only DOT information i know on taillights applies to the taillight lens design, approval, and minimum lamp brightness etc.
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Lemme guess, you're talking about @slantsixdan. The guy that actually works as an automotive lighting consultant. Or, in short, knows more about the subject of lighting than you ever will. But yeah, screw that guy! Buy some cheap junk on Amazon! That'll teach him! :rolleyes:

These are the best 1157's out there. No, they are not wrapped in dozens of inferior quality LED's. They have a quality LED and are dramatically brighter than the original bulbs. And yeah, they're expensive, but that's because they're actually quality parts.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HWS7XGW/?tag=fabo03-20
 
72bluNblu said:
Lemme guess, you're talking about @slantsixdan. The guy that actually works as an automotive lighting consultant. Or, in short, knows more about the subject of lighting than you ever will. But yeah, screw that guy! Buy some cheap junk on Amazon! That'll teach him! :rolleyes:

These are the best 1157's out there. No, they are not wrapped in dozens of inferior quality LED's. They have a quality LED and are dramatically brighter than the original bulbs. And yeah, they're expensive, but that's because they're actually quality parts.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HWS7XGW/?tag=fabo03-20
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Do any of these build a lot of heat ?
My front led low beam replacement bulbs have an adapter , and a small fan built into them because the create too much heat for plastic lenses .
 
rustycowll69 said:
I just put 3157 LED's on my 09 charger. I like them, too, but there is a down side to mine, anyway. Because the electrical load is less with the LED's, it blinks like you have a bulb out, much faster than with the oem incandescents. Sylvania says something on their website, about maybe needing a "load equalizer" or some such thing, but I couldn't find any more info than that. They're a little spendy compared to incandescents, but they appear really well made and should last for a very long time. I've left mine in for now, I figure I'll see if the fast blinking thing continues to bother me.
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You just need to replace the flasher with an electronic one for LED's. Note: If the flasher doesn't work when you first plug it in you need to reverse the wires in the plug. LED bulbs and flashers are polarity sensitive.
 
famous bob said:
Do any of these build a lot of heat ?
My front led low beam replacement bulbs have an adapter , and a small fan built into them because the create too much heat for plastic lenses .
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DID my whole car !!! luv the headlights glass dot stamped...

ran the blue light with the parking light circuit...

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famous bob said:
Do any of these build a lot of heat ?
My front led low beam replacement bulbs have an adapter , and a small fan built into them because the create too much heat for plastic lenses .
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Actually the fan is to cool the LED circuit board in the assembly.
The LED's themselves throw little to no heat. Most auto's with LED factory headlights have heated lenses for winter driving because the LED's won't melt off the ice & snow.
 
BobW said:
You just need to replace the flasher with an electronic one for LED's. Note: If the flasher doesn't work when you first plug it in you need to reverse the wires in the plug. LED bulbs and flashers are polarity sensitive.
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that's true about the polarity. I had to flip around 2 of mine to get them to work. Mine don't have fans, probably because they are just brake lights not headlights. They do have a metal heat sink built into them. The ones I was really impressed with were the #921 LED's I put into the backup lights. WAY brighter, whiter lights which my old eyes appreciate when backing up at night.
 
rustycowll69 said:
that's true about the polarity. I had to flip around 2 of mine to get them to work. Mine don't have fans, probably because they are just brake lights not headlights. They do have a metal heat sink built into them. The ones I was really impressed with were the #921 LED's I put into the backup lights. WAY brighter, whiter lights which my old eyes appreciate when backing up at night.
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Correct, the headlight bulb circuits need the fans, marker, brake & turn lamps work with just a small heatsink.
 
72bluNblu said:
Lemme guess, you're talking about @slantsixdan. The guy that actually works as an automotive lighting consultant. Or, in short, knows more about the subject of lighting than you ever will. But yeah, screw that guy! Buy some cheap junk on Amazon! That'll teach him! :rolleyes:

These are the best 1157's out there. No, they are not wrapped in dozens of inferior quality LED's. They have a quality LED and are dramatically brighter than the original bulbs. And yeah, they're expensive, but that's because they're actually quality parts.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HWS7XGW/?tag=fabo03-20
Click to expand...
I dunno about you, but I swapped out the ones in my DD for 3157 amazon/ebay type LEDs and a different flasher to run them at a proper flash rate a few years ago. They are bright, much brighter than stock , and havent broken yet.

I am NOT in complete disagreement with slantsixdan on everything. I agree with him on the DOT ratings on the headlights, beam pattern, etc. I do however disagree with him on the taillights and signal lights. On turn signals, parking lamps, taillights etc. the DOT ratings apply to the lens type, color, style, and other requirements such as weather it is supposed to have a built in reflector in case of a broken bulb, a minimum brightness for visibility, to get an approval for its use on that particular motor vehicle for that year of manufacture, not for the bulb type used to illuminate the lens.

I never ever have seen a DOT rating on an 1157 light bulb, or packaging for one, and neither have any of you. Therefore the DOT doesnt care how it's being lit up, only that it is being lit up to a certain minimum brightness as specified for that year of manufacture. The DOT only cares that the design allows for proper visability and design of the lens that meets their requirements. If you put in anything to light that taillight lens a bit brighter than what it was designed for, thats a bonus.

I will stick with brighter than stock LED taillight bulbs. I want to be seen. Those of you that want to stick with the 1157 stock bulbs and dimmer taillights, then go ahead. I also plan to add a 3rd brake lamp out of an Audi TT in the lower part of my rear window.
 
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Also 72bluNblu I agree with your assessment on the Amazon led bulbs to a point. I dont really know where your going with this. I want brighter than stock on my taillights and signals with a reliability rate and brightness that's better than a filament bulb offers. The problem I have is some people talking about how putting in brighter than stock LED taillight bulbs is somehow a bad thing, and I have heard some saying things about DOT rating etc. Better brighter rear end visibility is never a bad thing. Plus the DOT rating doesnt apply to what's lighting the tail light lens, only the lens itself. That's the rabbit hole that is always being gone down, the DOT rating which applies to the lens itself not what's lighting it.
 
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the 3157's I need for my 09 Charger are made by Sylvania. They come in regular, or the "super-bright ZEVO". They are pretty expensive at OReillys, I think the ZEVO's were around $25 for two. On Amazon/ebay they're around $15/pr. They also come in white, and red. I probably should have gotten the 3157'R', but "I forgot the garlic knots", hahaha
 
moparmat2000 said:
Also 72bluNblu I agree with your assessment on the Amazon led bulbs to a point. I dont really know where your going with this
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In other words, he's saying this thread is full of bad advice, dumb ideas, ignorant recommendations, and excellent ways to get in a crash.

You're dealing with safety lights that have to work right (not just light up, whether or not someone looking at 'em thinks they're "kinda bright", "stupid bright", or whatever), and there are optical complications. Start reading at post № 80 of this thread. That situation is in flux; one of the world's reputable light source makers (Tungsram, long affiliated with GE) is gearing up to launch a new line of LED signal bulbs that stand a good chance of working well in old-car lights. As soon as they're released and I've tested them, if they're as good as it looks like they might be, I'll shout about it on here.

As for "LED bulbs" and other kinds of make-believe LED headlamps: same deal. Car lights are like brakes and seatbelts: most of the time you don't need much of 'em until you very suddenly, very urgently do. To keep you out of a crash (or worse), safety equipment like headlamps, turn signals, and so on actually have to work safely, by objective standards—it's not enough that the seller of a Chinese trinket says "It's a headlamp" or "It's a turn signal", and unfortunately we live in a world where we don't get what we don't pay for. See here.

Or, y'know, play with your car's lights as if they're fashion toys and not life-safety equipment. It's not like you're affecting anyone else, except, y'know, everyone in the car and everyone sharing road space with you. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
slantsixdan said:
In other words, he's saying this thread is full of bad advice, dumb ideas, ignorant recommendations, and excellent ways to get in a crash.

You're dealing with safety lights that have to work right (not just light up, whether or not someone looking at 'em thinks they're "kinda bright", "stupid bright", or whatever), and there are optical complications. Start reading at post № 80 of this thread. That situation is in flux; one of the world's reputable light source makers (Tungsram, long affiliated with GE) is gearing up to launch a new line of LED signal bulbs that stand a good chance of working well in old-car lights. As soon as they're released and I've tested them, if they're as good as it looks like they might be, I'll shout about it on here.

As for "LED bulbs" and other kinds of make-believe LED headlamps: same deal. Car lights are like brakes and seatbelts: most of the time you don't need much of 'em until you very suddenly, very urgently do. To keep you out of a crash (or worse), safety equipment like headlamps, turn signals, and so on actually have to work safely, by objective standards—it's not enough that the seller of a Chinese trinket says "It's a headlamp" or "It's a turn signal", and unfortunately we live in a world where we don't get what we don't pay for. See here.

Or, y'know, play with your car's lights as if they're fashion toys and not life-safety equipment. It's not like you're affecting anyone else, except, y'know, everyone in the car and everyone sharing road space with you. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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I went with Cibie E Codes on my '70 Cuda and used the Hella Universal H4 harness with relays. For bulbs I used PIAA H4 15224 Extreme White Plus Bulbs. The set up throws a lot of light, wondering is slantsixdan has any further recommendations?
 
oi81b4uu812b4 said:
I went with Cibie E Codes on my '70 Cuda
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They've skidded pretty badly from what they used to be, and there are much better options now, but they're still fairly respectable.

and used the Hella Universal H4 harness with relays.
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If it was sold to you as a "Hella H4 harness", then...tilt! Hella doesn't make headlight harnesses, but there's no shortage of fraudulent sellers claiming to sell such an item. You'll want to put a skeptical eye on that harness; most counterfeit ones are built with unreliable poor-quality components.

For bulbs I used PIAA H4 15224 Extreme White Plus Bulbs.
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Oops…that was an error. Easy one to fix, though. Any of the bulbs claiming to produce "extra white" light (or super white, hyper white, platinum white, metal white, xenon white, etc) as its main promotional "benefit" is best avoided. It doesn't matter whose name is on the bulb -- Sylvania SilverStar/Ultra or ZxE, Philips BlueVision or CrystalVision, Wagner TruView, anything from PIAA or Hoen,, Nokya, Polarg, etc. -- all the same scam. They have a blue-tinted glass, which changes the light color a little, but blocks light that would reach the road if the glass weren't tinted, so they give you _less_ light than ordinary bulbs (not more). To get legal-minimum levels of light through the blue glass, the filament has to be driven very hard so these bulbs have a very short lifespan, and there's nothing about the tinted light that improves your ability to see -- the opposite is true (less light = less seeing, no matter about the tint). Sylvania got spanked to the tune of thirty million(!) dollars for false and misleading "upgrade" claims for Silver Star bulbs (see here) -- and those are among the least-bad of an overall bad product category, so the math kind of does itself, but if you want to check the figures yourself, here y'go:

Sylvania ZxE H4, as sold (with blue coating on the glass, very similar to the blue bulbs Sylvania makes for PIAA), operating at 13.2 volts:
1410/860 lumens, high/low beam

Same bulb with blue coating removed, operating at 13.2 volts:
2000/1320 lumens, high/low beam

PIAA's line of bulbs is pure bulk wrap, and they're all massively overpriced. Lose/lose deal.

Bulb selection matters a lot to how well you can (or can't) see at night; see bulb test results posted up here (poster is known to me; he's a straight shooter). The current best pick in spec-wattage (60/55w) H4 bulbs is the Tungsram (GE Europe) Megalight +120; ping me if you want some. Other excellent picks include Philips X-treme Vision (really low price on 'em as I type this, here—makes them the top pick for cost-effectiveness; I can't touch that price for the Tungsrams and the difference between the two is small).

And lamp aim is by far the main thing that determines how well you can (or can't) see at night with any given set of lamps, so this is crucial: you will need to see to it that the lamps are aimed carefully and correctly per the "VOL" instructions here.
 
moparmat2000 said:
On turn signals, parking lamps, taillights etc. the DOT ratings apply to the lens type, color, style, and other requirements such as weather it is supposed to have a built in reflector in case of a broken bulb, a minimum brightness for visibility, to get an approval for its use on that particular motor vehicle for that year of manufacture, not for the bulb type used to illuminate the lens.
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This is a pretty complete misunderstanding of…um…almost everything about the subject. I don't guess there's much point in going over it point by point to explain the various ways you're wrong.

I never ever have seen a DOT rating on an 1157 light bulb, or packaging for one, and neither have any of you. Therefore the DOT doesnt care how it's being lit up, only that it is being lit up to a certain minimum brightness as specified for that year of manufacture.
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We'll add this to your list of guesses and assumptions you're using in place of facts and knowledge.

The DOT only cares that the design allows for proper visability and design of the lens that meets their requirements.
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…and this…

If you put in anything to light that taillight lens a bit brighter than what it was designed for, thats a bonus.
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…and this.
 
Hey Dan, since you're here I was wondering about these Sylvania ZEVO LED tail lights

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A77TL3M/?tag=fabo03-20

I've seen them used and while I don't know that there as good as the Philips X-tremeVision LED's you recommended previously they seem better than the average LED junk out there, so I was curious if they're a decent lower priced option compared to the Philips.
 
slantsixdan said:
This is a pretty complete misunderstanding of…um…almost everything about the subject. I don't guess there's much point in going over it point by point to explain the various ways you're wrong.



We'll add this to your list of guesses and assumptions you're using in place of facts and knowledge.



…and this…



…and this.
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Explain it then Dan. Each one that I am wrong on. One at a time. Feel free to add my quotes in there if you have to. Name chapter and verse of the FMVSS if you have to, and why. Preferably on the particular year model the OP is working with, as I have the same vehicle.

If I am so far off base on this as to have absolutely no idea what I am saying, then school me on the subject. I am all ears, and have no problem if I am proven wrong. Remember we are not talking about headlights here. I am in agreement with you on those.
 
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You more than likely need an LED flasher to go with them. I have seen them with a hole for a small screwdriver to adjust the speed of the lights flashing.
 
oi81b4uu812b4 said:
I went with Cibie E Codes on my '70 Cuda and used the Hella Universal H4 harness with relays. For bulbs I used PIAA H4 15224 Extreme White Plus Bulbs. The set up throws a lot of light, wondering is slantsixdan has any further recommendations?
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Mr Stern ;
I bought my Cibie E Code housing from you years ago. They work great in my opinion. They seem to throw light down the road really well and off into the sides very well. Are you telling me there is a better option? You still sell Cibie E codes on your web page. I like them because they have a classic look to them and aren’t the plastic 7” diameters housings I see a lot of people go for.

My Hella harness looks really sturdy and well made, I haven’t had any issues with it yet. I thought the wires were too heavy a gauge at first... I put Hella housings in my Duster and I don’t think they work as well, but the glass seems more heavy duty.

My PIAA bulbs I have the opposite problem. Everyone says they are too bright and I thought I may have went a little overboard on them. I’ve had people pull over and follow me and tell me they can feel the heat from the light they throw.

Thanks for your input. I was hoping to find out a little more about good set up.

I tried the Sylvania ZxE bulbs on my daily driver and they are complete junk. Probably the worst bulbs on the market.

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