1157 LED Lamps

[rustycowll69]

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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your story about going overboard on the PIAA headlight bulbs reminds me of a joker who was following me on my morning commute, like 7 or 8 yrs ago. He was driving a jacked-up chev/gmc 4x4. His headlights were so bright, I changed lanes, and then got behind him, and I had to put my sunglasses(pitch black at that hour of morning) on even when I was BEHIND him. I took down his license plate number, and immediately reported him to the State Patrol. The response from WSP was that they were not going to even pursue the complaint or even follow up at all. I couldn't believe that this could not be illegal and that they wouldn't do anything about it. They were clearly dangerous to anyone near him.

 

[oi81b4uu812b4]

your story about going overboard on the PIAA headlight bulbs reminds me of a joker who was following me on my morning commute, like 7 or 8 yrs ago. He was driving a jacked-up chev/gmc 4x4. His headlights were so bright, I changed lanes, and then got behind him, and I had to put my sunglasses(pitch black at that hour of morning) on even when I was BEHIND him. I took down his license plate number, and immediately reported him to the State Patrol. The response from WSP was that they were not going to even pursue the complaint or even follow up at all. I couldn't believe that this could not be illegal and that they wouldn't do anything about it. They were clearly dangerous to anyone near him.

Cubie’s have a cut off to help prevent what you are describing. But a lifted truck would have the prisms in its lens that would put its light right in the eyes of people driving cars lower to the ground.

 

[rustycowll69]

pretty sure these were not cibie's. The cibie's I'm familiar with anyway, have a Z-beam cutoff. I don't recall any cutoff at all. these were some outrageous wattage bulbs. It had quad rectangular lights, all of which were lit. If I had to estimate, I would say that these lights were at least 10 times brighter than the brightest lights I've ever seen. Anyway, my point was these were past bright, past just misaligned, they were downright painfully bright. Like I said, dangerous. So if that was along the line of what Dan was trying to emphasize, I agree.

 

[oi81b4uu812b4]

pretty sure these were not cibie's. The cibie's I'm familiar with anyway, have a Z-beam cutoff. I don't recall any cutoff at all. these were some outrageous wattage bulbs. It had quad rectangular lights, all of which were lit. If I had to estimate, I would say that these lights were at least 10 times brighter than the brightest lights I've ever seen. Anyway, my point was these were past bright, past just misaligned, they were downright painfully bright. Like I said, dangerous. So if that was along the line of what Dan was trying to emphasize, I agree.

I would have pulled that guy over and yelled “You know what buddy! You need to get a hold of Daniel Stern Lighting and get you headlights fixed”

 

[Mattax]

pretty sure these were not cibie's. The cibie's I'm familiar with anyway, have a Z-beam cutoff. I don't recall any cutoff at all. these were some outrageous wattage bulbs. It had quad rectangular lights, all of which were lit. If I had to estimate, I would say that these lights were at least 10 times brighter than the brightest lights I've ever seen. Anyway, my point was these were past bright, past just misaligned, they were downright painfully bright. Like I said, dangerous. So if that was along the line of what Dan was trying to emphasize, I agree.

Unfortunately the Z-beams and BOBIs have both been out of production for a while. I bought a set of NOS Zs from ebay about 5 years ago - paid about twice as much as a pair of current production Cibies were going for.

Aim is definately important.

What was this thread about anyway?
lead 1157s?
LOL

 

[RogerRamRod]

I know this thread is about (was about) 1157. I am going to extend the digression a bit.
I have yet to experience any LED that projects usable light in order to see by. Be SEEN, yes, annoyingly so in many cases, but they never seem to be able to illuminate an object and bounce the light back, unless the object is reflective. Even my friends golf cart, you could see him coming from a mile away, but driving it-you could easily "outdrive" the headlights, we almost ran into some people on a dark path once.
Maybe OEM new cars might be an exception, but I haven't driven anything that new.
@slantsixdan , What housings are a good recommendation for retrofit headlight conversion?

 

[RedFish]

The thread topic, 1157 in tail lamp of B'cuda... I don't know that these red lenses were originally so damn dark. I choose to believe they darkened with age. In the 67 model the center of the lens and bulb itself is hidden behind a metal piece on outside of lens. The fixture... Its HUGE and no reflective treatment inside.
So I wanted improvement back in early 80s. When I found the 68 B'cuda tail light housing could hold 3 bulbs ( 2 of those were/are reverse lamp bulbs resulting in even lesser brake lamps in size and brightness ), it was a hole saw, 4 more sockets and bulbs that lit up rear lights of our 67 fish. Todays LEDs would be a simpler solution.
If others can carry this thread off into headlights, I feel free to add this... our 67 fishes have all been notch backs so adding a high mount brake lamp there was done also. I did stay at/about rear lighting.
Back in the early 80s, I knew nothing I do will prevent getting rear ended. I was installing car phones in the late 80s and we have watched the "phone" change the odds too.
One thing that we all can be thankful for is collision avoidance systems. The odds that such equipped vehicle is behind us still aren't great but will get better with time. Happy moparing