The Irish Mitsubishi FTO Owners Club

by **steelroe** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:00 pm

Guys I am upgrading my brake lights etc to LED's.

What is considered to give better results.

Fit all white led clusters or fit led's the colour of the lamp i.e red for brake light and amber for indicators.

I am going to buy led's similar to the ones in this link.
Any help, opinions appreciated.

by **colm_mcm** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:12 pm

are you going to be using the existing rear cluster lenses, or making clear ones?

by **steelroe** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:23 pm

Existing one for now.

Working on the clear ones.
I read somewhere that it is better to fit a coloured LEd to coloured lens for better result, wondered if this was the case.

Facebook · by **Sebastian** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 1:44 am

rory, linky not working

will you fit LED's where the revers lights are as well ?

by **mcgon1979** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 7:10 am

yeah, I would get the red LEDs for red lights. Especially if your considering updating the clusters to clear in the future...

by **misterbishi** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 9:35 am

Definitly more efficent use of light if you fit the same colour LED cluster as the lens.
LED's have a narrow spectrum of emitted light, if the lens is approx. the same colour as the LED, it will pass the light without much filtering therefore not reducing the overall brightness!
There is very little red light emitted from a white led cluster so when you filter it for red it will appear dim! :wink:

by **steelroe** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 9:36 am

by **mcgon1979** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 11:40 am

misterbishi wrote:Definitly more efficent use of light if you fit the same colour LED cluster as the lens.
LED's have a narrow spectrum of emitted light, if the lens is approx. the same colour as the LED, it will pass the light without much filtering therefore not reducing the overall brightness!
There is very little red light emitted from a white led cluster so when you filter it for red it will appear dim!

Thats the best explanation I have seen on here. Are you a scientist or what?
nice one.

by **misterbishi** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 12:38 pm

mcgon1979 wrote:
misterbishi wrote:Definitly more efficent use of light if you fit the same colour LED cluster as the lens.
LED's have a narrow spectrum of emitted light, if the lens is approx. the same colour as the LED, it will pass the light without much filtering therefore not reducing the overall brightness!
There is very little red light emitted from a white led cluster so when you filter it for red it will appear dim!

Thats the best explanation I have seen on here. Are you a scientist or what?
nice one.

Cheers, Electronics & Instrumentation Engineer :wink:

by **sinlessgunner** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 4:58 pm

They'll look well, especially if you have HID's...

Fairly reasonable too. Nice project to work on.

by **Kace** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 7:52 pm

Don't you also need to fit resistors in series with the indicator circuits to prevent the lights flashing too quickly ?

Seem to remember that Daz had this issue and needed to do this to rectify ?

by **steelroe** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 11:07 pm

Final total for all lamps including postage

2 x Car 8 LED Interior Festoon Light Bulb 39mm -Xenon White= 2x1.99= 3.98 pound

4 x 24 LED RED 1157 P21/ 5W TAIL& STOP straight bulbs UK = 2x5.49= 10.98 pound

2 X 24 LED WHITE 1156 TAIL or STOP bulbs BA15S P21W = 7.99 pound

2 X 4 LED Xenon white HID T11 501 W5W Sidelight bulbs = 2.49 pound

2 X 6 LED 501 W5W sidelight bulbs-Red (round) = 3.49 pound

2 X 24 LED Amber 1156 FLASH INDICATOR bulb BAU15S offset= 5.49 pound

2 X 4 LED W5W 501 Yellow Side Repeater Flash Bulbs = 2.49 pound

2 X 24 LED Amber 1156 flash indicator bulb BA15S P21W= 5.49 pound

P&p (combine)= 6.10 pound

Total: 48.50 pound

5% discount, Final total: 46 pound (Including FREE upgrade to recorded delivery)

Will sort the resistor issue myself

by **misterbishi** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 11:42 am

Kace wrote:Don't you also need to fit resistors in series with the indicator circuits to prevent the lights flashing too quickly ?

Seem to remember that Daz had this issue and needed to do this to rectify ?

Yeah fitting resistors (in Parallel) would make sense as they would draw much less current than standard bulbs so the flash rate would be similar to what happens when one or more of the indicator bulbs blow! This is the problem with older (more basic) flashing circuits.
Unfortunately the resistor will negate any power saving properties of the LED's although not much of a concern in this case.

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