LED Tail/Brake Light Bulbs

[Stretch32]

Is anybody running LED bulbs in their early 911 here on the forums? I'm thinking I'd like my tail and brake lights to be as bright as possible and found a few LED bulbs that might work.

After some quick research it looks like the average incandescent bulb, 1073 and 1034 bulbs, puts out about 440 lumens or so and there are a few LEDs that are good for 550 lumens. I'm aware the bulb needs to be lense color, in this case red, and have 360 degree coverage to take advantage of the reflector in housing. I found a few that meet these criteria and thought I would try them out.

Any thoughts or feedback from those that have tried LED bulbs? Thanks,

Stretch

[jameshtaylor]

Do it. You understand the basics. There is a problem with the turn signal bulbs which require extra mods. But running and brake light bulbs work well and are brighter if you get the right bulbs. Superbrite sells decent products. Lots of info about this on Pelican.

[will hung]

I did it to mine. Don't regret the decision at all. I also painted the inside of my buckets flat white to spread the light even more so. If you look directly into the lights now, it will actually hurt your eyes. Besides the increase in brightness, there is also a significant reduction in current, which is great for our old crusty wiring.

Here is a link discussing the mod needed for the turn signals.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsc...r-problem.html

[kenikh]

I might've been the first to try it, over 10 years ago. They still work GREAT!

[Stretch32]

Thanks for the replies, I ordered these tonight:

https://www.superbrightleds.com/more...wer-led-/1644/

They're 550 Lm so they should be pretty bright and hopefully they'll be what I'm looking for. Thanks again,

Stretch

[Fishcop]

Maybe a dumb question, but would there be any advantage to buying the colored bulbs - ie. Red LEDs for tail/brake lights?

[kenikh]

No, buying red will actually diminish effectiveness over white due to the red lens. White is the way to go.

[Stretch32]

Based on all the info out there I thought you needed the color to be the same as the lense with LED lights to get the full effect. I can always order white but it seems everybody goes lense color when going with LEDs. Any thoughts?

Stretch

[kenikh]

Go white. I had this exact conversation with a physicist that specializes in lasers and fiber optics. While the deep dive on the science is beyond my depth to relay, his net-net guidance was that the red light from the bulb is diminished by the red lens, through some mechanism of light physics. You get more light intensity by letting the lens do its job than pre-filtering the light frequency.