Exterior LEDs

[awolff280sl]

I replaced all of my exterior lights (except headlights) with LEDs.
Because our cars use a thermally activated flasher, it was necessary to use a resistor at each turn signal light in order to get a proper flash interval.
I did run into an issue with the brake light LEDs dimly flickering even with the car off. Somehow there is a tiny microvoltage to the brake lights that is always present. I was not able to determine the origin of this tiny current. It may just be peculiar to my car and some of the electrical add-ons I have. To eliminate the flickering I placed a resistor on each brake light as well.
I also wanted my tail lights to be brighter so I jumped the tail light to the parking/clearance light to achieve almost twice the brightness.

Here are the parts: (from Superbrightleds.com)
Brake lights x 2: Red 1156 45 SMD (BA15s)
Front and Rear directional lights x 4: Amber 1156 45 SMD (BA15s)
Reversing lights x 2: White 1156 45 SMD (BA15s)
Tail Running & Parking lights x 4: BA9s High Power 1 LED white
Front Running lights x 2: Amber BA9s 9 LED Tower
Resistors: Tail light resistor kits x 6

I had been using higher than the original wattage bulbs prior to the LEDs, so not all of lights are any brighter than before. The brake and reverse lights are definitely brighter, while the running lights are about the same, maybe a little brighter. The brightness of the turn signals appear to be unchanged, but the blinking is crisper due to the instant on/off effect of LEDs.

[georgem]

Andy
Now that you have taken all the trouble - whats your opinion - is the outcome worth the expense and effort?

Cheers

[awolff280sl]

My wife thinks so because we use the car alot and she thinks the lights are more visible, making the car safer. She's correct when it comes to the brake lights, and perhaps the tail lights, but you can do without the trouble of changing out the turn signals with the associated resistors. The reversing lights are quite sharp now too, but it's not like I get to see them when in use.

[georgem]

Hi Andy,

It wasn`t a criticism - just curious. I am an LED convert, esp when saving power is an issue ie an boats or at home (all our lights have been converted) but I have trouble seeing the point for a car when the lights are only used when the engine is running. I have an LED in the interior light. BUT, if they give better visibility, then that's a different matter and I may consider the brake lights and perhaps clearance as well.

cheers

George

[awolff280sl]

George, the brake lights definitely benefit from LEDs

[rutger kohler]

Hi, interested in this, could someone come up with Jaycar equivalents as they are here in NZ as well as the USA.  What ohm resistance are the tail light ones plse? When you say running lights is this what we call side lights ie the lights that come on at the first click of the light switch?

cheers

Rutger K

[awolff280sl]

Rutger,
All the resistors are 6 Ohm, 50 Watt load resistors. Yes, the tail/running lights are the ones that come on at the first click.
The web site www.superbrightleds.com has alot of good info. I would think that they would ship to NZ if necessary.
Andy

[rutger kohler]

Hi Andy, thanks for that.

[garymand]

I don't get this part:  “I jumped the tail light to the parking/clearance light to achieve almost twice the brightness." Pardon my abrupt jump into this but this reminds me of having a manifold air leak and happily adding more gas to fix it. 

My 1st guess is I think you found a bad connection, too much resistance for the current that light needs, but that doesn't go down the right path: the LED draws less current than the filament bulb by 0.04 W vs 6 to 10 Watts.  That's 150 times less current. That tells me you would have noticed the issue with the old bulbs being very dim.  Maybe this wasn't there before and maybe something is wrong in the wiring now and you fixed it by bridging the problem.  Point is something is wrong in the wiring and I wouldn't leave it that way.

To explain and say it a different way, if you run 2 starter cables to your starter, you don't double the voltage.  With two cables you still only get 12 Volts to the starter.  But if the starter runs better with 2 then the first one couldn't carry the current your starter needs. Either it was too small a gauge wire or the wire wasn't connected well to the battery.  

For your tail light, both the E and I are fixed: 12 Volts and 0.03 Amps for BA9 High Power white.  Long story short, if you connect the light to the battery with short fat leads the light with glow as bright as it can on 12 V and draw 0.03 A, (0.4 Watts).  But if you reduce the conductivity of the wires by putting a 2 ohm resistor in series, the light will only get 6 V and glow dimmer by maybe half.  If you run a jumper wire from the battery to the less bright LED and it suddenly glows brighter, why leave the jumper in?  You wouldn't do that with a manifold leak, would you?  

I'm guessing you didn't have a good (nearly 0 ohms) connection at the bulbs until you shared a better connection from the other circuit.  You didn't change the ground so that brown wire's not the issue.  Something is wrong on the supply side.  I would find out why the lights are not as bright with the stock wires.  Get your meter out and measure the voltage at the light, with the light on, but without the jumper.  It has to be less than 12V.  Trace back to where it becomes 12 Volts again. Is a 6 ohm resistor in series instead of parallel?

[66andBlue]

Andy,
which one of the two bulb holders do you have?
http://www.sl113.org/wiki/uploads/Electrical/230SL_bulb_holder.jpg
http://www.sl113.org/wiki/uploads/Electrical/Taillight_late.jpg
If you have the later one, then I am wondering whether the diodes are still working as they should.

[awolff280sl]

Alfred,
I'm using the first bulb holder without diodes. However, my lenses are the Red-Amber late style with the Amber Turn Signal area and the "Narrow Center" that I modified to fit the early bulb holders.

[jeffc280sl]

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the input.  Will try and get around to this upgrade in the spring.

Br,

Jeff

[awolff280sl]

Hey Jeff,
It's good to hear from you.
Have a good new year!
Andy

[awolff280sl]

Hi Gary,
I appreciate your input.
When needed, resistors are placed in parallel. The resistors are definitely needed for the turn signals.
The circuit involving the jumped tail/parking light is not using a resistor. I was not happy with even the brightest single incandescent BA9s in the tail light compared with other vehicles on the road. By jumping the tail/parking sockets and using the low-current draw LEDs, I could achieve a brighter tail light without overloading the wires had I jumped 2 incandescent bulbs.
The peculiar circuit, perhaps only in my car, involved the brake lights.

[garymand]

I was thinking maybe I miss understood and you simply have 2 lights on for the 2x brightness.   I have a 250 and have replaced the dash lights and appreciate your finding on the blinkers.   I Haven't looked in there in ages and am confused by the 2 vertical small wattage bulbs.  One is the tail light, but what is the one behind it? 

A normal LED shines the wrong way to be helpful there.  We would need a side-view LED's,  but with one lamp behind the other I'm confused what they do. I'll has to open it up and investigate.  I'll get LEDs for my non-blinkers and get back on this.  Looking at 66's picture what did you do to get the 2x brightness?

[awolff280sl]

Gary, the other BA9s bulb behind the tail light bulb is the parking or clearance light. The right side should come on with the first counter-clockwise click on the dash light switch, the left comes on with the second click. Apparently in Europe these parking or "clearance" lights are used and may even be mandatory in some situations, I think. I have never had to use them so I figured that I could jump them to add brightness to the tail lights. There are small holes in the contacts for the wires to these bulbs, so you can jump them with mini M3 bolts/nuts using a wire with a ring connector on each end, ie no soldering and easily reversed if you want. 
The high-intensity LED BA9s bulbs shine 360 degrees, so they can work here.
If you look at the bulb holder bracket, there is a rectangular "plate" behind the parking light socket which was apparently a reflective surface to probably increase the intensity of these relatively low intensity BA9s incandescents. I was not able to restore enough "reflectivity" to this surface by cleaning, so I went ahead and painted it gloss white. So, the 360 degree high-intensity LED in the parking light socket is also reflected and adds to the light produced by the LED in the tail light socket.
Note to our European colleagues: when you jump the tail to the parking/clearance light, the dash switch no longer controls the left and right sides independently. IOW, both left and right sides come on with both the first and second clicks counter-clockwise.

[jeffc280sl]

Thanks Andy.  Happy New Year!!

[garymand]

Much clearer, you doubled the # of lights that turn on, not the voltage or current to one light.  I've implemented the brake light and am surprised by the need to turn my ignition key on to have the brake and the reverse lights come on.  Yes the left and right light feature was explained to me as 'European Parking Lights', a safety feature.