LED lightbulb replacement?

Hells, bells - you can buy an awful lot of (normal) bulbs for that kind of price !

I do sometimes wonder what the point is...

saw LED replacements for car lightbulbs. They cost around £ 41.00 per pair, I think. Does anyone have the contact details?

Paul Goff

01494-868218 snipped-for-privacy@aol.com

They are sold quite often on ebay -- of course they don't conform to construction and use regs and e marking

Longer life, but most importantly, lower drain - Less actual amps pulled from the system, so less work on the alternator - Good for either freeing some more crank hp, or more likely on an older car, keeping the battery charged up when driving at night!

I've had a look around, found tail/ brake combined for about 16 quid each, sides and indicators come in around 13 - 14 quid a time. They will no doubt get cheaper, like most things (unless the kev brigade discover them), and I might go for a set when they do.

AFAIAA the lamps have E markings, not the bulbs. There are some lamps with a ring of leds round the edge but the bulbs are strait replacements for incandescent filament bulbs. Both are available from Premier Wiring Systems and others.

Well, in the context of the group, are you really saying that when the cars were new the battery / charging system couldn't cope with the electrical requirements ? As for HP, I suspect that could become like one of those arguments that follow those in tank 'lead replacement' scams, if you think it makes a difference then it does - what ever the true facts turn out to be.

The main problem I can see is the fact that, according to another poster, non of these LED replacement units have been type approved and if fitted renders the vehicle illegal under the C&U regs I suspect.

I think if I had a classic car that was on the edge, charging wise, I would spend the money on up-rating the charging system - not mess with legal requirements like lights.

Local car shop has stop/tail led type bulbs for 8.50 each. The trouble is that the actual light output is very low compared with a normal bulb. I fitted some to a customers car but thought the lights were too dim to be safe and refitted the standards.

MrCheerful

I've got a 1968 Triumph 1300fwd with a dynamo - To extend your argument, are you saying that that was really a good system new? ;) It actually works fine for the 20 miles I've driven it, but an alternator is going to be one of the first things to fit when it sees the road again.

This is a possbility - Certainly worth looking into fully before buying them. I'm not interested in them myself until the prices come down, and I've spent money on the important necessary bits on the car, and have a bit of cash spare (never going to happen!). I guess the legality issue is really down to the individual - Do you take a chance, or stick to the exact letter of the law? I'm not going to start slamming people for fitting them if they work perfectly, but I'm not going to advise them to go out and buy LEDs either... Their choice, IMO.

See my above comment... Plus, alot of cars are a bit touch and go IMO when it comes to the charging circuit, so if all the other worries about legality and everything were solved, then why not use a bulb that lasts a long time, draws less power, and doesn't take away any of the function?

And I still say anything that can reduce load on the crank pulley will free up more useable power (as opposed to gross power output with no ancillaries etc). I don't know what percentage of gross power can be netted by dropping the load on the alternator 2A (sides, not counting brake and indicator as they shouldn't be on *that* often), but for some people it might be a consideration :)

Well, there are 746 watts per horsepower, and 2 amps at 12 volts is 24 watts, so the answer would be not noticeable. ;-)

Can't see why if they're properly designed - LED tail lights are common these days. And the type on buses etc appear to be just lots of single LEDs.

Fair nuff.. I still try and stick to lb/ft and hp, but all I can find specs wise sometimes is watts, PS.. Fair play to anyone who's bothered to find out what it all means! :)

But going by that, then the drag on most alternators would be barely noticeable engine side... And it surely isn't, due to losses inherent in the design and drive :)

It's 2am, I feel like being bloody awkward ;)

Many thanks!

FYI the LED lamps on buses (and Beemers, Mercs, LandRovers) are approved as a unit, composed of an array of little LEDS, sure, but based on brightness and angle of illumination.

Conventional lamp units are also approved as a unit, with a conventional bulb, so indeed fitting an LED replacement does invalidate the approval.

C&U says that anything EU approved is automatically okay for UK use. Failing that you have to conform to C&U, which doesn't get updated much these days - the new stuff goes into the EU approvals. Last time I looked C&U still had wattages in it.

Having said that, the chances of anyone pulling you for having LEDs is disappearingly small, so long as they give a reasonable brightness and angle.

A few things to watch:

1) A red LED in a taillamp that also acts as a number plate lamp (with a clear window) is definitely illegal and probably obvious enough to get you stopped.

2) the LEDs emit a relatively narrow freqency band which may or may not match with the band transmitted by your red lens - so the nice bright red in the shop may not be half as good behind a lens designed for an incandescant bulb.

3) LED flashers won't pull the power needed to convince the flasher unit that there is a 'bulb' connected so you will get either no flashes or the wrong rate.

Andy

"Dave Plowman"

In article , Stuffed writes

I had a 1968 Vitesse with a dynamo. It worked absolutely fine, and the battery seemed happier than on my current 1967 Vitesse with the alternator conversion.

As a rule, dynamos turn out to be markedly better than (conventional) alternators at maintaining the battery in a good state when subjected to varying usage, especially occasional use. You wouldn't believe the amount of electronics (and indeed software) that goes into modern cars to fix this.

On the other hand, alternators are _much_ better at keeping the charge up when idling, or driving in heavy traffic at night.

Back in 1968 there were far fewer traffic jams, and a dynamo was absolutely fine for your 1300.

In article , Stuffed writes

The 2 amp figure Dave used relates to side lights and brake lights. If you consider the total electrical load of the car it's a lot higher. In fact even the ignition system accounts for more than 24 watts typically.

If you take the maximum output of a 17ACR alternator (35 amps) and use

14 volts (because that's what car electrical systems really run at) you get 490 watts, which is a little over half a horsepower. Allow for 50% efficiency and you get one horsepower. Again, it's not really noticeable when driving, but it's worth it for that very last bit of oomph if you're doing a hill-climb.

Of course, the load of an 18 inch electric fan motor cutting in at idle is going to be noticeable, but then a small engine is only putting out a couple of horsepower at idle.

I looked at this many years ago when ultra-bright red LEDs appeared. The regs said "incandescent" lights - they were written before LEDs and were designed to stop people fitting oil or acetylene lamps! So unless they've changed or re-interpreted the regs, LEDs would be illegal.

Red ones are OK, but the blue LEDs used in some cheap white lights are notoriously unreliable and can be very short lived.

Where I live I'm lucky to average 15mph during the daytime to do my usual journey :(

And the amps gauge frequently used to dip on my other fwd driving around here, especially with the heater running and lights on, so I'm guessing my new one will do the same.

And going by what you've said, it sticks with my comment - The car was OK when new, but is worth uprating now - Basically agree with what you've said, I never had the joys of the open roads, a bit too young to remember that! :)

: I've got a 1968 Triumph 1300fwd with a dynamo - To extend your argument, are : you saying that that was really a good system new? ;) : It actually works fine for the 20 miles I've driven it, but an alternator is : going to be one of the first things to fit when it sees the road again.

I've got a Herald 12/50 and a 13/60, both with dynamos. I've done around 370,000 miles in total in them, and I have never had any problems whatsoever linked to dynamo capacity.

Ian

Yeah, I think that's C&U isn't it?

Just what you say has happened, the (EU) regs have been rewritten in terms of light output (candelas) and angles of sight (hence side flasher repeaters).

If you really want to know all about it, see

But no-one is going to apply that lot to a classic car!

Andy

"Stan Barr" wrote