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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - don't buy this P21/3

I am looking for a more visible tail/brake light than the conventional P21/3. LED's can do that. This one does not. Do you know where I can find a LED p21/3 with a lot of lumen?


Flip Brühl

It would help if at all least some of them were pointing at the reflector.
Dave O'Neill 2

Yeah,

I bought some LED stop/tail lights and they were brighter as tail lights than original, but duller as stop lights than original.

Did the same at the front, new LED side lights which are mega bright at night (when I have dipped beam on) but duller when I just have side lights on during the day.

So just cleaned all the reflectors up and looked into a high level LED rear brake light for lighting up the people behind me.

Malc
Malc Gilliver

Before this Fad for LED's I am sure that halogen stop tail bulbs were available just cannot find them anymore . Tried LED's and they just don't seem as bright as normal bulbs.
R Mcknight

I could have told you that LED bulbs suck a long time ago.
Actually I did!!
There sould be a thread LED test from a couple of years ago I'll search for the pics
Onno K

you guess which is the LED

Onno K

number plate lights?
Nigel Atkins

:p
Onno K

there was a bloke in the US I think that sold two LED boards of lights to replace the two standard bulbs and reflectors with a single board each side (aimed at Bs but would equally work with Spridgets)

I remember there was a bit of wiring and I think some unit to get the LED working - was very expensive as I remember

ETA: my mate has LED lights on his large rear B&W number plate on his Rover P5B and they give a totally wrong looking blue light, he also uses LEDS in the front headrests which give light to the rear passengers to read, again blue light that looks totally wrong
Nigel Atkins

Onno if it is the left one, Where can I buy it?
Flip Brühl

You can buy "white light" LEDs which don't give the bluish caste of standard LEDs. LED applications have come a long way in the last few years and costs have dropped accordingly, whilst the performance possibilities have increased considerably. I think it just takes time for the industry to wake up and apply the latest capabilties to the low demand needs of retrofit applications.
Guy Weller

As I said LED bulbs suck!!!!
So to make it very clear left is a normal bulb right the LED

I did look at the panels that replace the reflector completely.
They do not give the nice and even glow of light normal bulbs do.
Onno K

I've been through a few types of LED brake/side lights trying to find something that is bright and reduces load on the brake switch. I ended up purchasing two sets from Horizon LEDs and both sets work nicely.

These ones are a good replacement:
http://www.horizonleds.co.uk/1157-5w-retro-cree-led-bulbs

I'm currently running with these ones (but will swap over to the retro ones at a later date)
http://www.horizonleds.co.uk/cree-leds/bayonet-cree-led-bulbs/1157-BAY15D-P215W-cree/1157-5w-cree-led-bulbs

However I have just noticed that they are out of stock of the RED versions that you really want. If you go for while LEDs they do look very pale.

Jed
Jed Southwood

Thank you gentlemen,

it looks better than what I have. I have to look for cree leds.
As I am driving a frogeye, I am looking for a led without a lens.

Flip Brühl

Flip, try Goffy. He mostly does classic motorcycle stuff but obviously bulbs are the same.

I've just fitted one of his 6v 5/23w stop tails for my Triumph and it is amazingly bright for 6v. They are Quartz Halogen and he does a 12v one that is 5/35w. They are dear at £13 but well worth it.

Here's a link to his site, it's a bit amateur looking but don't be deceived, it's a professional set up:

http://www.norbsa02.freeuk.com/goffybulbs.htm

Scroll down the page the link takes you to and the stop/tails are near the bottom, just above the battery charger.
john payne

Jed,
I'm confused at using a red 5w CREE LED 5W (RETRO) when the brake light bulb is normally 21w and rear light 5w
Nigel Atkins

Nigel,
The description of the bub is 1157/BAY15D/P215W - CREE LED 5W (RETRO) so yes that does sound strange but it is a dual output bulb. Further down they list the specs and in that section is:


****
Multi Fitment – can be used for Brake, Fog, Indicator and Reverse lights, basically anything with a 1156/BA15S/P21W socket!

Dual Filament - two function bulb e.g. Brake Light & Side/Tail Light.

*****

It is a shame that they're out of stock of the red ones now and I can't see anywhere else selling the same thing.


Jed Southwood

sorry I should have scrolled down!
Nigel Atkins

Hey Nigel,

Are you confusing power consumed (wattage) with light output?

i.e. 21 W incandescent bulb puts out 5 W in light and 16 W in heat. A 5 W LED bulb puts out 5 W in light and negligible heat (for example). So lower input power for the same useful output.

Or am I confused about what you are confused about?! :-)

Malc.
M Le Chevalier

just do a search on fleabay for 1157 red and you will find lots...
dominic clancy

Here is one more alternative. This company was started by a couple of retired engineers, and vintage car enthusiasts, in Texas, I think. I see they now have a UK site. They go for quality of LED rather than quantity, so they don't have large numbers of LEDs on each bulb. Rather expensive, but very well made.
www.litezupp.co.uk or www.litezupp.org.uk

Jack Orkin

".e. 21 W incandescent bulb puts out 5 W in light and 16 W in heat. A 5 W LED bulb puts out 5 W in light and negligible heat (for example). So lower input power for the same useful output."

Like Flip hinted at in his first post. The problem with leds for cars is, that unlike for domestic lighting, as far as I can tell most auto bulb specs keep referring to watts, instead of luminous flux.

Watts are a measure of total energy used. 1 watt = 1 joule of energy per second. Luminous flux in Lumens(lm), is a measure of total light output.

Consider domestic lighting. There's no exact watt-lumen conversion, but an efficient 240V 100W incandescent lamp could put out between 1400 - 1600 lumens. But now you can buy a 4 Watt LED golf ball lamp that kicks out 400 lumens. So at that rate, a 16 watt led, would be the same as a 100W incandescent bulb. I've got some 1watt 240V LED bulbs that kick out 150 lumens (according to the blurb). They're amazingly bright. Like Guy said, leds have improved a lot, and are now well worth considering if cheap enough.

So try looking for 12V car bulbs rated in Luminous flux or lumens.

Here's some
http://tinyurl.com/q4bo4c9 rated at 30lm.

But how many lumens are the original bulbs that you are replacing?




Lawrence Slater

Hi Malc,
yes, sorry but you are confused about what I'm confused about?! :-)

I know a very little bit about bulbs, light, heat, luminosity, power, watts and volts, it was just that generally the bulbs are sold by general terms that most of the buying public relate to

... and just that I didn't scroll down far enough, doh
Nigel Atkins

This thread was discussed between 05/10/2014 and 09/10/2014

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