Having tail light issues... HELP... LED LIGHTS!

M

MoNsTaMaCk24

Founding Member

Aug 12, 2002

742

0

0

Shippensburg, PA

Aug 3, 2004

#1

• Aug 3, 2004

• #1

I figured I would do something neat... Neat like put LED bulbs in my tail lights!!! Well LED is becoming quite a pain!!! I just read I need resistors due to how much power they take compared to the stock one... Where is the cheapest place to buy these adapters??? On ebay they are a tad expensive...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7913636690&category=33713

That will give you an idea!!! Thanks a lot!!!

 

M

mhissticobra

Member

Feb 12, 2004

61

0

6

Aug 4, 2004

#2

• Aug 4, 2004

• #2

You can buy resistors, just not in adapter form at any radio shack for a couple dimes and nickels - just make sure you get 6 ohm

 

V_Eight

Founding Member

Sep 5, 2002

617

1

0

ATL

Aug 4, 2004

#3

• Aug 4, 2004

• #3

Keep in mind, they are quite dim. All the LED-bulbs (bulb fixture with LEDs on top) i've had have been very dim behind factory red lenses.

 

GT-03

Member

Dec 12, 2003

630

1

16

Aug 5, 2004

#4

• Aug 5, 2004

• #4

MoNsTaMaCk24 said:

I just read I need resistors due to how much power they take compared to the stock one...

Click to expand...

Are you having problems with the flash rate on your turn signals because the stock flasher is (falsely) taking the low current draw of the LED's to be a burned out bulb?

If so, you might want to simply try a different flasher like the Cobra one, PN F67B-13350-BA. The stock Mustang flasher expects to "see" the current draw of three regular bulbs. The Cobra one expects to "see" the current draw of only two regular bulbs. That difference might help you when using LEDs.

Otherwise, you could try opening up and custom modifying your stock flasher to work more correctly with the different current draw.

 

Attachments

• 03TailBlink.gif

  250.1 KB · Views: 3,601

joshheat25

Member

Nov 8, 2004

871

0

16

Delaware

Dec 8, 2006

#5

• Dec 8, 2006

• #5

Most LED's I have worked with only take about 20ma of current! Depends on the LED but you need a resistance because your running about 12v from the battery using ohms law V=IR and I would imagine they step down the voltage to the tail lights but LED's have very very small resistance so.. that mean that if you applied only 1v to a LED the Current would be Extremely high. Say you have 12v going to the LED that can take 20 ma you would need a 600 ohm resistor 12/.02 = 600. I doubt it's a 6 ohm because that would mean only .12 volts are going to the LED.

 

TrueBlue03

Member

Dec 9, 2003

372

3

18

Bay Area, CA

Dec 8, 2006

#6

• Dec 8, 2006

• #6

why would you do that? you do know that you can just order plug and play bulbs that have everything done for you....

i just bought these for my turn signals which are the same bulb as the tail lights

 

Attachments

• 3157-20W-on.webp

  15.7 KB · Views: 193

0

007

Founding Member

Jan 29, 2002

3,287

24

69

Broke

Dec 9, 2006

#7

• Dec 9, 2006

• #7

How bright are they, True Blue? Brighter than stock?

 

TrueBlue03

Member

Dec 9, 2003

372

3

18

Bay Area, CA

Dec 9, 2006

#8

• Dec 9, 2006

• #8

thats the problem. they are never as bright as regular halogen bulbs even with 20 LEDs

the secondary function (blinking) is semi-inadequate also. the difference between the low and the brighter blink isnt that drastic and its hard to tell they're blinking. I wouldnt really recommend them just for the brightness factor alone.