Swapping Bulbs for LEDs.

[Spinnakerblue89]

Not referring to headlamps, I'm sticking with Halogens for that. 

 

So I have a number of bulbs both interior and exterior that have burned out. I will be replacing them soon, as I have now parked the Pioneer for the winter for work to be done on it. My main question is: Being as old as this truck is ('89), should I stick with standard incandescent bulbs or swap with LEDs? Yes I'm aware of the energy savings which really don't matter much since I'm not going to load the truck up with a sound system and a thousand other electronic gadgets. I don't exactly buy the claim that LEDs last longer, either. But they are brighter...

 

I guess at the core of my question is: Do these older electrical systems have any issues running a bunch of LEDs? Not exactly apples to apples but my 2015 Escape actually had an issue running all LEDs and I've heard older vehicle electrical systems can run into issues with this, specifically because many LEDs continue to draw a little bit of power for a short moment after shutting off. 

 

I'd love to hear feedback on this. :)

[Ωhm]

46 minutes ago, Spinnakerblue89 said:

specifically because many LEDs continue to draw a little bit of power for a short moment after shutting off.

 

I'm not sure LEDs draw current on SHUT OFF, but instead they drain current on SHUT OFF.

[zomeizter]

No problem running LEDs over incandescent bulbs unless such are CAN monitored by a control module, this would be the major "issue" with the swap. Also, the color spectrum will be different and some LEDs do not dim well with the use of a rheostat as in the dash illumination, so getting the correct ones would get you the correct and intended result. The best way to know if you really want to run LEDs is to actually run some, try some different ones out, but this could be a bit of a pain depending on bulb location and keep in mind that these light emitters are polarized.

 

I have a 96 Dodge Ram that I used as my guinea pig by swapping all the instrument cluster bulbs to LEDs, I really liked how much brighter all the indicators became, especially during bright sunny days, had no clue it had a gear shift light for the manual tranny until after the retrofit LOL...

[gogmorgo]

My two concerns with LEDs are dimming and colour temperature.

I had a buddy with a big double din head unit with a bunch of blue lights that he couldn’t dim ask me once if I could figure out some brighter headlights for him. I reached out and covered the head unit with both hands and suddenly his headlights weren’t an issue any more. He drove around with a piece of cereal box taped over the head unit after that. Looking cool is nice and all but sometimes being able to see where you’re going is helpful too. 
Light leaning towards the amber or red end of the spectrum is going to be easier on your eyes at night than a blue or green, or even some yellows. 
Make sure whatever LEDs you get are compatible with a rheostat. Some want to dim with pulse width modulation and that can get buggy for your eyes. 

[Spinnakerblue89]

All, thank your for your suggestions. 

[Pete M]

potential problems with LEDs in the brake light spots:

 

-not enough light going straight back into the eyes of the driver behind you (LEDs don't project light out the same as a bulb and so the light gets scattered all over instead of directed rearward)

-not much difference between parking light brightness and brake light brightness

-not every LED for sale of a particular size is actually sealed against moisture

 

the dim-able interior LEDs I run in the clusters I sell are actually a bit too bright (meaning too bright on high and too bright on dim) and so I made them less so by blocking out a couple of the individual LEDs on the bulb.  works great.    I'd share a pic of what I'm talking about, but I'm out of town at the moment.  I can when I get back this weekend.  

[Htchevyii]

I used these in multiple vehicles with great results.

 

 I'm not crazy about the thought of getting rear ended in this thing, so I've been hunting for more visible tail lamps. I tried a few LEDs and they were all dimmer than factory. I read about these "plasma LEDs" on one of the classic car forums from West Coast Classic Cougar. People have found them to be the best, even if you don't have a Cougar. They are impressive! The first photo is new driver's side bulbs, the second is LED upper and incandescent lower. These are not new lenses.

 

Oh ya, my old bulbs were some Honda ones that were already supposed to be brighter than stock. It's been a few years now and no problems in either vehicle that I installed them in.

[Spinnakerblue89]

Htchevyii,

 

My very limited understanding of LEPs is that the brightness is certainly more focused and intense, but also... More focused than even an LED. From your experience, would these be suitable for front end lights and interior use? Or would they fall under the too-direct/too-bright category?

 

I'm glad that you brought them up, by the way. I'd darn near forgotten about them!

[pizzaman09]

I'm running LEDs in two spots in my truck.  The reverse lights are probably the best upgrade I've done, they are so bright that I can actually see things behind me as I'm backing up, I'd argue it's about as bright behind the truck as say one low beam light.  Before the swap with the original incandescent bulbs I couldn't even see the difference in brightness behind the truck.

 

I also have LEDs in the center spot for the rear brake lights and turn signals.  I purchased red bulbs so the light color would match the lens.  That too is a big improvement in being able to see the lights following the truck.  I kept the incandescent bulbs in the upper rear housings just so I wouldn't need a new turn signal relay designed for LEDs.

 

I would personally avoid LEDs for interior courtesy lights, the color is too intense and blue.  As for dash lights, I would consider it.  I did LEDs on the gauges of my Austin Healey Sprite and it really made them a lot easier to see at night.  

 

I've also put LED headlights in a few of my cars but kept the classic seals beam halogens in the Comanche as they are pretty good and are the right color in my eyes for the style of the truck.

[Billabob]

I went with diode dynamics bulbs and they offer several different brightnesses for each bulb. I went with the 24 lumen version in the dash and love it. The gear selector light should definitely stay incandescent though, even the least bright LED blinded me. 

[Htchevyii]

2 hours ago, Spinnakerblue89 said:

Htchevyii,

 

My very limited understanding of LEPs is that the brightness is certainly more focused and intense, but also... More focused than even an LED. From your experience, would these be suitable for front end lights and interior use? Or would they fall under the too-direct/too-bright category?

 

I'm glad that you brought them up, by the way. I'd darn near forgotten about them!

They would probably be fine for front turn signals. Definitely too bright inside. My biggest concern was my dim brake lights on a bright day, so that's all that I changed. I did add a relay kit to the headlamps as I do with most of my old vehicles. Not only does it increase voltage to the lamps, it reduces the load on the headlamp switch. I don't like the way the modern headlamps look in old cars.

[Spinnakerblue89]

I will have time to look all of these recommendations over. I have a few things I wish to do before diving into this, such as replacing mirrors and B-pillar lights— for which I have searched on here extensively and pretty much know where I'm going with it.

 

I do agree overall that LEDs can be too white/blue for this vehicle. A natural/warm white is idea to me for at least the interior because it fits the time, and I have a honey tan interior and that being drowned in cool white/blue sounds like a nightmare on my eyes.

 

Speaking of which, I have a follow up as this thread has given me another thing to consider. The original tail light lenses have seen better days, and I believe a hairline fracture has developed in one of them. I'm a huge fan of preserving original equipment but there's nothing I can do about lenses that so far as I know haven't been reproduced to original spec in what... 30 years? Suffice it to say, I'm cool with removing the tail light assemblies, cleaning them up, and boxing them up for safe storage until a day comes where they may be reproduced. My understanding is that Oracle has made a reproduction, albeit different-looking, with LEDS. The asking price doesn't bother me, would it be worth swapping out just to spare the originals from further deterioration? Cost is not an issue, again.

[Htchevyii]

Key makes replacement assemblies now as well as just the lenses. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/115801642492?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=L6bMzCmTSr2&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=JeYfUyVkQ5q&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

[cruiser54]

I have ALL LEDs from OneWayLight. 

quality stuff. 

[Spinnakerblue89]

Whaaaa!!! Replacement OEM style taillights? Color me intrigued! I'd much rather do that if they are of good fit and finish. My concerns with the Oracle setup was that they would leave something to be desired!

 

Liking the green in your instrument cluster! That was done to my '88 Ranger and it is dim as all get out. I'll be digging into that one some other time.

[rokinn]

I just finished making an order from One Way Light.  They are going out of business so prices are greatly reduced.  They appear to be high quality.  Noticed Phillips brand on some.

[Airborne Janitor]

9 hours ago, rokinn said:

I just finished making an order from One Way Light.  They are going out of business so prices are greatly reduced.  They appear to be high quality.  Noticed Phillips brand on some.

 

LOL they've been going out of business for like 2 years now.

[cruiser54]

Jason at onewaylight said they were gonna go on Amazon or something like that. 

[Spinnakerblue89]

Something to note: Their site claims that '84-'97 led kits are sold out, yet they still have '84-'01 kits? 

 

Either case, the most I would need is for the instrument cluster. Will those LEDs fit into the plastic adaptors on the back of the gauge cluster just fine? 

 

Edit: Spelling

[rokinn]

2 hours ago, Spinnakerblue89 said:

Something to note: Their site claims that '84-'97 led kits are sold out, yet they still have '84-'01 kits? 

 

Either case, the most I would need is for the instrument cluster. Will those LEDs fit into the plastic adaptors on the back of the gauge cluster just fine? 

 

Edit: Spelling

 

The broad category is 84-01 kits.  The only kit still available in that sub category is the 98-01 dome light kits.  All the rest are individual LEDs.

[Spinnakerblue89]

Update: 

 

So I went through my assortment of exterior light bulbs and just for the heck of it, I had some Zevo LED reds that I put in the brake light sockets, and now when I have them inserted, the turn signals across funky. Both the turn signals bulb and brake light bulbs illuminate on that side, happens for either turn signals. Is this a ground issue? Polarity-related? I had these in another vehicle that I took out before selling it and I don't recall there being any issues at all- but said truck was much newer.

 

I'm not committed to the Zevos but hey since I had them, why not try it out.

[Pete M]

are they "dual illumination" bulbs?

[Eagle_SX4]

2 hours ago, Spinnakerblue89 said:

Update: 

 

So I went through my assortment of exterior light bulbs and just for the heck of it, I had some Zevo LED reds that I put in the brake light sockets, and now when I have them inserted, the turn signals across funky. Both the turn signals bulb and brake light bulbs illuminate on that side, happens for either turn signals. 

Are you talking about the front turn signals or the rear bulbs because the all rear "red" bulbs are both brake and turn signals. The rear bulbs should be an 1157 or similar dual filament bulb. If it is an 1156 (single filament) it shouldn't fit, but if you got it in there it might touch both contacts in the base and cause some weird things to happen. Like the turns signals on the front lighting up when you hit the brakes.

[gogmorgo]

Something else that can happen, if a dual-filament bulb doesn’t have a good connection to ground it’ll find a ground path via the other filament. This can result in the other circuit getting illuminated. With a typical incandescent bulb that will mean that when you signal it will dimly blink the tail/marker circuit, and when you turn on the tail lights it’ll dimly turn the turn signals on solid which may be indistinguishable from regular marker/tail light function. LEDs themselves are polarity sensitive, meaning they shouldn’t be able to back feed power into the opposing circuit but depending on the LED some have non-biasing circuitry to allow them to work both ways, and I don’t know how they would be affected in a dual-filament socket without a reliable ground connection.

 

Which, speaking of things I don’t know, this could do with some clarification:

2 hours ago, Spinnakerblue89 said:

 now when I have them inserted, the turn signals across funky. Both the turn signals bulb and brake light bulbs illuminate on that side, happens for either turn signals.

As was said, of the three bulbs in the taillight housings, two on each side, should be the same dual-filament 1157 bulbs. Both bulbs function as brake, turn, and tail light bulbs. The dim filament in both bulbs is the tail. The brighter filament in both bulbs will either blink with the turn signals or come on solid when you step on the brakes. You don’t have individual brake and turn bulbs, you have two stop/turn/tail bulbs on each side.

[Tex06]

On 12/15/2023 at 7:30 PM, Spinnakerblue89 said:

Update: 

 

So I went through my assortment of exterior light bulbs and just for the heck of it, I had some Zevo LED reds that I put in the brake light sockets, and now when I have them inserted, the turn signals across funky. Both the turn signals bulb and brake light bulbs illuminate on that side, happens for either turn signals. Is this a ground issue? Polarity-related? I had these in another vehicle that I took out before selling it and I don't recall there being any issues at all- but said truck was much newer.

 

I'm not committed to the Zevos but hey since I had them, why not try it out.

 

I just pulled the ZEVOs out of my truck for the oracle tails. Really liked them for an option over the standard incandescent bulbs. I've got 2 brake/tail bulbs and 2 reverse bulbs if anyone wants them.