Went to my local Autozone today to check things out. Went in for oil actually, may be switching to 0w20 synthetic all around.
Anyways, was walking through and saw that they have 1157 red and 1156 amber LED light bulbs.
So i got a couple, they were more expensive than i have found on ebay etc...
about $16 for the set.
The style they offer only has leds on the top. Probably less than 18 or so. Not sure. Looks like this.....


There were none mounted on the sides of the bulb and underneath like i have seen.
I was hesitant about them because i wasnt sure about the lower amount of LEDs and also the fact there were none mounted underneath to reflect light off the inside of the tail light.

but i figured i would try it out.
after talking a while with the autozone lady about their return policy on light bulbs.


Definitely a MAJOR improvement over a regular bulb. I am impressed.
Normally the tail lights seemed pinkish and not very bright. The LEDs are much brighter and definitely have the instant on characteristic that everyone talks about.

So im addicted now, and will be replacing all of my lights.

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Order some golf shoes, otherwise we might never make it out of this place alive.

http://www.gassavers.org/gaslog/sig.php?id=1026

bro i just checked out your hatch to see if that was the 'egg' you were talking about. i am impressed. the hx rims dont even look like hx rims since they are white.

it makes it even funnier that i am thinking about throwing on ziex tires on my hx rims haha.

anyway, you have convinced me to get the led setup. what have you tested so far? and how much did it run you? also how is the light pattern??

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don't waste your time or time will waste you

On my altima I replaced all the bulbs to LED in the rear except the back up lights.

Not only it improves safety since they turn on faster but there was talk of fuel economy improvement.

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i wont replace them for fuel economy, i will replace them for safety. that and i have a feeling im going to lose 1 or 2 bulbs in the next couple months. i am approaching the 230000 mile mark FAST and i bought the car when it had 180k on it. not one bulb has gone out yet...

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don't waste your time or time will waste you

If they are now at Autozone, then they really are becoming mainstream. However, price isn't everything with LEDs. I much prefer brightness, over (1-time) cost with these things, and many of the cheaper units skip on brightness to get the cost down.

Do you have any specs on how many "lumens" those units you have put out? Just by looking at them, they look like the older/dimmer/cheaper "bulbs" you can get from http://www.superbrightleds . Personally, having used both styles, I'm much happier with the $20/each single "Luxeon" (brand name) LED units I got from SuperBrightLeds. Unlike the multiple LED units, the "Luxeon" bulbs use the new (they have been around for the last couple of years, or so) LED tech. As a result, a single Luxeon LED is brighter (and uses less power) than a whole array of the older (and cheaper) style LEDs.

BTW: Here are the specs for the single Luxeon units I picked up. While these numbers might seem lower than a stock incandescent bulb (a stock 1156/1157 incandescent puts out about 402 lumens), keep in mind that LEDs are more beam focused (less light being wasted pointing backward, for example), and the light is in the right color (essentially no wasted light going through the colored lens, unlike normal incandescent bulbs). As a result, these Luxeon units are actually a lot brighter than incandescents in practice.

http://www.superbrightleds.com/specs/115x-xLX3.htm

The HX wheels are the way to go, extremely light weight. and still look good. I picked these up for like $200 or so. Not bad for an oem wheel that weighs 11lbs. I get a lot of compliments on them. Some people think they are Civic type R wheels....etc...

The ziex tires i wouldnt really recommend. They are really good CHEAP sticky tires. I got these for $35 each on edgeracing.com. They are good for blasting through corners. BUT, i have not experienced a very high tread life with these.

Just depends what you are after i guess. If you plan to autoX go for it. Just for FE then not so much.

__________________
Order some golf shoes, otherwise we might never make it out of this place alive.

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Is there any way you could get a picture of these Luxeon units installed on your car. I am curious to see how that works out.

__________________
Order some golf shoes, otherwise we might never make it out of this place alive.

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I've got a digital camera, and could easily snap a few photos. However, since this site doesn't allow attachments to messages, someone else will have to volunteer to host those photos. If anyone is interested in hosting these photos, please PM me.

BTW: What aspect of these units were you looking to see (so I know what pictures to take)? For example, are you looking to see how they are installed (in which case I should leave the "bulb" partially out, so you can see how I "installed" it). Or are you wondering what they look like from the outside (in which case I'll just tell you that the units are totally invisible behind my car lens, with only the LED light output showing)? Or are you interested in the color/brightness of the units (in which case I should take an external shot with the lights on full)? Or?

i wont be auto-xing with the ziex tires just daily driving, which is very spirited daily, so cheap and sticky is exactly what i want. in a month my commute will go from 90minutes to 5minutes, so i dont really care about tread life just fun while being safe in less favorable weather conditions. eventually, i hope my wife will let me get r-comps for auto-x....

anyway. i am curious to see a side by side comparison of the leds vs the incandescent bulbs behind the lenses. i know it might be a bit much work but that would be the most interesting. one side with each.

how much brighter do you think it is over stock?

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don't waste your time or time will waste you

Go figure, my AZ doesn't have the 1156 amber. I wish they just had clear 1156 and 1157's. I did pick up 1156 and 1157 PLUS some 194's for the Metro. Later I'll make the switch for the Wazabi (the Insight) as I plan on keeping that car until around 2012 or the end of the world - whichever comes first.

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'08 Smart Passion - GREEN!
'93 Toyota Paseo
'91 Mercury Tracer
'86 VW Jetta Diesel

Yeah the problem I have is the bulb base in my xB are way different than the old standard base - actually I have a few in red and white that I bought last year. Autozone has had them for a few years but they are coming more popular.

I made a thread with pics of how i converted it on the altima. Search for it. I have no Idea what's it's called.

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If you email the pics to me I can put them on photobucket. or you can set up your own for free. either way formulatwo@earthlink.net

I am just wondering how one single LED works out compared to the 20 or so in the bulb i bought. Luxeon vs multiple leds...



Def brighter and more red. Which i didnt expect.
I can snap some pics tomorrow. at my GFs tonight.

Yeah apparently so. Whenever i went down the bulb isle, there was actually an opened package that someone had stolen the bulbs out of.

__________________
Order some golf shoes, otherwise we might never make it out of this place alive.

http://www.gassavers.org/gaslog/sig.php?id=1026

It's late right now (I need to work in the morning), and I'll need to get someone in the family to help (for example, someone to step on the break when the break lights are shot). But I should be able to get them to you in a few days. I'll email them from my gmail account.

It's hard to tell how bright your unit is, without some specs (as LEDs vary a lot, as to how much light they put out). So if you have any Lumen level specs on your unit, it would be helpful (for comparisons). But FWIW before the amber Luxeon units came out, I had a 24 LED amber unit (also from superbrightleds) for my turn signal. It worked, but was a little less bright than the stock (incandescent) bulb.

However, I later upgraded to (single LED) amber Luxeon 1156 modules in the back, and they are noticeably brighter than both the 24 LED units and the stock incandescent bulbs (dispite having only one large LED, vs 24 smaller ones). And it makes sense when you look at the specs, as a stock incandescent 1156/1157 bulb has just over 400 lumens (amount of light from the bulb). While the Luxeon bulb is closer to 200 lumens (and the power level the module drives that LED at), it still has the advantage in "usable light" because: 1) LEDs focus light better. So virtually all the light goes out the front (on the lens), instead of being wasted going in all directions. And 2) Because the light is produced in the right color, almost all the light goes through the lens (vs an incandescent bulb, where you can easily lose 2/3 of your white light to the lens filter, to turn it into colored light).

The guy on the right can see his Scangauge really well now.

Hey if you use the "Go Advanced" posting there is an "Attach" option for small photos with hosting photo storage in this site.

A single Luxon LED operates at about 3 volts whereas the multi LED lamps have several 3 volt leds in series so there is a bit of power loss in using the single LED usually dropping more of the 12 volts through a resistor.

I had some time to blow and stopped in my local Pepboys. They had all kinds of LED bulbs including some singles that look like they will fit my tails. They also had a "disco" color changing single LED for my dome light and other crazy stuff in the LED section.

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See my car here:

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2452824

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