Philips Tier 1 LED Backup Lights

[3p141592654]

Anyone who has replaced any Supra bulbs with LEDs knows how crappy the aftermarket LED bulb market is. I'd say at least half of the bulbs on Ebay are outright junk that won't last a day of use. Well, that's all changed because a tier 1 supplier (Philips) has released a line of LED bulbs that have a 12 year warranty and really nice construction.

I bought their 1156 bulb replacement to swap out my rear backup lights. They are a bit pricey, a twin-pack 1156 set goes for $30 on Amazon, but you get what you pay for.



Here is a shot with the bulb inserted into the backup light socket, and a picture of them in action (LED on right, stock on the left)



They area painfully bright to look at bare. Here's a comparison of the stock bulbs right and LED left shining on my garage door.

 

[jetjock]

Thanks Jon. Good to know. It's true most of the stuff out there is junk and good ones expensive. A few years ago I dropped $600 doing LED on my RV. Buy once, cry once.

 

[#04]

That last photo is from the reverse lamp?

OMG, 200% + more light.

I'm going to pick some of these up.

 

[SideWinderGX]

Did you have to bend the socket in order for it to shine up?

Didn't know that they were being sold from big name manufacturers, I'll have to grab some. Quality smaller bulbs for the interior are cheap but the 1156/1157s have always been very expensive.

 

[CyFi6]

Any issues using LEDs for taillight? As far as the tail lamp failure module is concerned? Ive had a problem with poor connections leading to melting of my white bulb housing, I figure LED would be less problematic.

 

[3p141592654]

I didn't bend the socket, it was left as is as shown in the third photo.

The tail lights may not work out as well as the backups. You can see in the third photo that the tails are vertical in the holder, and these LED lights are not designed to radiate much light end on. I will probably still try them, but I have my doubts. Also, it will probably trigger the bulb failure as the current will be much lower. That can be fixed by resizing the resistors in the failure module.

 

[yhatzee89]

Pep boys carries these in stock, I got them for my truck backup lights and they are awesom

 

[BrandonW]

Nice! i'll have to give these a try

 

[akito]

Nice find! $30 isn't bad if these are going to last for a long time. Buy it once and not having to worry about it again.

 

[3p141592654]

These Philips 1157LED lamps arrived. I've installed them and they provide about the same intensity as the stock bulbs, despite having no light coming straight out of the top of the bulb. They use a lot less energy which is the main draw. I haven't yet seen if the bulb failure lamp comes on, and what to do about it if it does. Will update later.



UPDATE: As expected, the bulb failure light is on. Plan to modify the failure box to compensate for lower current of LEDs.

 

[akito]

Pictures of how bright they are or not?

 

[3p141592654]

This looks brighter than it is. There is a definite hot area at the top of the lens too. I'll take another in daylight which may look more like real life.

 

[emiliorescigno]

I'm going to be watching this. I've been wanting to slowly convert my car to LEDs all around, and want to scope out quality diodes as well as see how you approach the taillight failure box and flasher relay.

 

[3p141592654]

Its really hard to convey the brightness of stop lights. I tried taking a photo during the day but, the lights looks really dim, dimmer than they are (see below) , while at night they look brighter than they are. Cameras don't have the dynamic range that our eyes do.

Stops off left, on right.

 

[SideWinderGX]

I bought a few as well and the white 1156s showed up, I put them in the reverse and rear blinker positions. Despite the glass being amber its much brighter than the stock light and comes on immediately (the stock light faded on and off compared to how quickly the LED came on).

Red 1157s are arriving tomorrow.

I bought a two pack of red 1156s for the third brake light and my '87 spoiler definitely has a hot spot on the left side because the bulb is angled. There's a metal reflector in there but doesn't do too much good.

I have two 1156s left that I'm putting in the front blinkers because I have clear lenses, they should work out just fine.

edit: I bought an LED blinker module and put it in a while ago in anticipation that I'd buy LED blinkers, so no rapid flashing for me.

 

[supraguy@aol]

3p,
Thanks for the info. Please- if you do end up swapping out resistors in the failure box, please let us know which ones,
And what what values you end up using.

 

[3p141592654]

I have parts on order. Will update when I get things working.

 

[3p141592654]

SideWinderGX, which blinker module are you using?

 

[Bmettie]

I have LED's all around also. I have this electronic flasher
https://www.superbrightleds.com/mor...f13jl-02-led-bulb-electronic-flasher/783/837/

 

[SideWinderGX]

SideWinderGX, which blinker module are you using?

I bought a CF14 (EP35) blinker module and it ended up being the wrong configuration, so the CF13 (EP34) module like Bmettie posted will work.

I got mine from diodedynamics and I don't believe it would have plugged in due to the housing...but they did send 3 heat shrinked terminated wires (female on one end, male on the other) so I used those and it works fine.