I ordered some http://www.v-leds.com/Exterior-LED-B...78377-1-2.html



I was wondering if anyone had these for their REVERSE LIGHT and if these would be any good during the daytime? Reason I'm asking is cuz it's like 110F in Dallas and I don't really want to do much on the car in this weather and then have to undo it -_-

 

Even in the heat, it's maybe a 15-minute job to swap out those bulbs. Be very careful they're tight in the sockets, because if one of them falls into the lens housing, you'll have to remove the bumper to retrieve it. I bought all my signals and backup LED's from this eBay vendor:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2x-WHITE-3157-3156-24-SMD-LED-CAR-BRAKE-LIGHTS-BULBS-W9-/260689238429?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item 3cb24a199d

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&_trksid=p4712.m2000054&item=260624067 229&viewitem=



Delivery time from HK was ~10 days IIRC. Been installed for maybe 1.5 years, still super-bright (even in the sun), and no issues. I bought a couple of spares, because I've had other brands not last long (vleds.com and superbrightleds.com), but these haven't had any bad LED's in any of the 6 I have installed. Both the white and amber 3158's have two brightness levels (for cars that use them as combination brake/tail lights), so you need to short the two pairs of wire contacts on the bulbs together to get full brightness in the Z sockets, which only have one circuit. Hard to explain, but with the parts in hand, you'll see what I mean.

If you replace the signals, you also have to install resistors to keep the proper blink rate.

 

vleds trumps anything from ebay imho by far,., and what u really want is 5k,,its white not all blued out like the autozone stuff.. just my 2 cents.

 

As evidenced by the ones I noted above, you can get good LED's from eBay, but I'd say it's a hit or miss, at best. eBay feedback doesn't really tell you anything in this case, because feedback usually gets posted right away, not after months of use, so you won't see feedback bout LED longevity. Virtually all LED's are made in China, so wherever you buy them, the vendor/manufacturer of the finished product has to pick their LED source wisely.

I've had LED's from vleds.com, superbightled's.com, and oznium.com - all with inconsistent quality. I'd have to rank superbright's stuff the best overall, after swapping out all the bulbs on my 4 cars. The ozium stuff I tried failed almost immediately.

I would agree that 6K is a little hot for my tastes, too. To my eyes, a pure white looks best, and will have the best visibility/brightness.

 

Oh whoops, the ones I linked were wrong size lol. I need the 7440 ones and they are like $50 for a pair. Dunno if it's worth upgrading at this point.

 

Try the ones I recommended for $19/pair and I think you'll be more than happy. If you short the two brightness levels together like I did, they'll be very bright. My motivation for trying these was that I've got 25% tinted windows on my '08, and I couldn't back the car into my space at home very easily if it was dark outside. With these LED's I can see through the tint much better, and my backup cam works almost as well as in the daytime.

 

Do you by any chance have any daytime and nighttime pix of the ones u got?

I was wanting the ones from V-LEDs because they are high powered and actually are very bright.

 

No, but if you can wait a day or two I'd be happy to shoot a few. I just got home from work (I'm a ER nurse), so it's bedtime for me now, but I'm off Monday and Tuesday. Shoot me a PM to remind me, and I'll attach pics in my reply.

 

Here's a daytime pic:

 

How do you short the 2 brightness levels together? I'm not really good with electricals / wiring. -_-

 

First, you have to compare the socket to the bulb and see where the contacts are on each side of the socket. Then bend the tiny bare wire on the opposite side of the bulb to match that side of the socket. Two of the 4 wires on each bulb (one on each side) need to be re-bent. It's easy to do - just to it slowly and carefully, so as not to break the wires. In the end, two wires from the bulb will match each contact on each side of the socket, so both circuits are powered at once. It's easy to see, but hard to explain.

 

http://www.v-leds.com/Exterior-LED-B...96911-1-2.html

I have these.. bought them back when they just came out @ $50/pair
They are friggin bright at night, definitely helps when im backing out of a dark area, and I've never had issues with overheating.. i'll take pics sometime this week..but it looks just like dcains

 

Any night shots? ;o I'm tempted to click buy now.

 

It's really hard to get good night shots of something like this. If you set the exposure level for the lights all you see is two bright spots in a black background, and if you set the exposure level for the car the lights will look artificially dim. It's a question of too much dynamic range to capture without taking multiple images at various exposures and stacking them. Trust me, if they're bright in the daytime pic I posted, they're even brighter at night.

 

I know this one LED place that has really really bright LEDs meant for reverse lights. They use a special LED chip and when it shoots out, it's like a mini projector. It'll warm up too like an HID kit. Kinda pricey but i think well worth it. My friends have them on their cars, i haven't gotten them yet.

JLClightings.com

The name of it is like Cree LED Reverse Lights or something like that.

 

I looked at those previously, but I thought they might not work so well in the Z because of the way the bulb is angled inside the lens. The light only comes out the end of the LED "bulb", and wouldn't make much use of the reflector inside the backup lens. Way expensive, too, at $40/each.

http://www.jlclightings.com/CREE_Q5_..._p/sku_128.htm

 

I think it's $40 a pair... not each. Also, I've seen my friends put them in a G... they drilled a hole directly in the back and had it pointing out in the middle rather than putting the bulb from the bottom. They just use silicone to hold the bulb.

 

In for more pics!

Turn signals for rear, anyone have pics of those too? rather curiuossss

 

You're correct - that's $40 for the pair. But, tough to mod the reflectors in a Z, unless you're looking to pull the rear bumper.

 

I can probably shoot a pic of the signals Wednesday. I'm working tonight and tomorrow, so I'm sleeping during the day. Maybe I'll try a few night shots, too, but like I said, if they're bright in the daytime, they'll only look brighter at night. I've got the same bulbs in the front signals, as well.