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MG MGB Technical - LED lights?

Hi guys,

I've put this on the MGA page too. Last year I saw some great LED stop , side and indicator lights that were LEDs at Beaulieu. The "bulb" was made up of a number of LEDs, so that light shone in all directions, and it fitted into a standard buld holder, like a normal filament bulb. I was out of cash, took the guy's card (lost it), and can't find them anywhere. Any ideas where I can get such bulbs? (preferably UK, but will consider the USA as the dolar is UK-friendly)

Many thanks,

Grant
G Hudson

http://www.litewave.co.uk/led_bulbs.asp

There's one place there.
Ross Kelly

Unless things have changed recently it was illegal to replace incandescent bulbs with led bulbs even after they became OE on some new cars, and some sites selling them had the warning that they were only for show use (ho ho). In general OE applications use an array over a much larger surface area than an LED replacement for an incandescent would be.

They have been available and apparently legal in the USA for some years. They are brighter, although that can be a safety hazard in the wet for following drivers, but in a photographic comparison my biggest concern is that the increase in brightness of the tail lamps was more than the increase in brightness of the stop lamps, which reduced the difference between them significantly. This is a problem with some OE LED arrays I find, you have to be looking at the back of the car to see them come on.

There is the additional problem with indicator bulbs that unless they contain an equivalent resistance the flashers won't flash, unless you also fit a special LED flasher unit, and AFAIK these still don't have the 'lamp failure warning' feature that both of the incandescent flasher units do. You could say "LED lamps won't fail" which may be true but the wiring to them can.
Paul Hunt 2

Grant,

Replaced the relatively dim rear/stop bulbs with red LEDs, the type that project both back and sideways, on my GT. Vast improvement. I take Paul's point that they may not be strictly legal, but I feel safer with them in place. Think I got them from "Ultraleds".
Should add that car passed its MOT recently with them in place.

Clark.
Clark

Any chance someone could post a before/after photo (maybe with one side of the car still running normal bulbs) for comparison? I'm interested too but share Paul's concerns about brake lights being masked by tail lights.

Cheers,
Tim
T Jenner

Could Clark put an incandescent back one side and post pictures?
Paul Hunt 2

Found a site in the US with a variety of these. Any of the US folks using any of these?
Bruce-C

Helps if I put in the web.

http://www.lightlens.com/ledbulbs.htm?gclid=CKT-3qW0z5ICFQMEIwod31WfCw
Bruce-C

Paul,
I put LED lamps in for my brake lights. one side failed in short order. Probably one of the resistors. Fortunately, in a Spridget one can look over one's shoulder and see that the brake light has failed ;-). I do not feel that they are of any significant benefit in a retro-fit situation.
David "not necessarily a first-adopter" Lieb
David Lieb

I don't know if this would make much difference with LED arrays used to replace incandescents, but Clifton Gordon had a nice fix for Paul's observation of insufficient difference in brightness between Stop and running lamp output using halogen alternatives. In Gordon's case he simply sidestepped the brake filament's long wiring run by using a relay for just the stop lamp filaments. This relay picked up its output power directly from the battery, used a bit heavier wiring, and used the existing brake lamp filament wiring from the stop switch to trigger the relay. I did this to my GT with halogens and it did make for a more significant difference between stop and running lamp brightness. Whether this will work for LEDs, I don't know, but it might.
Bob Muenchausen

LEDs are much less sensitive to voltage than filament bulbs (halogen or otherwise) partly due to their physics and partly because the current draw is so low. You have to reduce LED voltage by a relatively large amount to get even a slight reduction in light output compared to filament. In Cliftons case with halogens there would have been a noticeable difference in voltage *at the lights* using a relay directly off the battery compared to the standard method, and this is due to the volt drops in the white, green and green/purple circuits caused by the current drawn by filament bulbs in the standard circuit. With LEDs the voltage difference would be negligible. The voltage direct off the battery would still be higher, but due to the voltage insensitivity of LEDs it would make little if any difference. I've tried LED instrument bulbs in the past and the rheostat made no difference in brightness in the LED lamp at all, even though only one was an LED and the rest filament, which *did* dim with the rheostat i.e. the voltage was being pulled down by those. You also need to be careful substituting halogens for standard bulbs as their operating temperature is so much higher even though their current draw is much the same.
Paul Hunt 2

Thanks for the explanation, Paul.
Bob Muenchausen

Thinking again, I think the comparison I saw was halogens and not LEDs, as it was some years ago.
Paul Hunt 2

My own observations regarding halogen tail lights (not to veer TOO far off topic) is that while they're a lot brighter than incandescents the brake light filament in the 1157's tend to burn out quickly. Maybe I've gotta do less stop-and-go driving.... :(




Rick Stevens

This thread was discussed between 07/04/2008 and 17/04/2008

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