It was a while ago but I saw some comparison pictures of standard and LED
bulbs for an MGB that were available at the time. The problem as far as I
was concerned, just looking at the pictures, related to the tail lamps being
part of the stop lamp bulb and so changed as well. I felt that although the
*tail* lamps were brighter, they were *too* bright, and would be more likely
to dazzle following drivers in wet weather. And partly because of that the
difference between tail and stop of the LED units was greatly reduced
compared to the standard units. This would make the stop lamps coming on
*less* likely to be seen by a following driver unless they were looking at
or close to the back of the car. Current (ho ho) units may be different.
It is common for buses to have them these days, as a matrix of LEDs, and as
well as only a portion of the matrix being lit for tail lights they are
dimmed as well, brightening when the remainder of the matrix lights up under
braking.
In the UK it is illegal to use rear fog lights, for example in conditions
other than poor visibility precisely because they dazzle and reduce the
ability of following drivers to see the stop lamps coming on. When rear fog
lights first started coming out as aftermarket units many people, myself
included, wired them via a 2-way switch so that they could either be used as
fog lights in poor visibility, or as additional brake lights in other
conditions. For some reason this was also made illegal in short order, I
never found out why. Now, of course, we have the ubiquitous third brake
light!
One real benefit of LED stop lamps is that they illuminate noticeably faster
than tungsten, clearly visible on a vehicle with standard stop/tail lights
but an LED 3rd brake light.
PaulH.
----- Original Message -----
From: "dave houser" <mgs4dave@tampabay.rr.com>
To: <mgs@Autox.Team.Net>
Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2004 2:52 AM
Subject: brake light bulbs
> ... I should go for a pair of the LED bulbs.
> Has anyone had experience with either and what recommendations can you
> offer?
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