[Mgs] Yay Moss - lighting upgrade report

[Max Heim]

on 8/27/13 12:49 AM, PaulHunt73 at paulhunt73 at virginmedia.com wrote:

> The first thing to check is if disconnection of a corner stops the
> indicators flashing as it should, or whether the remaining lamp flashes on
> regardless, as I suspect it will.  This is a safety hazard, you will never
> know if one of the corners isn't flashing for any reason.  The fact that
> original flashers stopped flashing, and modern flashers start going at
> double-speed if one corner is out, is a deliberate safety feature.
> Typically LED flashers have to have a load resistor to be able to use the
> correct type of flasher unit, but even then the safety feature is only
> monitoring the load resistor.  As long as that is still connected both
> corners could be out and you would never know, till someone tail-ends you!
> Electronic flashers that don't need a load resistor have no safety feature
> from what I have seen so far, and this seems to include OEM usage as well as
> I nearly rear-ended a Range Rover that suddenly turned in front of me
> 'without warning', only for me to see his side flasher going as he turned.

It seems to me that the rate of flashing may have changed. I will check
this.

I don't think it's true that "you would never know" -- I often notice my
turn signal lamps reflecting off the bumper of the vehicle in front, or in
back when pulling out of a parallel parking spot. And regardless of "safety
features", I observe plenty of contemporary cars driving around with
burnt-out or disconnected lamps -- it's more a matter of driver awareness.
Some people pay attention to these things, and some are oblivious (and some
wouldn't know a turn signal stalk from a flugelhorn).

> 
> I'd also be concerned about tail lights being 2-3 times brighter, the
> reduction in visibility of following drivers at night in the rain would be
> considerable.  

Not at all. The comparison was to "dim". The modern cars you see on the road
with arrays of 12 or 18 LEDs are enormously brighter (and I have noticed
this problem with some of them -- they even cause purple spots in one's
vision). This is still a single-point light source, distorted and diffused
by a sharply-pointed lens.

> The other significant factor is whether there is enough
> differentiation between tail and stop lights to alert a following driver if
> they don't happen to be looking directly at the back of the car at the time.
> Some LED lights I've seen have very little differentiation.

This does not seem to be a problem. The stop lamp seems to be extremely
noticeable. This is probably the greatest single improvement.

I probably should have pointed out that all the bulbs I replaced were pretty
aged. I have a habit of dipping into my stock of used bulbs when one fails,
rather than buying new replacements. So it is possible, even likely, that
none of these bulbs were manufactured in this century. Perhaps the
difference would not have been so dramatic compared to new stock
incandescent bulbs.


> 
> PaulH.
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
>> Here's a preliminary evaluation of the lighting mods, based on a short
>> night
>> run.
> 

--

Max Heim
'66 MGB GHN3L76149
If you're near Menlo Park, CA,
it's the primer red one with chrome wires