LED's vs Incandescent Lighting, Some data and discussion Options

[pbanders]

OK, I think I'm "finished" with my LED conversion on my car. I converted nearly every light in the car to LED's. Only lights I didn't convert were the fresh air fan indicator, and the non-illumination lights in the dash cluster. Headlights are WHDZ LED 7" from Amazon, all other bulbs from superbrightleds.com. Total cost including shipping and tax was $304. I originally tried H4 LED conversion bulbs but didn't like them, and went with the WHDZ lights instead, which meet my needs. I also converted my fog/driving lights to LED, the lights I bought were $14 a pair from Amazon, so including those brings me to $318.

My purpose was twofold: better lighting, and lower current draw. I hoped with the lower current draw that issues I've had with parasitic alternator drag pulling down the idle with the lights on would be improved. Both goals were definitely accomplished.

With the stock incandescent lights, if you have the lights on and you're using the low beams, the current draw from all of the lights (marker lights, F/R parking lights, headlights, license plate lights, trunk light, instrument lights) is 19.5 A at 12.8 V. Replacing those lights with the LED's I described above results in a current draw of 5.0 A, a reduction of 14.5 A (~75% reduction).

For the first time since I've owned this car, turning on the lights has no effect on the idle. You could probably do the same thing by changing the alternator to a 70 A or the 160 A conversion, but you wouldn't get the improvement in lighting and it would likely cost a lot more. I can even turn on the fresh air blower, heater, or windshield wipers with the lights on at idle - though I think if I turned them all on simultaneously that would be pushing my luck too far.

The lighting is vastly improved. The marker and parking lights are far brighter, as is the reverse lighting (actually useful, now). I can see things in my trunk. My interior light actually lights my interior. My instrument markings are white now and not a dull yellow. I need to build a PWM dimmer for them that works off of the dimmer knob, as right now, they're "on" or "off" (kind of how LED's work with DC voltage).

Headlights are vastly improved. They're so white that when I see cars with halogen lights they look like kerosene lanterns. I'm not a big fan of the WHDZ low beams (not as uniform a pattern as I'd like), but in combo with my fog/driving lights, they're awesome. The WHDZ high beams are excellent, great pattern and super throw.

IMO, it's a good upgrade for our aging cars. Superbrightled's has a nice vehicle system that will tell you all the lights you need. You can find the WHDZ lights on Amazon easily if you search for "WHDZ", they're $64 ea. Or, you can go with the Truck-Lites (~$170 ea) or the GE Nighthawks (~$220). There are some other projector-style LED lights on Amazon if you want to go that way.

Some pics below....

[brownaar]

Brad,
Did you have any issues with the LED bulbs? I replaced my marker, turn, brake, and back-up lights with the appropriate LED bulbs and my lights do weird things. The driver's brake light flashes with the driver's turn signal. One front side marker flashes with the turn signal but the other one doesn't flash with it's corresponding turn signal. I did install the load resistors on the rear turn signal circuits. Everything works normally when I put the regular bulbs back in. Just curious if you had a similar experience.
Thanks,
Aaron

[pbanders]

Brad,
Did you have any issues with the LED bulbs? I replaced my marker, turn, brake, and back-up lights with the appropriate LED bulbs and my lights do weird things. The driver's brake light flashes with the driver's turn signal. One front side marker flashes with the turn signal but the other one doesn't flash with it's corresponding turn signal. I did install the load resistors on the rear turn signal circuits. Everything works normally when I put the regular bulbs back in. Just curious if you had a similar experience.
Thanks,
Aaron

No, essentially zero problems. I had one bulb in the right rear taillight that had some contact issues due to the classic "melted socket" problem, I shimmed it with some brass stock and it was fine. Did you order CAN bulbs instead of "normal" bulbs? CAN bulbs (car area network) are for later cars that use a common buss and an addressing protocol to turn them on and off, and detect bad bulbs. No idea of what would happen if you used them in a 45-year-old car (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif).