I am thinking of changing my oem exterior bulbs to LED. I don't know much about them or the different types offered, like beam degree or the difference b/w non-polarized vs polarized? Any advise would be great thanks.

 

A polarized bulb just has a dedicated positive and negative contact. For bulbs that you would use on the exterior, a center contact would be positive, and the socket in your truck would match that. For bulbs that could be installed one of two ways, like a wedge base bulb, if it's polarized and doesn't light, just reverse it.

The brightest bulbs are called SMD (Surface Mount Devices) or SMT (Surface Mount Technology) and they also last the longest. If you have a colored lens (amber or red) the bulb color should match that lens - don't use white (it won't be as bright). Otherwise, the higher the lumen (lm) rating, the better.

Beam degree is a bit like flood vs spot. A wide beam is like a flood light.

If you try to replace turn signals with LEDs, you'll need to use a ballast resistor or special flasher to get the correct blink rate. And, if you don't, you MAY not have a functioning cruise control.

One of the best sources I've found for LEDs is http://www.superbrightleds.com

Read the special notes in the car bulb pages about "Converting to LEDs", I'll give a link to that here: http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...bulb-notes.htm

- Jack

 

Thanks for all the info Jack, thatb helps me out alot. I'm only going to replace the 3rd brake light for now, which I think they are 912, i might do a few more later.