LED Lighting Review and Comparison
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LED Lighting Review and Comparison
I have began the process of changing all the lights in my 2002 f-150 supercrew xlt with the 4.6l.
I am just starting this thread to give you my opinion on what looks good and what doesn't, but also to provide you with resources to make your own opinion.
Currently I have swapped all the "swappable" bulbs in the interior of my truck to LEDs. Including the little light In the cup holder. They do not appear much brighter than stock (except the door marker lights) but they do offer some improvement and in my opinion they look cleaner. I also currently have an LED third brake light and LED cargo light and LED reverse/backup lights. More on these in my next post.
I am just starting this thread to give you my opinion on what looks good and what doesn't, but also to provide you with resources to make your own opinion.
Currently I have swapped all the "swappable" bulbs in the interior of my truck to LEDs. Including the little light In the cup holder. They do not appear much brighter than stock (except the door marker lights) but they do offer some improvement and in my opinion they look cleaner. I also currently have an LED third brake light and LED cargo light and LED reverse/backup lights. More on these in my next post.
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The interior dome and map lights were purchased from autozone. They were a test run for the brand Pilot that also makes other items offered at autozone stores. They have 3 5050 smd LEDs on each bulb. They were not the correct size, but close enough that they fit with some slight bending of the contacts. They are polar sensitive so if they do not work when you put them in, rotate them 180 degrees and they should come on. You should also rotate them in the base to focus the light in the correct direction.
For the 194/t10 based bulbs in the front doors, license plate lights(forgot to mention those in the first post) and the glove box I used the Sylvania LEDriving 194 bulb. Those bulbs were expensive at around 10 dollars a piece. In the doors and the license plate locations, they were MUCH brighter than stock. I replaced these first in the doors and you could see them light up the interior when you hit the unlock button on the key fob. And in the license plate locations it casts light onto the ground. The bulb in the glove box is also pretty bright as the light reflects off the plastic.
The cup holder light I ordered from superbrightleds. It was a 74 size bulb with 3 smd LEDs on it. It's much brighter than stock and I almost want to disable one of the bulbs because it is so bright. Makes drinks easy as day to find while driving at night. Don't even have to look away from the road.
For the replacement 912/921 bulbs in the cargo and third brake light, I used the Pilot 194 size bulb. These have one 5050 smd on the top and 4 5050 smd located on all four sides. I chose these because they were cheaper and offered "360" degree lighting. They were pretty bright in the stock housing but I smoked the third brake light with VHT night shades and I have been told it's hard to see them in the day time. I plan to replace these with some 5w Cree LEDs with a projector cap from HIDGUY.net. There are a total of 5 5w Cree LEDs per bulb. So if these aren't any better I will just sand off the nightshades. These Pilot LEDs came in packs of two so I ended up putting one under the hood replacing that stock 912/921 bulb.
In my reverse lights, I have the Pilot 3157 bulb. These have 36 5050 smd LEDs on each bulb. Can't really tell if they're brighter than stock but I feel like I can see more while reversing and I just like the look.
Now for my tail lights, I had installed the JamStraight 3157 bulbs in the tails with load resistors. They absolutely sucked. The difference from dim to bright was next to nothing and all the LEDs were facing forwards so the housing wasn't lighting up. JUNK. I then tried the bulbs I put in my reverse lights and they seemed just about as bright as stock bulbs but, as they are a CANBus design, they functioned weirdly with the blinkers.
More on next post
For the 194/t10 based bulbs in the front doors, license plate lights(forgot to mention those in the first post) and the glove box I used the Sylvania LEDriving 194 bulb. Those bulbs were expensive at around 10 dollars a piece. In the doors and the license plate locations, they were MUCH brighter than stock. I replaced these first in the doors and you could see them light up the interior when you hit the unlock button on the key fob. And in the license plate locations it casts light onto the ground. The bulb in the glove box is also pretty bright as the light reflects off the plastic.
The cup holder light I ordered from superbrightleds. It was a 74 size bulb with 3 smd LEDs on it. It's much brighter than stock and I almost want to disable one of the bulbs because it is so bright. Makes drinks easy as day to find while driving at night. Don't even have to look away from the road.
For the replacement 912/921 bulbs in the cargo and third brake light, I used the Pilot 194 size bulb. These have one 5050 smd on the top and 4 5050 smd located on all four sides. I chose these because they were cheaper and offered "360" degree lighting. They were pretty bright in the stock housing but I smoked the third brake light with VHT night shades and I have been told it's hard to see them in the day time. I plan to replace these with some 5w Cree LEDs with a projector cap from HIDGUY.net. There are a total of 5 5w Cree LEDs per bulb. So if these aren't any better I will just sand off the nightshades. These Pilot LEDs came in packs of two so I ended up putting one under the hood replacing that stock 912/921 bulb.
In my reverse lights, I have the Pilot 3157 bulb. These have 36 5050 smd LEDs on each bulb. Can't really tell if they're brighter than stock but I feel like I can see more while reversing and I just like the look.
Now for my tail lights, I had installed the JamStraight 3157 bulbs in the tails with load resistors. They absolutely sucked. The difference from dim to bright was next to nothing and all the LEDs were facing forwards so the housing wasn't lighting up. JUNK. I then tried the bulbs I put in my reverse lights and they seemed just about as bright as stock bulbs but, as they are a CANBus design, they functioned weirdly with the blinkers.
More on next post
Last edited by shdow8948; Dec 7, 2013 at 08:56 PM.
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I have since installed a LED blinker relay even though I'm using stock bulbs in all 4 corners. I have also smoked my tail lights on the truck so I am hesitant to put LEDs in because well I still want people to see them. This being said, I plan to order bulbs from different manufacturers and determine which ones are the best LED bulb to put in and which ones, if any, are worthy to upgrade from the stock bulbs.
I also plan to get the lightning headlights and clear corners so that I can use switchback LEDs as day time runners and blinkers. I will also test some of these brands, but I plan on using the v3 tritons. If anyone has had good or bad experiences with these, please let me know before I drop 150 bucks on crap bulbs.
The rest of the posts will be reviews and comparisons of the LED bulbs used in the tail lights and the corner lights. They will come as I get the money to afford the bulbs(as I'm only 17 and get 6 dollars an hour...so much for minimum wage:P)
I also plan to get the lightning headlights and clear corners so that I can use switchback LEDs as day time runners and blinkers. I will also test some of these brands, but I plan on using the v3 tritons. If anyone has had good or bad experiences with these, please let me know before I drop 150 bucks on crap bulbs.
The rest of the posts will be reviews and comparisons of the LED bulbs used in the tail lights and the corner lights. They will come as I get the money to afford the bulbs(as I'm only 17 and get 6 dollars an hour...so much for minimum wage:P)