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Looking for advice on LED Brake lights and maybe turn signals?

1K views 10 replies 5 participants last post by  Aussiemerc 
#1 ·
I'm thinking about the tail lights as I'm working my way through some light repairs and installation of a new tail light gasket. I just replaced my headlights with some much higher power lights. After looking at the bulbs in my tail assembly, I started to wonder if there was improvement that could be made in this area as well.

First and foremost, I want to be sure folks see me when I brake, so I'm really interested to hear recommendations for red/amber plug and play options for the brake lights. While I doubt I will use the cruise control much, it does work on my car so an option that keeps that functionality would be great as I understand that the load on the brake light circuit and impact the cruise functionality (?).

The turn signals and running lights are a lesser priority for me, but I'm interested in options there as well.

The reverse lights would also seem to be candidates for a plug and play, but with the torpedo shape, and the existing halogens, I'm not sure how much improvement will be yielded.

In any event, looking for some real world advice for my 84 380SL in the tail light assembly, starting with the brakes, but pretty much every bulb is fair game.

I've made the world more visible in front of me, now I'd like to be sure they can see me from behind.

Thanks for any insights, and links to a trusted seller is also much appreciated.
 
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#3 ·
Thanks. Very helpful.

When I searched for the 7506 I ended up with 1156 LED bulbs. The 1156 has the same looking base as the bulbs I have in my car. Lots of options out there - a lot more than I frankly thought were out there - and a fair number of similar looking bulbs available from ebay sellers. I'm not quite sure what will fit well (or how hot they will run). as a first dabble, I may pull the trigger on some of the no name ebay LEDs and see how they perform and also see how hot the turn, brake and reverse light run. I think that certainly for the time being, I will leave the running light and side lights as is.
 
#4 ·
I did the LED change over a few years ago. Do not go low end. If you are doing a swap, then pay for GOOD lamps. The cheap junk does not put out enough candle power/lumens. The reflectors are made for light waves to jump off them and most of the LED just outputs forward.

You also want to change the blinker relay for a timed relay over the original. The MB relay uses the voltage drop/resistance to control the flash of the signals. If you keep the original, the cluster indicators will flash rapidly. I think the bulbs did to prior to installing the timed relay.

The cheap LED also does not put out enough light to clue folks behind or in front of you that your lights are on. I went back to incandescent bulbs.
 
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#5 ·
I went high end for the other cars in the fleet

only to find that the very nice, very bright leds still triggered my bulb out warning lamp, so the SL benefitted from me taking them out of the more modern cars.

+1 on the Hyperflashing. I bought some very fine and dandy Yellow leds for the indicators, only to find that when all four were changed, hyperflashing in hazard and indicator mode occurred. I changed the front two back to Tungsten ( strangley enough, a bit brighter than the leds) and all is well.

for the brake lights, I fitted red leds, and they give a lovely ruby glow to the light. ( i don't use cruise in any event)

for the reversing lamps, I used the white 'lens' design, .again fine and dandy.

for the tail lights, I used high power festoons, faced inwards to bounce properly off the reflectors. I thought the lamp would 'shade' itself in the beam output, but no, it looks fine, no shadow discernible.

I have left the foglight as tungsten, as i think that fitting an opaque led in theire will affect the beam from the sidelight .

I have also replaced the licence plate lamps with festoons, and the overhead courtesey lights, and the glove box lamp. Only my back has prevented me getting at the footwell lights.:frown

total cost, about twice as much as doing them all with Osram OEM originals.
 
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#6 ·
And now for the rest of the story..

You can fit LED if they are outfitted with resisters. Those are the very high end units you can get at FLAPS. Very few of these are offered on FleaBay, as the chinese are dumping LED in bulk online.
 
#8 ·
If the car has a "Lamp Out" indicator, then all need to be resister, or the error shows up. That might keep the 560SL out, but the older ones should be fine.
 
#10 ·
Just drove the car for the first time this year. Put white led for reverse and turn indicator and red with resistor for brake on one side.

Turn hyperflashed immediately so that came out.

Brake was slightly brighter during day. The noticeable thing compared to regular bulb on pass side was the speed at lighting up. LED brake lights stay in for now. Clearly saw LED light before incandescent.

Reverse had a blue cast and was not noticeably brighter during the day. Will keep one of each and review at night. Not committed to the reverse light yet
 
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