I've been thinking about changing out my brake, signal, reverse, license plate lights with LED's. I see Philips has a new line of direct replacements for 7443, 7440's, etc. Anyone use these and have pics? Does anyone know if you still have to put a resister in the brake lights with these? Let me know anyone's experiences with these.

 

I'm glad you started this thread, because I've been wanting to switch my turn signals, brake lights, and reverse lights over to LED's and wasn't sure if they could be directly replaced or any special wiring needed to be done.

 

I have not used those, but I'm pretty sure you still have to add a resistor.

 

Anyone out there have before and after pics? Any experience with these off the shelf Philips bulbs or any other? Any advice on colour of LED's (by this I mean do you use a white LED for a brake light when it is behind a red lens or a red LED). As you can tell I don't have much experience with these although I have done my cluster and interior. Exterior bulbs seem to have multiple configurations for the same bulb. For example superbrightleds has 13 different configurations of 7443 bulbs. Point me to a post if I'm missing one.

 

I'm running these in my tails:

Also using Philips leds in licence plate lights and corner/running lights. I like them very much.


The design of the brake bulbs with that shield on top makes it so you don't see the outline of the bulb (unlike halogen bulbs)


And here you can see how those bulbs in the tails compare to my led side markers.

The bulbs will work just fine in your tails but you will have no cruise control unless you add a resistor

Also, you want red color bulb for the brakes.

 

No cruise without a resistor? How does that work? I've been thinking about these too

 

At least in the 5th gen, yeah. Its because the led bulbs draw much less pwr and the system thinks brake lights are out, and on the 5th gen the cruise control is tied to that...

So if system senses brake light problem, it will not let you set cruise. Sucks.

 

That makes sense. Guessing it's the same for the 5.5? How big of a resistor it's needed?

 

Do you need resistors for led front turn signals on a 5.5 gen?

 

Not that I know of. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

This is helpful. Funny how Philips markets these as "direct replacements" but a resistor is needed. Did the side markers suffer from hyperflashing at all and need resistors?

 

Well, a resistor is technically not needed for some cars. And even 5th/5.5 gen, unless you care about cruise control. Lol

Side markers had no issues, and no resistors.