RayRey21

so i purchased some LED's to illuminate my plates and was very disappointed because they are soooo dim. Not sure if I should be looking for a specific brand or wattage etc.....I like LED's and cars with factory installed LED look great. Just need to know which to be looking for when shopping online. Thoughts? Thanks

DennisMik

iTrader: (2)

It all depends on what you bought and where you bought it from. If you bought old technology leds, they aren't as bright.

If you bought them off e-bay, you can get anything from garbage to good stuff. You have to know your stuff when you buy off of e-bay. If you bought the cheapest, don't expect the best.

You could buy from superbrightleds.com or vled.com and get good stuff.

Or you could buy from and org member, Amerikaner83, who sells leds and complete kits.

RayRey21

thanks for the input. Other than price what determines if an LED is a cheap one or good one? What "specs" should I look for? Thanks

DennisMik

iTrader: (2)

I don't know the technical stuff about led technology, I learned the hard way by buying what turned out to be junk that it is not all the same stuff.

The only other thing about led lights is that they are made of of multiple individual leds. How many individual leds are on a lamp also has a very big effect on light output. Maybe you just bought ones that are not suited for the application.

I don't have leds in my license plates, so I don't have any specific recommendations.

Joeker82

iTrader: (2)

Buy these! Direct replacement, and they are super bright. Plug and Play

http://pages.ebay.com/motors/link/?n...d=280824639895

MaxMike93

Those look very interesting; I never saw those before.

OP, I've had nothing but good experiences with VLEDs, as have other people on the forum. License plate lights need a T10 (194/168) size, and I'd go with a forward-facing style as I have that style (but from eBay) and they work well. If you'd rather buy from eBay (which is a bit cheaper) these are pretty much identical to what I use, and the connector is better and you pretty much eliminate the possibility of the bulb losing its connection: http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-2-X-T10-5-SMD-Led-Car-Light-1210-Xenon-Canbus-LED-Bulbs-Lamp-12V-White-/390604382628?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item5af1d5e1a4&vxp=mtr

RayRey21

http://pages.ebay.com/motors/link/?n...d=280824639895 are very cool. plug and play is very nice. Price not so much but can see why they are $45. Not just buying the bulb.

New 2 x T10 5 SMD LED Car Light 1210 Xenon Canbus LED Bulbs Lamp 12V White | eBay are cool as well. Curious again of brightness on it and will research more. Superbrightled.com has a very good information section on how the LED lights work, which they recommend and why. Very good info. I will continue to look. I'm done spending on LED's that just don't cut it so I will take my time. Thanks for the feedback guys....very helpful!!

Joeker82

iTrader: (2)

If you like, I can snap a few pictures of them tonight for you. $45 ain't that bad...You get complete replacements with seals. They are like 5x brighter then my old led license plate bulbs.

RayRey21

sounds good thanks!

Joeker82

iTrader: (2)

Wad up Mike! How's it hanging man?

Joeker82

iTrader: (2)

Here ya go! Sorry about the dirty car, its been raining in Chicago the last two days... I backed the car into my garage. As you can see, its not completely dark here, and they are that bright!

RayRey21

Damn. Those are bright

Joeker82

iTrader: (2)

Oh yea! They are what your looking for!

tigersharkdude

iTrader: (20)

I run a set of $2 LED bulbs from ebay. They are plenty bright. The only downside is that shipping takes 3-4 weeks (from China)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2X-White-8-SMD-T10-Car-LED-License-Plate-Map-Lights-193-194-168-2652-W5W-EY5-/370849238647?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item5658564e77&vxp=mtr

Joeker82

iTrader: (2)

Those look kinda dull. There is a dead spot in the middle, and on the bottom of the plate. Also, they look kinda bluish purple??..IMO

MaxMike93

In my experience, I've found that LEDs advertised as white but are that purplish color are very low quality, also probably the reason for the dimness of them and the poor lighting quality. I know this is a bad picture (iPhones aren't the best for night pictures; I took this to show my reverse bulbs when I got them. I forgot how bright my city light and side marker LEDs can look lol), but this is how mine look. They look great without any badly apparent dark spots and the color isn't really too "cool". They are the CANBUS connectors (even though our cars don't have that system) so the connection is much better than the two little wires typical on LEDs, something I wanted to ensure since I don't want to get any trouble for not having my plate illuminated correctly.

tigersharkdude

iTrader: (20)

You must not know much about led's then.

Cool White - bluish white
Warm White - yellowish white

You want brighter, get a bulb with more led's. The ones that are in there are only 4-LED (I will be ordering those 8-LED bulbs above). Or run an LED strip (that costs all of $5 on ebay. 4th gens cant run a setup like on the A33 cars, there is no room. But if I could get two 12-smd panels up there, I could get this kind of brightness for $4

MaxMike93

Excuse me? I've been buying tons of LEDs to experiment with what looks best in my car and I've advised a few people of what types of bulbs works best in which applications on their cars. I was quoting Joeker when he stated that yours looked purple in the picture, not a typical cool or warm white. I had bought a bulb for my friend that was advertised as white, but the light appeared to look purplish (like your lights in that picture) and my electrician friend who works with LEDs and does projects with them in his spare time said the bulb was lacking in quality, which may or may not be how your bulbs are. I don't have warm or cool white, mine are 5000k which is a natural, neutral white. And for the record, more LEDs doesn't necessarily mean a brighter bulb. I've use a bulb with 10 small LEDs and the output was inferior to that of bulbs with 5 larger LEDs. Now I have bulbs with a newer LED design and it is much, much brighter. It's the quality of the LED, not always the quantity.

tigersharkdude

iTrader: (20)

says the guy with 36 smd chips above his license plate.

You cant compare 8-smd chips to 36-smd chips

MaxMike93

36? What the hell are you talking about? I have two 5-LED bulbs illuminating my license plate. And you can compare their output like how I had a 16-LED bulb in my dome light but it was way dimmer than the THREE LED bulb I am using now since this current bulb has some quality design and thought in it for it to perform exceptionally.

pahanorlando

iTrader: (5)

I don't know why you guys want your plate to look that bright

I have pretty cool white (little brighter than stock) and that's good enough, I wouldn't spend much time and/or money on brightness of a license plate

MaxMike93

At least for me, it's just a nicer look to have bright, white light illuminating anything on my car, even on the license plate. I just think its a good look, and I'm sure many others agree that it's just nice thing to have. Joeker's are nice since they directly replace the stock license plate light housing and the LEDs are integrated nicely for even light distribution. I don't have anything to hide if a cop checks my brightly illuminated plate anyway haha :P

Joeker82

iTrader: (2)

Because it's cool! :-) I also have nothing to hide either...

It also matches the LED taillights. I wanted all new replacements for the backend of the car.

RayRey21

ok so i bought the $2 bulbs on ebay and the brightness is perfect. Not overkill but not dim. I will take some pics this weekend but for $2 you cant go wrong!!!

Joeker82

iTrader: (2)

As long as your happy!

2000MaximaSE

Here is mine.. I took out the bulbs and wired in an LED strip.

tigersharkdude

iTrader: (20)

Each panel has 3 rows of 6 (3x6-18) , and there are two separate panels (18x2=36)

Joeker82

iTrader: (2)

That's my car dude. Not Mike's.