Tail lights - a rant

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Originally Posted By: grampi
Originally Posted By: Miller88
Nightshade on tail lights is dangerous. I have been behind a few vehicles that you just can NOT see the tail lights in [censored] weather.

I think a lot of people don't remember to turn on the lights because of DRLs.


That's another thing I don't get...why do you DRLs stay on at night?


Because people ignore that their dash board lights are on but the "headlights" aren't all that effective. Many cars light up the dash all the time. At least my car shows the high beam indicator glowing dimly to remind you that only the DRLs are on, and has a bright green headlight indicator for the headlights.

That said, even I have been guilty of driving on the road for a ways at night before I realized I didn't have my lights on.
 
Originally Posted By: wrcsixeight
What is kind of noteworthy is that the OP put 'Brighter' LED lights in his taillights, and they very well might be brighter, from directly behind, but 15 degrees off to the side might barely be visible.

While the brighter is better mentality is alive and well, as is the nightshade gotta look cool mentality, there are also some annoying bright brake lights which are nearly blinding too, and some of these that I see are obviously these aftermarket LED bulbs which are attempt to mimic 360 degrees of light like an incandescent bulb, but fall well short of the intended optics of the incandescent reflector.

I have been following somebody around a turn whose Brake lights had appeared to have failed, but when I got directly right behind them I was blasted with Pink LED lights.

In most cases installing LED retrofit bulbs in Incandescent brake and signal fixtures is illegal. We have some draconian laws regarding vehiclar lighting in the US, but this is one area where some enforcement is needed. Some reflectors and bulb designs might be adequate, but some are just downright dangerous.

The OP should do a walk around their vehicle's rear from different heights and different angles to make sure these retrofit LED's brake lights are indeed visible from every angle.

Another issue with retrofit LED 1157's or replacements for other dual filament bulbs is there is not enough brightness difference between parking light and brake light. I see this all the time too, an LED retrofit which looks like the car is braking, but obviously not, then when the brakes are depressed it gets only about 10% brighter.
Kind of like crying wolf, such brake lights will get ignored after many false alarms.




The LEDs are only a tad bit brighter. The main reason I bought them is because they turn on quicker than regular bulbs. This gives people behind me a faster reaction time. The bulbs I bought have a 360 degree beam. I have looked at them from all angles and they show improvement over stock. I know exactly what you mean though about those LEDs that only seem to face the rear. I see them a lot on Toyotas.

These are the ones I have in the color red:

45smdled3157bulb.jpg
 
Originally Posted By: Dave Sherman
Originally Posted By: grampi
Originally Posted By: Miller88
Nightshade on tail lights is dangerous. I have been behind a few vehicles that you just can NOT see the tail lights in [censored] weather.

I think a lot of people don't remember to turn on the lights because of DRLs.


That's another thing I don't get...why do you DRLs stay on at night?


Because people ignore that their dash board lights are on but the "headlights" aren't all that effective. Many cars light up the dash all the time. At least my car shows the high beam indicator glowing dimly to remind you that only the DRLs are on, and has a bright green headlight indicator for the headlights.

That said, even I have been guilty of driving on the road for a ways at night before I realized I didn't have my lights on.


Neither of my vehicles have dashboards lit unless the lights are on. I have drove a few vehicles with lit dashboards and that has thrown me off a few times.
 
Originally Posted By: Dave Sherman
Originally Posted By: grampi
Originally Posted By: Miller88
Nightshade on tail lights is dangerous. I have been behind a few vehicles that you just can NOT see the tail lights in [censored] weather.

I think a lot of people don't remember to turn on the lights because of DRLs.


That's another thing I don't get...why do you DRLs stay on at night?


Because people ignore that their dash board lights are on but the "headlights" aren't all that effective. Many cars light up the dash all the time. At least my car shows the high beam indicator glowing dimly to remind you that only the DRLs are on, and has a bright green headlight indicator for the headlights.

That said, even I have been guilty of driving on the road for a ways at night before I realized I didn't have my lights on.


What are you talking about? I said I don't get why DRLs stay on at night...what's that got to do with dash lights and people forgetting to turn their headlights on?
 
Originally Posted By: grampi

What are you talking about? I said I don't get why DRLs stay on at night...what's that got to do with dash lights and people forgetting to turn their headlights on?


They stay on at night the same way they stay on during the day. Ignition on + engine running + parking brake off + HEADLIGHTS OFF = DRLs on. My point was that since many cars have dash lights that light up at all times, it's easy to miss that the headlights are off. If dash lights didn't do this, your peripheral vision would probably tell you there's something not right.
 
Originally Posted By: Dave Sherman
Originally Posted By: grampi

What are you talking about? I said I don't get why DRLs stay on at night...what's that got to do with dash lights and people forgetting to turn their headlights on?


They stay on at night the same way they stay on during the day. Ignition on + engine running + parking brake off + HEADLIGHTS OFF = DRLs on. My point was that since many cars have dash lights that light up at all times, it's easy to miss that the headlights are off. If dash lights didn't do this, your peripheral vision would probably tell you there's something not right.


But DRLs don't turn off when the headlights are on...they should, hence the "D" in DRLs...
 
Originally Posted By: grampi

But DRLs don't turn off when the headlights are on...they should, hence the "D" in DRLs...


They do turn off when headlights are on. They are on when headlights are off. As you said, hence the "D" in DRLs, which stands for "Daytime".

The Daytime Running Lights are sometimes seen at night on vehicles where an inattentive driver forgot to turn on the appropriate lighting system, namely the Nighttime Running Lights, better known as "headlights". This could easily be done on a vehicle such as a Honda CR-V, a fairly popular vehicle, which has well-lighted dashboard instruments which are illuminated regardless of whether the headlight switch is turned to the "on" position or not, i.e., they are also illuminated when the Daytime Running Lights are on and the headlights are off. Somebody such as myself might not quickly notice that the headlights are not on since the dashboard lights are well lit, whereas on a vehicle such as a 1977 MG Midget where the dashboard light are completely dark when the headlights are off, it is much more obvious.

All clear?
 
Jeepman, I use similar lights in my car, except in size 7440, and they work perfectly.

I often see people with one or more bulbs not lit, and people who like to decorate their car often use an LED bulb that only produced a 1 inch dot inside the tail light.

There is another stupid thing I see people do in my area. They take a piece of paper, cut out a pattern, and put it in front of their center brake light.

Factory LED brake lights can sometimes be a problem. During the 90s and early 00s, the center brake light would often be a line of tiny LEDs, and some of them would randomly fail. The aftermarket often made the same thing, and they weren't any better.
 
NY state inspections catch this type of stuff. Then they bend folks over for $30-40 for 5 minutes swapping a bulb. Or ding you another $10 for a second safety inspection after you replace the bulb. The more honest shops will waive that re-inspection fee if you fix the car fast enough. But, hey, folks have working taillights!
 
Originally Posted By: jeepman3071

I never understood the "blacked out lights" look. Given how many accidents are caused by people not paying attention, I would want people to be able to see my brake lights as much as possible.


It's a fashion statement. The statement is "I have lots of money and no idea what to do with it so I tried spending some of it to drive around in a broken car." It's the same thought process that motivates so many people to buy a Jaguar.
 
In the last few years I have noticed more cars with tail light issues than what I remember. We have discussed that here before.
As for tinted tail lights, I figure the more visible they are, the less chance you have of getting blasted in the rear-end. So no thanks for me.
 
If my tail lights burn out I'll only get hit by a guy who has no head lights because I put conspicuity tape on the back bumper and does that stuff ever light up when headlights hit it! Each strip is silver and red reflective. I trimmed the silver part to fit my bumper:
100_2476_zps23c8c592.jpg
 
Originally Posted By: Dave Sherman
Originally Posted By: grampi

But DRLs don't turn off when the headlights are on...they should, hence the "D" in DRLs...


They do turn off when headlights are on. They are on when headlights are off. As you said, hence the "D" in DRLs, which stands for "Daytime".

The Daytime Running Lights are sometimes seen at night on vehicles where an inattentive driver forgot to turn on the appropriate lighting system, namely the Nighttime Running Lights, better known as "headlights". This could easily be done on a vehicle such as a Honda CR-V, a fairly popular vehicle, which has well-lighted dashboard instruments which are illuminated regardless of whether the headlight switch is turned to the "on" position or not, i.e., they are also illuminated when the Daytime Running Lights are on and the headlights are off. Somebody such as myself might not quickly notice that the headlights are not on since the dashboard lights are well lit, whereas on a vehicle such as a 1977 MG Midget where the dashboard light are completely dark when the headlights are off, it is much more obvious.

All clear?


Not true...I see vehicles driving at night all the time with both their headlights and DRLs on...
 
Huh? DRL's usually (usually!) use the headlights; sometimes it's a parking lamp. But since both headlight and parking lamp circuits are on with the headlights I'm not sure how you can have DRL and headlight on--since it's the same bulb... ?
 
Originally Posted By: grampi


Not true...I see vehicles driving at night all the time with both their headlights and DRLs on...


Foglights, maybe. I see foglights and DRLs frequently when people only turn on their parking lights. Not headlights though, they cancel DRLs.
 
Originally Posted By: Dave Sherman
Originally Posted By: grampi


Not true...I see vehicles driving at night all the time with both their headlights and DRLs on...


Foglights, maybe. I see foglights and DRLs frequently when people only turn on their parking lights. Not headlights though, they cancel DRLs.


Not all headlights cancel DRLs. If the DRL is an LED strip or other separate light, they often stay on with the headlights.
 
Co-irker got a new Vibe in 2003. First of the model run. Had DRLs, auto headlights, and always-lit dash, for fashion. Turns out the auto-headlights were turning themselves on when going under bridges and creating a safety hazard by signalling to 18 wheelers that it was okay to pull in, etc. We pulled the wire to the electric eye, disabling the auto-headlight feature.

Now it's entirely possible to jump in and take off by the dim light of DRLs. The auto-headlights are an obvious reaction to this.
 
Originally Posted By: JetStar
In the last few years I have noticed more cars with tail light issues than what I remember. We have discussed that here before.
As for tinted tail lights, I figure the more visible they are, the less chance you have of getting blasted in the rear-end. So no thanks for me.


I've noticed a lot of newer cars with tail lights (and headlights) out. Cars that are only a few years old and shouldn't have burned out bulbs. I've seen a lot of newer GM trucks with a headlight out on one side, and newer Ford trucks with a non-functioning top brake light.
 
Originally Posted By: TallPaul
If my tail lights burn out I'll only get hit by a guy who has no head lights because I put conspicuity tape on the back bumper and does that stuff ever light up when headlights hit it! Each strip is silver and red reflective. I trimmed the silver part to fit my bumper:
100_2476_zps23c8c592.jpg



Those reflective strips are definitely helpful. I have them on the rear of my trailer, as well as on the rear of my tractor for when I snow-blow driveways. I plan to add an LED light on the rear, since the tractor only came with forward facing lights.
 
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