LED vs Halogen Backup lights-pics (elantra)

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As the discussion on backup lights being indicative vs functional had a different title, I thought I'd post the experiment pics here.

This is on the beater Elantra, and I used a rather cheap pair of LED bulbs with projectors, that I bought from amazon.

I tried my best to take pics that are of same angle.
Some pics are not totally sharp but enough to compare.

Overall, I am convinced that the LEDs illuminated the area behind the car better and definitely stronger. It was mostly noticeable in the corners/sides behind the car, which I find very useful when I back into the garage or the driveway when i come home from work.
It was easier to back using mirrors as well.

The difference was much bigger than what the camera could capture - I just took them in P mode (program) of my Nikon. Didnd't have ptience to find a manual setting that might have shown the difference better.

VERDICT: The LEDs lit up the area behind car much better. I will keep them, and upgrade the other 2 cars' backup lights also, but with better quality LEDs.

PICS:
(Halogen first, then LED)
(ALL PICS ONLY WITH BACKUP LIGHTS LIT, no tail or any other lights)


Through the rear window:





From the roof of car:




Area behind car:




Just for kicks: How the actual backup light look on the car and the bulbs themselves:




pic of rear view mirror:
 
I guess raising the ire of the neighbors with bright lights is a BITOG pastime. j/k.

It is a bit 'tight' down on my end of the street (dead end); I'd be hesitant to announce myself with those.

Looks like you're spread out a bit more so they should come in handy.
 
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haha ! It only takes me a few seconds to back up to the front of the garage from the street. Our driveway is pretty short, and the light's cutoff only barely catches the back of the house next to us. That house faces a different direction, as our houses are at an intersection. So i don't think they'd notice this at all.
 
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1156 is a incandescent bulb.

796 is a 35W halogen bulb (that can be used, but the risk is melting sockets)
 
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Originally Posted By: 97tbird
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haha ! It only takes me a few seconds to back up to the front of the garage from the street. Our driveway is pretty short, and the light's cutoff only barely catches the back of the house next to us. That house faces a different direction, as our houses are at an intersection. So i don't think they'd notice this at all.


Do you backup in other locations where the added light is needed?

I want to replace some of the bulbs in our vehicles with brighter LED's, but bright white looks very harsh to me. A buddy of mine replaces every single halogen light in his vehicles with bright white lights and it's obnoxious. I feel like I'm being abducted by aliens every time I get into his car. The exterior lights are also obnoxiously white.

I'm the kind of guy who also turns the knob before shutting doors in my house, so I don't bother my wife, so maybe I'm a little more sensitive to bothering others than some. I wouldn't want to even have the possibility of bothering my neighbor, even if only for a short period of time, at an off angle, unless the added brightness was necessary.
 
I do backup into parking spaces at night, if I work evening shift, in a gravel, unlit parking lot, (if normal parking area is full), so I do use these in other occasions, not to mention sometimes backing out of driveway too.

I am pretty sure I don't bother my neighbor, I checked the area of the light spread carefully. Like I said that house faces a different direction even. The fence area you see in the pic is near the back of that house.

Also, if I don't backup using those bulbs, I would still be turning into the driveway with headlights on anyway...I am sure these light up a smaller area..

I also use the practice of turning knobs on doors when I know my wife is asleep, when I come home from work. funny you should mention that.
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I have not changed any other bulbs on any other cars. I will do this only to backup lights, which i do think are important.
 
-edit - nevermind. I misused the word halogen. should be incandescent as suggested above. Many Thanks!
 
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I replaced one backup light with a high power white LED and kept the other as a regular 1156.What a difference looking into the rearview mirror.Wide wash of white on the left,can hardly see the 1156.For safety purposes,bright LED backup lights should be law.
 
Originally Posted By: 97tbird
I have not changed any other bulbs on any other cars. I will do this only to backup lights, which i do think are important.

I don't like to change any bulb on my cars from halogen to LED, except the back up light.

All back up light with OEM bulb of my cars are not adequate when engaged.
 
I replaced my back up lights with LED but when you wrote, you're going to upgrade to better LEDs, how do you know which ones are better? Seems the brand name bulbs aren't necessarily better with LEDs?
 
Originally Posted By: Leo99
I replaced my back up lights with LED but when you wrote, you're going to upgrade to better LEDs, how do you know which ones are better? Seems the brand name bulbs aren't necessarily better with LEDs?

There are some more established LED bulb brands on amazon, and ebay, and also sources like autoillumination.com, which produce higher quality bulbs meeting more stringent quality standards. They're a bit more expensive, but overall, customer service and build quality etc are supposed to be better, as they have been in the business longer.

Also, from what I have been reading, the newer the type of LED "chip" the bulbs have, the better the output.

But to be honest those bulbs that I got look pretty solid, and as you can see are pretty bright, and illuminate well - i might just go with them for other cars as well, but the other cars have types 7506 (BMW) and 7440 (Mazda6), so IDK if this company makes those types or not...

If you use them to SEE an area, i think it IS important to make sure that they have a "projector lens" end. Otherwise light spread might be bad, no matter how powerful the actual LEDs and chips are.

The only other area I can sort of consider are "puddle lights / courtesy lights / door lights". They do need to provide some illumination at night, so you see what you're stepping out onto.
 
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Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
Originally Posted By: 97tbird
I have not changed any other bulbs on any other cars. I will do this only to backup lights, which i do think are important.

I don't like to change any bulb on my cars from halogen to LED, except the back up light.

All back up light with OEM bulb of my cars are not adequate when engaged.
I bet your trunk could use a brighter LED bulb.
 
Hmmmm.... good thinking, that.
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Actually I WAS experiencing some difficulties while fiddling with the bulb housings in the dark, which are accessed via corners of the trunk, from inside. It was annoying working by the light of the iphone flashlight, and the trunk light was hardly adequate.
 
Leaving a door ajar all night won't kill your battery if you rebulb the interiors with LEDs. Also, backup lights and "parking" lights can be improved with LEDs without worry about the socket or lens melting. I have my whole car converted, except for headlamps, with a SuperbrightLED supplied flasher which doesn't produce ricer flash. That's the trick for turn signals. My plug in replacement flasher was about 7 bucks as I recall.
 
I changed all of the interior lights in my F250 to LED and recently changed the backup lights with these - iJDMTOY® Extremely Bright 7.5W High Power 912 921 906 Projector LEDs . The difference in all cases was literally night and day. I want to change the side marker lights and the turn signals, but it seems that I do not have a flasher relay (the computer controls all of it) and I would have to have load resistors which I am not really interested in doing.
 
There are "canbus" compatible "no error" LEDs available, which are supposed to prevent "bulb out" warnings and hyper flashing.
 
Whenever I get a new car the first thing I do is tints then every light bulb that I can change to LEDs gets changed. EBay is a great place to find vendors(usually chinese) that sell a package of interior and exterior lights and are very cheap (less than $20/package) and reliable. I have yet to have one single failure in over 5 years. Best money spent after tinting.
 
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