Brightest incandescent tail light bulb?

[MichaelRS]

I know I can switch out my incandescent bulbs with LEDs and wire in resistors and all. But I just don't want to.

For my rear turn signals I bought a set of those no resistor LEDs, which I hope will help people notice me better in heavy traffic when I'm singling to move over. And with those you can only use the one pair before you have to wire in resistors.
But I still would like to add a little brighter light to my BRAKE lights when activated.

So, does anybody know a brand of conventional incandescent brake/running light bulbs that is known to be or is supposed to be a little brighter than average?
Thanks.

 

[901Memphis]

The oem bulbs are the best you can do. Leds don't emit the right color for your application and will look pink and be harder to detect. There's some very knowledgeable people at candlepowerforums if you are interested.

 

[Johnny2Bad]

Unlike the aftermarket LED products, which routinely flout and ignore standards, Incandescent lamps follow the national Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (eg US FMVSS). Since the brighness of all lighting on a vehicle is specified (and expressly limited) in ~VSS, you aren't going to get much variation with incandescents.

Not strictly safety related, but a characteristic of incandescents none the less, is the brighter the bulb, the shorter the life. This is inevitable since the voltage is limited to the car's 12V system (or whatever), so only by going to a less physically robust element can it be made brighter, plus of course incandescent brightness is directly related to heat output, which is the enemy of long life.

You might be able to cheat by using 6V bulbs in your 12V circuit, if you have some of the older bayonets or are willing to convert the bulb sockets. See above.

If you want brighter lamps (and especially tail lamps) you need to go to the "wild west" LED market, where illegal lighting is available.

If you're wondering, the limits on tail lamp brightness is there to reduce glare when viewed by other users on the road. Not only light output is regulated, also the viewing angles are limited. Your OEM must pass these restrictions and regulations to be able to sell a new car. Some jurisdictions require all vehicles on public roads to comply with the ~VSS in effect for the MY of the vehicle, others do not, so there is a risk that either you may get a ticket or you may be setting yourself up for a vehicle stop with probable cause.

 

[mattwithcats]

Sylvania Silverstar, 7443...

Plug your vehicle in here...

https://www.sylvania-automotive.com/apps/vlrg-us/Vlrg/

 

[Linctex]

I have 3528/5050 red LED tail/brake lights in my Ranger, they are wicked bright (been in for many years now)

I see many new cars now have red LED tail and brake lights from the factory.

 

[901Memphis]

Yes factory led setups are much different than putting led bulbs into incandescent setups.

 

[Leo99]

personally, I wouldn't mess with any safety bulbs in my car. I put brighter LEDs in my reverse lights but the rest is all stock. Brake lights seem plenty bright enough.

 

[Pajero]

I can't speak for Toyota. But, I recently converted my Montero interior/exterior to LED, WOW factor! There are some LED that are too bright.

I love the LED, even in my home. Very very efficient and last a long time. We can thank Roswell for LEDs. Lol



Respectfully,

Pajero!

 

[EdwardC]

What are the stock bulb number? If they're 1157 that are common, you can get 2357 bulbs that are a little higher wattage. Try search, might be useful.

In addition, Philips has a LED line that I believe is one of the only street legal LED LED bulbs, their Vision line. Might be an option as well.

 

[Carmudgeon]

The only LED retrofits that might work acceptably are the Sylvania Zevo or Philips XtremeVision that use the dual point source emitters, and that's only if the fixture is suitable for it.

If it has multiple emitters and looks like a Xmas tree, it's almost certain to be detrimental junk that ignores the fundamentals of how incandescent fixtures are designed to work, and try, but fail to overcome that using a shotgun approach.

The Philips Vision LEDs with the eight emitters in the white plastic head are somewhere in between, but at least try to utilize the reflector in the manner designed.

But the biggest factor in success or failure in such retrofits comes down to the suitability of the fixture, and the fact is none of the ones sold by the legitimate manufacturers are designed to be any "brighter" than is legal or responsible. Sure, they're not above peddling blue-coated headlights bulbs (which are technically compliant) or even the Xmas tree signaling bulbs as part of their cheaper lines, but they're not pushing the extremely bright junk that will affect the vision of the poor drivers following.

One of the mods over at CPF is Toyota guy and has a Sienna, so he may be able to provide relevant experience.

 

[MichaelRS]

Thank you all for some very knowledgeable replies and advice.

Yeah, I did not have my heart set on Switching out my whole system to LEDs or having super bright overly powerful brake lights. In fact when I found out wiring in resistors are required for most LED lights I was even going to forget doing them on my rear turn signals until I came across those offerings that have the no resistor.

The ones I ordered are the iJDMtoy no resistor turn signal lights offered through Amazon. They are roughly the fith ones down through this link.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/s/ref=is_s?k=no+resistor+turn+signal+lights

Beyond that the only thing I was going to do was geht perhaps the best standard brake running lights that I could for the two outside brake running lights on my van as those are super easy to get to as opposed to having to remove the tailgate panel for the rest of the lights.

but as I said, having to rewire or mess with the lighting electrical system on my older van is not something that im interested in for any reason.

Thank you all once again for your advice I intend to follow up on some of your leads. Any further thoughts please let me know.

 

[MichaelRS]

Originally Posted By: Carmudgeon
The only LED retrofits that might work acceptably are the Sylvania Zevo or Philips XtremeVision that use the dual point source emitters, and that's only if the fixture is suitable for it.

If it has multiple emitters and looks like a Xmas tree, it's almost certain to be detrimental junk that ignores the fundamentals of how incandescent fixtures are designed to work, and try, but fail to overcome that using a shotgun approach.

The Philips Vision LEDs with the eight emitters in the white plastic head are somewhere in between, but at least try to utilize the reflector in the manner designed.

But the biggest factor in success or failure in such retrofits comes down to the suitability of the fixture, and the fact is none of the ones sold by the legitimate manufacturers are designed to be any "brighter" than is legal or responsible. Sure, they're not above peddling blue-coated headlights bulbs (which are technically compliant) or even the Xmas tree signaling bulbs as part of their cheaper lines, but they're not pushing the extremely bright junk that will affect the vision of the poor drivers following.

One of the mods over at CPF is Toyota guy and has a Sienna, so he may be able to provide relevant experience.


Yeah, I'm not interested in being a jerk and blinding people. And going full LED doesn't intrest me anyway. Was just looking for a minor edge I over stock for heavy traffic 90% daylight driving.

Someone mentioned those Sylvania SilverStars and I put a set in my outside brake/running lights.
They SEEM to be fractionally brighter than the Long Life's I had in there and that was really all I needed.
I'm also gonna through one in my high mounted brake light and call it a day as far as those lights go.
Might put a set in my back up ligjts, but that's for later as I dislike deal with that trim panel.

What I am really looking forward to is receiving those no resistor LED turn signals and see how they work.

 

[barryh]

Brake light filaments are already overrun in the sense that they put out a lot more lumens per watt and have a shorter life than tail lamps. I would have thought that limits the scope for manufacturers to produce a brighter version.

 

[meep]

you *can* look at the wattage ratings of the filaments on the edge of the carboard. you'll see something like 4.3/15W or something like that denoting the low/high ratings. It gets messy, however, because if you don't have the same ratio of L/H, the difference between running light/brake light might not be enough to be noticed when the brakes come on. Every time I've explored doing what you're looking at, I've ended up staying with stock, as no other favorable combination stands out.

-m

 

[MichaelRS]

I finally just went with those Sylvania SilverStars in my third brake light and my two outside running / brake lights. they seem to be a fraction brighter, and for those that's pretty much all I was looking for.
Although I don't know how worth it is if they only go for a year or 18 months. but at those locations they're super easy to get to and replace.

I'm supposed to get my no resistor LEDs for my rear turn signals this weekend. Looking forward to see how those look.

 

[Drew2000]

7444 lamps are a brighter alternative than 7443.