Hi guys, i was thinking now that my bulbs need replacement to put in leds instead. Leds are faster in response times so they will warn traffic behind faster.
These are the ones ive found to make the replacement
http://www.ledmania.gr/el/led-gr-gr-...obile-led.html
What do you think. Has anyone tried it?
Is there something i must be careful of? Something about a CanBus system?

 

The fact that you're saying faster in response time is kinda funny, you're talkin milliseconds I'm sure...it's basically undetectable by a human being. Anyway, LEDs are the new way to do things but I certainly wouldn't want to buy something from, what is that, Russia?

 

You can find these in sates btw, i plane on upgrading myself but havent had time to take resistance numbers to mimic with resostors.



You can definitely see with the human eye the response time of an LED bulb vs an incandescent bulb



crappy video but if you cant see the difference then
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPjLGT4nIyA

 

milisecs can be vital... no?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb7deZxEcCw

 

I stand corrected...that is pretty obvious and if you're really close to a car in front of you then it'd matter I suppose, but don't follow too close!

 

bigest issue is how to choose the correct leds i guess, must have compatibility with the CanBus but to be honest i have no idea what that means

 

lol its something you can see regardless of distance due to the speed of light.

 

The difference in response time is easily visible, more like hundreds of milliseconds. Look on your own MINI at the difference in response between the 3rd brake LED and the main taillights.

That said, most aftermarket LED taillight replacement bulbs are too dim. Taillights actually designed to use LEDs work well, but replacing a filament bulb with an LED "equivalent" bulb often doesn't work well because the reflector and lens were optimized for the light pattern of a standard bulb. Bright LEDs are also expensive. If you do try brake LED bulbs, check that they are bright enough to be easily seen on a sunny day (most fail). Among LED enthusiasts/hobbyists, the Elef is the most highly recommended: http://www.elef-usa.com/apps/webstore/

 

rkw what do you think regarding the specs of the ones i found
http://www.ledmania.gr/el/led-gr-gr-...obile-led.html

 

You'd have to be blind to be unable to differentiate an incandescent bulb with an LED cluster. The difference is huge in brightness, illumination speed, longevity and efficiency.

When I am no longer broke from the holidays, I am switching all of my bulbs (save the theater-dimming interior bulbs, as that's a nice effect and theater dimming can't be replicated with LEDs) to LEDs.

4ae Auto Design hooks us up with LEDs specific to MINIs. Check out his thread with photos!

 

Does he have tail light/brake light ones?

 

It's a generic style found on eBay and from many LED vendors. I'm skeptical about its brightness but I wouldn't know without trying that particular one.

 

The interior lights do the same fade in/out with LEDs. LEDs are not binary on/off. They dim with current and voltage (although like most cars, the MINI actually dims using pulse wave modulation and LEDs work well with that as well). I'm a big fan of LEDs for the interior and converted my interior completely to LED (see my gallery).

For exterior lights, I like OEM lights that are actually designed to use LEDs. However, there are issues simply replacing an incandescent bulb with an LED "equivalent" bulb. A 21+ watt incandescent bulb puts out a LOT of light for its size, and it's hard and expensive to create an LED bulb of that size and shape to output an equivalent amount of light. Furthermore, the light housing for an incandescent has a reflector and lens optimized to capture a 360 degree point light source, but LEDs don't operate that way. Notice that OEM LED taillights are designed as panels, a fundamentally different approach from reflector/lens used for an incandescent point light source. If you still want to use LEDs in your taillights, I suggest that you install on one side first and compare brightness with incandescents on the other side. Do this comparison in daylight and also compare brightness when viewed from an angle.

One more issue with aftermarket LED replacement bulbs is heat. LED's run at cooler temperature than incandescents but they also need to stay relatively cool or they burn out prematurely. Usually they use heatsinks to dissipate heat. A custom light housing for LEDs will be designed take to this into account but a replacement bulb for an incandescent is small with little room for heatsinks. Notice that in the Elef I mentioned earlier, almost the entire bulb is a heatsink. However, there is inadequate heatsink in the vast majority of aftermarket LED bulbs and many burn out relatively quickly.

 

I should have said it differently, but my post was in haste. LEDs do not behave the same as incandescents when power is being reduced (i.e. during theater dimming). Yes, they do dim, but I just don't want mine looking slightly purple or bluish as they fade out, unlike the consistent color of an incandescent. Voltage affects color temperature of LEDs, especially white ones.

I agree about being careful with which bulbs to replace and with what to replace them. I wouldn't recommend replacing incandescents with LEDs unless the LED is specifically designed to replace an incandescent, or if you can verify that the difference is negligible after replacing the bulb.

Basically, if you are replacing an incandescent, the LED needs to be able to scatter light in all directions, instead of just one direction.

Good style (similar to what rkw posted, but notice the lack of heat sink. More on that after the photos):


Bad style:


However, I am not sure about the heat issue. Why would an LED (something that creates almost no heat) require a heat sink? I did research and found that LEDs only require heat sinks when being used in ultra high powered or in high output applications. And much to the contrary, "regular" LEDs (i.e. ones in cars or for use at home) perform better with heat. If you are curious, this and this and this is where I found my info. Finally, one doesn't need to worry about heat from a car affecting their lights, unless they're installing lights directly on their engine other high-heat source. Inside your tail pipes, maybe? Regular bulb locations on a car are low heat.

So... it's really about getting the right kind of bulb. Does 4ae design sell the right kind? Well, at least in the applications that he's photographed. But notice how he hasn't shown any brake lights or turn signals. It isn't perfect... do your homework before you buy them, otherwise it could be an expensive mistake.

 

I am also curious about this pulse wave modulation. How in the heck do you know something like that? I am not doubting you, I am just impressed.

 

We have all kind of LEDs. city light, turn signal, reverse light, license plate light, fog light, tail light, break light, HID, interior LEDs, etc. As long as you tell me what type of bulbs are they I will tell you what options you have for that type of bulbs.

However, the only ERROR FREE bulbs we have right now are T10,D36,CREE T10/7440/1156 (city light, license plate light, reverse light). The rest are non error free which will gives you an error code on your dash when you start up the car but if will not effect anything to your car.

If you guys need anything just PM me

 

No, that was posted by the OP (genik). The link I gave points to Elef bulbs like this. These are at the very top of performance but unfortunately difficult to use in a MINI because of how they must be fitted.



LEDs do generate heat. When people think of LEDs, they usually think of what they see in low power, cool temperature consumer electronics. For LEDs producing the brightness required for tail lights, they can generate enough heat to degrade the LED elements over time. I'll refer you to this, but I've spent a lot of time on an LED hobbyist forum where people often take apart their taillights to build and install custom LED circuit boards. Heatsinking is a frequent topic over there. A project using improper heat sink may burn out in less than a year (and that happens frequently with plug-and-play aftermarket LED bulbs that don't have proper heatsink).

Look at the first production full LED headlights, introduced in the 2009 Escalade. It uses an electric fan to blow air on the cooling fins!



PWM is widely used in automotive lighting and easily implemented in hardware or software. Dash light dimmers, and daytime running lights where the regular headlights are dimmed, are often accomplished with PWM. In LED taillights, the brakes are full brightness and the running lights are PWM dimmed. Here's a great description:

With all that said, the main point I want to make is to be safe, especially with brake lights. After installing LED bulbs, verify that they are bright enough to be seen during the day, and at off-axis angles. I've seen right here on NAM where people proudly posted pics of their LED swap, and I thought they looked dangerously dim.

 

From the looks of that video the incandescent bulb looks to flash brighter, but slower. Most likely cause the housing was designed for it.