I hate changing bulbs and I want to be seen, so I'm working on changing out incandescent bulbs for LEDs. I ordered the LED equivalents of the bulbs for tail lights, brake lights and turn signals (from Summit Racing, FWIW) and the parking/turn signals are barely visible in daylight. The bulbs are marked "Super Bright LED Auto Bulbs", made by Keep It Clean Wiring.

Any suggestions for better LED bulbs? Did I do something wrong? They do light up, just not as bright as the original bulbs. AFAIK it should be a plug and play job. I welcome any input from those with more knowledge of the subject. Which is probably a lot of people.

Thanks for any input.

Peter

 

What color are they?

 

With LED lights you need to match the cold of the light bulb with the color of the lens it will sit behind , if the lens is red then you need a red LED bulb , if your lens is clear the the color can be any color you want or one that is legal .

 

The LEDs are clear, sitting behind amber lenses.
Are amber LEDs likely to be brighter?

 

No think of the lens as a filter LEDS put out almost one color of light so if you put a white LED light behind a red lens the lens will filter out all the white light and only let the red light though witch is almost nothing , that is why you need to match the color .

 

Yep. What tech said. Try the correct color and I think you'll see a big difference.

 

I agree with the LED's needing to be the same color as the lens.

You might want to look at,,,superbrightleds.com I purchased all the LED's for my bike from them and will be getting the bulbs for the XJ from them soon.

 

I'll second the motion. I've been very happy with bulbs I've ordered from them.

 

The thing I love about this forum is that when I am ignorant, people here know the answers.
It's clear now that LED bulbs are totally different from incandescent bulbs. I appreciate the suggested sources, and I'll be ordering the colors I need.

 

You aren't the first to stub his toe on the very different behavior of LEDs!

 

I replaced all of the exterior lights with Sylvania Zevo LEDs and changed the turn signal flasher unit to one that is LED compatible. I got it all at Auto Zone. They are more expensive than some of the other online retailers ($25 per pair for the 3157's and $19 per pair for the 194's). I did get them in the appropriate colors and they work flawlessly, are bright and more responsive than the old filament bulbs and if they didn't work, I could return everything to Auto Zone without a question, even if I opened the packages.

 

What year Jeep and are you having problems with the 194's Zevo's in the front side markers?

 

I've got a 2001. I didn't have any problems with my Jeep but I have had problems in newer cars (2007 Mercedes CLK, 2010 Mercedes E350). The Zevo's work great in the XJ

 

Are you sure? Reason I ask is that I put those exact same bulbs in my '00. And had a problem with the side markers. Here is part of my thread on them from here.

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f67/le...000-xj-246749/

Problems started with the 194's in the side markers. Remember that LED's have polarity.

So putting it in one way resulted in this:
Would go on with headlights.
Would blink when using the turn signals when the headlights were on.
Would not blink when using the turn signals with the headlights off.

Putting the bulb in the other way resulted in this:
Would not light up when you turned on the headlights.
Would blink when you used the turn signals with the headlights off.
Would not blink when you used the turn signals with the headlights on.

So my buddy checked with a meter. There are only 2 wires going to the connector for the 194. Depending on what you have on or are turning on determines which wire is ground and which wire is power. One wire could be power for one application but the exact same wire could be ground for another.

Now since a regular bulb can flow in both directions it does not matter. This is where LED's having polarity cause a problem.

 

Thanks Ralph77. I know when I put them in that everything was working properly. It seems that I have been driving around without the front side marker lights working. I just went outside and checked them and they weren't working at all so I was going to put the old bulbs back in and took out the LEDs and changed the polarity on the driver's side just to make sure and now all is working well. Did the same thing on the passenger side and now everything is working as it should. I know when I put them in they were working and the polarity was right. I'll check them over the next few days to see if they continue to work properly.

Thanks again for the heads up. I'll post again after running them a few times.