I went and did some reading on the LED brake lights for cars. Two
things pretty quickly became clear regarding problems with them.
First is physical fitment, particularly of the base. Some are good,
many are not. So the possibility of your bulbs not seating properly and
therefore not making electrical contact is a possibility. Not so much
with regards to the barrel (though on my Spitfires that has often been a
problem), but with the position of the base contacts.
The second has to do with operating conditions. LED's are very picky
regarding amperage. Automotive bulb replacement units have an inline
resistor that regulates the amperage. With just a little corrosion here
and there, you could drop the voltage enough to reduce the amperage
below the required levels. Then the LED would not light. Unlike the
incandescent bulbs which will glow, albeit at a reduced rate, the LED's
will either work, or not.
No claims that either of these notions are correct or particularly
accurate. Just some stuff I gleaned from reading up on them a bit.
>>> "bschwart@postoffice.pacbell.net" <bschwart@postoffice.pacbell.net>
04/22/03 08:44AM >>>
I bought some replacement LED bulbs for the Spitfire. These are to
replace
the 1157 bulbs on the running and brake on my 72 the LEDs work fine
when
you just connect them to a battery source so they do work. When I
removed
the left side bulb and replace it with the LED unit it wont work
either
brake or running, but it will work on the right, running only. The
incandescent ones work on either side. Ive switched LED bulbs tried
every
combo of bulb and socket, checked the connections etc. and this is all
I
can get to work any ideas why the LED don t work but the regular
lamps
work fine???
Ive resigned to using them in my truck but I really liked the idea of
the
LEDs for the Spitfire!
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