LED light bulbs for brake lights

[rogercelliott]

Our standard bulbs on our brake lights, even though they are new, are pretty dim and would like to switch to LEDs. Are there bulbs that screw into the existing sockets on our lights or do we have to replace the housing and lens as well?

Any help appreciated!
Roger

[zozo]

There are, and they’re marginally better than original. I tried them and they weren’t worth the effort. I ended up ordering the LED board lights made by the guy that advertises in the classifieds. A bit pricey, but well worth it.

[EverettB]

The LED ad mentioned above:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1865103

I'm assuming your Bus is 12-volt?
6-volt replacement LED bulbs sort of suck.
I tried 6v ones and went back to originals.

LEDs will be better but:
Before you do LEDs, make sure your taillight buckets are:
1. Shiny
2. Grounded
See if that satisfies you.
Add ground wires if needed.
There are some tips here in this thread:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=387637

Shiny example:

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[rogercelliott]

Thanks zozo and Everettb, that should be helpful!

[schnidlee]

Custom dynamics in the US make excellent clusters that fit inside most assemblies, you can get them with or without turn signals.


Link

[Yennek]

I have tried 2 sets of 1157 LED replacements in my bus. The first set was nice and bright as tail lights, but the brake/turn function didn't get that much brighter, so it was hard to tell when I was braking (dangerously so). The second set was maybe a little dimmer as a tail light(but still brighter than stock), and the brake/tail was a considerably brighter. It was easy to tell the functions apart. Haven't put enough miles on them yet to talk about durability/lifespan. But I like them and see no reason to change unless/until they fail. If I had the budget for it though, I'd have gone with the modules in the classifieds on here.

Dangerous ones: "Autogine" brand on Amazon
The good ones:1157-R27-T-2PK from superbrightleds.com

[54bug]

Hi All

Great topic. I found the LED bulbs to be a small improvement in my 1964 bus. The best change was to use European 2 bulb tail light buckets behind the stock lenses.

I needed to add a separate wire for the brake lights, front to rear. The buckets were changed to use 2 1157 bulbs (each double Filament). Brake lights are the lower bright bulb filament and the turn signals the other bright bulb filament. That leaves two low intensity filaments for the running lights. I was able to find higher output LED's by shopping around. They are not all the same.

The stock lenses are pretty dense and I wish there were replacements with better that were less dark. Adding a 3rd brake light compensates a bit... but Your mileage may vary.

Scott

[MrPolak]

See thread below. If you scroll down you can see what I did to my bus for a light solution:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...p;start=40

[PeteSC]

I used the www.culayer.com LED bulbs. My car is still 6v. Expensive, but VERY bright. I love them.

Comparison video - LED one side, filament in other:

https://youtu.be/qISlMzGINiM

Both rear lights with LED’s:

https://youtu.be/WN-vf2W0nDo

[Help Help]

I recently went down this rabbit hole. I have a '67 and first I made sure my wiring/grounds were all up to snuff.

Then I tried the 1157 LED replacements with ballast resistors (to avoid turbo blink) and those just sucked.

So, I made my own LED replacement panels from scratch. Ordered the LED's and resistors and fired up the soldering iron. Ended up brighter than stock for sure and I have a little pattern thing going on because I did not use a diffuser layer. Total time invested was perhaps six hours but I work slow because I enjoy the work.

So, if you like the charm of incandescent filaments, go with stock bulbs and make sure your grounds are good. If you are down with the resto-mod approach, custom LED boards all the way.

[vwy2k]

[earlywesty]

I have the ones Chip makes in 6V for my 58, from the link Everett posted. They work great and are far superior to the stock 6v system.

[obus]

[vwy2k]

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