New lamps for old

Chris Green

Torque Junkie
Points
67
Location
West London
Car
SEAT Leon 2.0l TDi
Just got a brand new Leon, so I'm not thinking of anything too outlandish yet (just wait till the three years are up!) but I figure a few modest lighting upgrades can't hurt.

I notice that according to the manual, the stop and tail light is a single filament bulb 'electronically controlled'. By this I take it to mean that it's ballasted to look like a 5 watt light when operating as a tail light, but the ballast gets bypassed when used as a brake light. Right?

If so, am I right in thinking that there'd be no point in changing this for an LED version, since it probably wouldn't come on at all when in '5 watt' mode?

Would I experience any other problems like 'bulb fault reports' on the dash if I do a wholesale swap-out for LEDs where possible?
 
Hi chris, bet your quite please with it. You might be able to get a 2 phase LED bulb that will work. Alternatively go with a full aftermarket cluster and get a totally different set of bulbs that still fit into the cars electronics.

I think the bulb out warning detects a broken circuit rather than a low voltage.
 
i upgraded the rear lights of my truck to LED. it was a custom kit made for older vehicles but the old bulbs worked alot like you are describing. check out online and see if there are any kits for your ride. you never know what you will find. was looking for a new alternator for my festiva once and found a supercharger kit. don't know why you would need one on such a small engine but someone had built one.
 
Thats sounds typical. "Looking for an alternator and found a supercharger kit!" Is that what you told the wife or did you claim the wrong part had come through! :lol:
 
i didn't buy it but was wondering who in thier right mind would design a kit for a 3 cylinder. i was awful tempted to though. just think put a bit of money into performance mods and can be beating ricer boys all day long. think that would get them off the street, hard to brag when you got beat by a festiva. see enclosed pics for further explanation.
1990-93-Ford-Festiva-91113341991202.jpg
Internal_Combustion_Engine_View.jpg
 
mmm some cars notice a lower drop in current so led bulbs show up as blown. you do get resistor kits built into a lot of sets now to overcome this.

not sure how it would work with the 2 stages
 
I've seen some with 2 banks of LED's and they work just like a standard bulb getting 2 light output levels.

WCNWzrd - it would certainly upset the boy racers if you had done that. What a q car!
 

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