LED replacement bulbs - opinions and recommended bulbs in US

[Rahul]

Hi guys, I have a '71 280 SL.

I know this topic has been flogged to death - the pros and cons of LED vs Halogen/OEM etc. I wanted to know two things:

1) Has anybody done this mod and then regretted it? Poor beam quality issues etc?

2) I am looking at doing this for the rear light assembly, but am having trouble deciding which bulbs are appropriate. I am using the superbrightleds website to source them. I believe these are the best options for the BA15S fitting:

rated 420 lumens, 30-35W equivalence:
https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/led-vehicle-replacement-bulbs/1156-boat-and-rv-led-light-bulb-27-smd-led-tower-ba15s-retrofit-base-420-lumens/2623/12805/

rated 360 lumens, missing equivalence but assume ~25W based on the others:
https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/led-vehicle-replacement-bulbs/1156-can-bus-led-bulb-30-smd-led-tower-ba15s-retrofit/4255/#tab/specifications

rated 325 lumens, 15-20W equivalence:
https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/led-vehicle-replacement-bulbs/1156-boat-and-rv-led-light-bulb-18-smd-led-tower-ba15s-retrofit-base-325-lumens/2337/

The support team at superbrightleds are recommending to go as bright as possible. So my questions are:

i) for the 15W and 21W lamps - should I use the 420 lumens bulb as suggested, or should I choose 360 lumens? The watt-equivalence stat is throwing me off! I will choose red/amber/white bulbs as appropriate.

ii) for the 5W tail lamps - similar to above, do I go 360 or 325 lumens - main worry obviously is that the 325 may be too dim.

iii) Lastly, any thoughts on whether 'Cool white' or 'Normal white' is better for the reverse lights? Not sure if the cool white will appear too blue and inappropriate for the car!

Thanks much

[thelews]

Go with the highest lumens and the largest (tallest) bulb that will fit in the cavity, at least that's what I did on another car of mine and it worked out great.  You choose the color of the bulb to the lens, red lens/red bulb, amber lens/amber bulb, clear lens/white or amber depending what you want to show.  I got all mine from superbriteleds as well.  Don't forget a flasher.  Their red flasher does not click.  For that you need https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JXLHE8S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Chris Long]

https://www.sl113.org/forums/index.php?topic=30927.0

About 10 rows down....

[mdsalemi]

...any thoughts on whether 'Cool white' or 'Normal white' is better for the reverse lights? Not sure if the cool white will appear too blue and inappropriate for the car!

No matter what, the presentation of any LED at any color temperature will appear a bit different than the OEM incandescent supplied as original. It's up to you to determine whether that is important, or irrelevant. I suppose even a sealed beam halogen may appear different than a standard sealed beam, for what that's worth.

Every now and then I get a bug about investigating something like this. Then I realized I barely ever drive the car at night, and spending time or money on lighting isn't really important. There's far too many other things that take time and money on these cars!

[thelews]

Non-headlight LED conversion has the potential benefit of better visibility during the day.  I did the conversion on my XKE because the lights are small and low.  The LEDs made a big difference in their visibility in bright sun, especially the front ones which now flash amber rather than white.  Good when drivers can see you braking and/or making a turn.  I am doing the same now on my Porsche 356 (next to the Jag in the pic), for the same reason and now that good LEDs in 6V are available.

All of that said, I have NOT done the conversion in the 250 as MB has generous sized tail and front lights which are quite visible with incandescent bulbs.

Today, compared to not that long ago, the conversion is a simple bulb replacement and an electronic flasher.  And, cheaper too.

[Rahul]

Thanks all,

thelews/mdsalemi - I agree, I need to replace a bulb anyway and am doing this mainly for daytime visibility of the indicators and rear lights. Figured I would change the reverse lamps whilst I'm at it. I think I will probably keep the standard headlights for the time being.

Arct1k - thanks very much, I did use your (excellent) post as a reference but was having trouble matching up the bulbs between the UK and US websites.

thelews - those are beautiful cars you have there! great collection

[mdsalemi]

...doing this mainly for daytime visibility of the indicators and rear lights...

Best to inspect the integrity of your reflectors. With the age of these cars, the reflectors inside the tail lamps often are faded providing less than optimal reflection of the light that is there, and provide a dim and or dismal look. Even things like the side markers can dull over time, thus dimming your presentation to the outside world.

This is precisely why, for so many years, US regulations required sealed beams. Reflectors don't disintegrate within, and if they do before the lamp burns out, you quickly, easily and cheaply replace the entire sealed beam.

[Rahul]

Thanks mdsalemi - I will check that out.

For the LED route - I saw that there is a DRL-1 daytime running module that can be fitted to sync the front sidelights with the turn signals. Does anyone have a link to these? Can they only be sourced through Daniel Stern?

Thanks

[Rahul]

Also - I saw Arctik used a different approach to the LED relay with bullet connectors, which looks very different to the three flat pronged relay posted by thelews.

Are these for separate model years, or does the flat-pronged one need to be modified to fit?

Thanks

[Chris Long]

My led flasher started as as three pronged and i modified if to have the bullets. I didn’t want any changes in the car.

The technical manual has some other options to rearrange the pins in the connector and use a modern flasher with round pins - they tend to be square and can fit in an old can.

I chose to leave the connections alone and use a flasher on wires.

My car is in USA - the bulb supplier is in my hometown in UK and ships quickly. Knows all about the cars and in my post I listed all the bulbs and parts you need.  Maybe 2 weeks to get the bulbs across the pond.

[Rahul]

For those following, I created two carts on superbrightleds.com for full LED replacement based on the various posts and advice in this forum. Note that this has been put together for a 1971 280 SL.

It took me a little time to read through everyone's posts and piece it all together, so I figured worth compiling in case it helps someone else out.

I will caveat all of this by saying this is based purely on the recommendations of others, I have not yet attempted to fit these myself, and of course brightness/tones are all subject to personal preference!

Hopefully this is useful, let me know if you spot any errors.


1) Exterior LED cart
https://www.superbrightleds.com/checkout-b/?cart_shared=8857e4eae77681426ca6e2b0823d77d1

• 2x white headlamps, cool white 6500K (see Notes below)
• 4x amber forward side lamps, 2 for front assembly, 2 for sides
• 2x red rearward side lamps
• 4x amber indicator signals (see Notes below)
• 2x red tail running lamps
• 2x red brake lights
• 2x white reverse lights (I chose natural white, vs the softer warm white - for clearer visibility)
• 2x white festoon bulbs for rear licence plate area

Notes:

• For flashing indicators, will need a new relay solution, such as Arct1k's:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GSK8WKY/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_2?smid=A1LGDXCZMXB2CW&psc=1
  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001ASCHU2/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_3?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1)
  
• For front headlamps, will need housings such as this:
  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001G76Q2W/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_4?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

2) Interior LED cart
https://www.superbrightleds.com/checkout-b/?cart_shared=5eb0e3c09a3369a80818f7edcc93ea33

• 2x warm white 42mm festoon bulbs, for cabin light and glovebox
• 1x warm white BA15s for trunk light
• 2x red single LED BA9s for instrument cluster - warning lights
• 2x green single LED BA9s for instrument cluster - turn signals
• 1x blue single LED BA9s for instrument cluster - high beam (currently on backorder)
• 1x warm white single LED BA9s for instrument cluster - central guages (also included a brighter 4-LED option below)
• 5x warm white 4-LED BA9s for instrument cluster - 2x speedo, 2x tach, 1x central guages
• 1x natural white 30mm festoon bulb, for shifter gate light (might be a tight squeeze, but cheap enough to try!)
• 1x warm white 30mm festoon bulb, alternative for shifter gate light (not sure of fit, but warmer light)