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How bright are those LEDS bulbs from superbrightleds.com? Would they be even brighter if you got the white ones instead of the amber ones or would the white ones show too much white even with the amber lenses on the turn signals?



Firstly, using LED's will not produce more light than a bulb over the entire surface of the light fitting, however in the spots where they DO produce light it's more intense and noticable. This gives the appearance of a brighter light, and is the reason they're great for signal lights but not so great for general illumination. They also turn on and off instantly instead of "fading" on & off the way incandescant bulbs do which makes turn signals more attention-getting. They're also often more visible in daylight than bulbs due to that spot intensity.

Secondly, if you're using LED's behind coloured lenses you should always try to get the matching colour LED's. Light bulbs create a white(ish) light that is actually a collection of many colours blended together, and use a coloured filter to remove all colours apart from the desired one. However LED's only create one colour which is why they have clear bodies (except the ultra cheap ones which are too dim to use in automotive applications anyway). The "white" LED's aren't really white, they're actually an intense light blue. If you place a red or orange filter in front of these blue-white LED's you'll filter out almost all of the light. However if you use matching coloured LED's & filters there's minimal loss of light intensity.

Hope that clears things up a little.

Matt

Matt Electronic mods for TBA/SM!