iMacThere4iAm
Tom Long
- Messages
- 750
- Location
- Morecambe
Recently I've been experimenting with using LED replacement bulbs. Here are my results so far.
The main advantages of LEDs over filament bulbs are low power consumption and long life. They are available on ebay at prices comparable to filament bulbs. Note that most LED bulbs are not 'E-marked' which means they don't automatically pass an MOT. Depending on how thorough your tester is, you may need to fit filament bulbs for the test.
Polarity
All the LED bulbs I've seen have the positive terminal in the middle pin and the earth on the side. On a filament bulb there is no difference, but LEDs only work one way round. Most of the Renault 4's light sockets are wired the right way for LEDs already, but the sidelights and front indicators are the wrong way around. To swap the wires around takes some fiddling because the two earths share a common terminal, but all you need are a couple of suitable crimp terminals and a hacksaw to separate them.
Side lights
Very effective. These ones are at least as bright as the original filament bulbs, and give a vivid bluish-white light. I further boosted the output by covering the back of the housing with tinfoil from a takeaway packet. Highly recommended!
Indicators
Failure. The bulbs I bought are just not very bright, and also LEDs use so little power that the flasher unit thinks the bulb is missing and goes too fast. There are ways to fix this including adding resistors or replacing the flasher unit, but it's not worth it unless you can find much brighter bulbs. There are some on ebay which are significantly more expensive - these might work but at over £20 a pair I'm not risking that much money to find out.
Indicator repeaters
Borderline. Again these amber bulbs are not particularly bright, but probably good enough for repeaters. Getting them to fit in the Renault sockets required grinding off the big yellow collar, as shown.
Number plate
Tricky, but successful. This bulb was too tall to fit the cover back on the housing. I fixed that by grinding off the whole top plate and re-soldering the wire to join up the internal circuit. The result works great. The three elements on the top plate weren't doing anything useful anyway, as only the side-facing ones point towards the number plate. Like the sidelights, I boosted this one with some silver backing.
Reversing lights
The internals of both light housings were corroded beyond repair. Instead of buying bulbs, I replaced the whole lot with a home-made circuit board with 12 individual white LEDs soldered on. The result is very good, although my gearbox switch is a bit temperamental.
Brake/tail lights
Not tested yet. I don't have high hopes for these bulbs, but we'll see.
Dashboard lights
Very successful. I took the original blown bulbs and soldered in an LED and a resistor. They are slightly brighter than the originals, with a cool blueish tint.
Interior lights
Not tested yet, but should work well. Yesterday I picked up a couple of door switches at the Autojumble, I plan to fit these with a couple of lights on the door pillars. I wish I'd bought the delay chip I saw for sale, because the prices on ebay are ridiculous.
The main advantages of LEDs over filament bulbs are low power consumption and long life. They are available on ebay at prices comparable to filament bulbs. Note that most LED bulbs are not 'E-marked' which means they don't automatically pass an MOT. Depending on how thorough your tester is, you may need to fit filament bulbs for the test.
Polarity
All the LED bulbs I've seen have the positive terminal in the middle pin and the earth on the side. On a filament bulb there is no difference, but LEDs only work one way round. Most of the Renault 4's light sockets are wired the right way for LEDs already, but the sidelights and front indicators are the wrong way around. To swap the wires around takes some fiddling because the two earths share a common terminal, but all you need are a couple of suitable crimp terminals and a hacksaw to separate them.
Side lights
Very effective. These ones are at least as bright as the original filament bulbs, and give a vivid bluish-white light. I further boosted the output by covering the back of the housing with tinfoil from a takeaway packet. Highly recommended!
Indicators
Failure. The bulbs I bought are just not very bright, and also LEDs use so little power that the flasher unit thinks the bulb is missing and goes too fast. There are ways to fix this including adding resistors or replacing the flasher unit, but it's not worth it unless you can find much brighter bulbs. There are some on ebay which are significantly more expensive - these might work but at over £20 a pair I'm not risking that much money to find out.
Indicator repeaters
Borderline. Again these amber bulbs are not particularly bright, but probably good enough for repeaters. Getting them to fit in the Renault sockets required grinding off the big yellow collar, as shown.
Number plate
Tricky, but successful. This bulb was too tall to fit the cover back on the housing. I fixed that by grinding off the whole top plate and re-soldering the wire to join up the internal circuit. The result works great. The three elements on the top plate weren't doing anything useful anyway, as only the side-facing ones point towards the number plate. Like the sidelights, I boosted this one with some silver backing.
Reversing lights
The internals of both light housings were corroded beyond repair. Instead of buying bulbs, I replaced the whole lot with a home-made circuit board with 12 individual white LEDs soldered on. The result is very good, although my gearbox switch is a bit temperamental.
Brake/tail lights
Not tested yet. I don't have high hopes for these bulbs, but we'll see.
Dashboard lights
Very successful. I took the original blown bulbs and soldered in an LED and a resistor. They are slightly brighter than the originals, with a cool blueish tint.
Interior lights
Not tested yet, but should work well. Yesterday I picked up a couple of door switches at the Autojumble, I plan to fit these with a couple of lights on the door pillars. I wish I'd bought the delay chip I saw for sale, because the prices on ebay are ridiculous.
