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| Wangers Member Since: 19 Jan 2013 Location: West London Posts: 265   
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Just remember that taking out a filament bulb and replacing it with an LED bulb, in the same lense is illegal.
To do with light wave reflection and refraction. If you want LED, needs to be E marked units. For indicators, because they flash yes there is the need to change all, and fit a resistor into the circuit so that the correct load is drawn for each flash. TY&GN 10 years in a WOLF, WIMIK and Snatch and this is all I have to show! |
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26th Jun 2016 11:02pm |
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| custom90 Member Since: 21 Jan 2010 Location: South West, England. Posts: 19579
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^^^^ Yep, the good old 'E' mark isue.. Very true.
Have you got filament units / holders? I assume you have? If they are as stated they aren't legal unless you stick to filament bulbs in them. However, you can get off the shelf LED light clusters that are approved they are 100% road legal. Mixing the two types of fittings never works very well as mentioned due to light out put and differences in flash speed and current draw. LED's are also very sensitive to voltage, and earth continuity fluctuations. Also, another issue is on a Puma if like me you may have LED lighting and LED relay. These allow you to still use the trailer light on dash. This only works with a trailer with filament bulbs. The dash trailer light or a buzzer for indicators are legal requirements and work with an LED lit vehicle and film and filament lit trailer. This is what I use now. I too would like LED trailer clusters, however, the relay doesn't detect the lower current of LED trailer lights so the trailer light won't work on dash. So you have two options, fit resistors to incicator feeds on the trailer to mimic the current draw of filament bulbs and thus retain the dash trailer light. Or fit a buzzer to vehicle electrics to cover you that way instead. These things kind of put me off, but isn't much of an issue. I'd probably opt for a buzzer fitted in the rear as it would avoid the heat issue with mounting of resistors on a trailer. It would only be live taps from trailer socket on L and R indicator to a buzzer and then to earth. A small inline fuse would probably be best with a 1A or similar suitable fuse in it too. Hope some of that will help you in some way.  |
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26th Jun 2016 11:53pm |
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| excossack Member Since: 22 Feb 2012 Location: North West Posts: 5744 
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Cheers for the replies chaps. I think the best move would be to replace the remaining set of lights with LED ones. Had I known the potential issues when ordering, I would have ordered two sets of LED lights and fitted them all in one go!
The issue now, is the other set of lights are the number plate illumination lights. So for now I will just keep the standard bulbs in for side/tail and not bother with the indicator ones. Luckily, the time I will be using the trailer will be in daylight. Another set to order! When indicating the dash does show a trailer symbol, but no buzzer. 1999 Defender TD5 110 Regards John M0VAZ Econet Station 48 no clock |
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27th Jun 2016 8:12am |
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| custom90 Member Since: 21 Jan 2010 Location: South West, England. Posts: 19579
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The indicators are normally the issue as this is due to the flash rate and current consumption difference compared to Filament bulbs.
If you had LED light clusters and a filament number plate light that would be fine though. But if like me ch aces are you'd like to try and match them up if you could. |
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27th Jun 2016 1:11pm |
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| Wangers Member Since: 19 Jan 2013 Location: West London Posts: 265
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Numberplate light is a lamp that "illuminates", not a light that "lights"
Difference being that headlights, light the way, so the need to produce enough light to do just that. Indicators must be clear enough to show, Fog lights, light, reverse lights light..... Brake lights are not lights, but lamps to identify that the brakes have been applied, Fog lamps are lamps to indicate the positon of the vehicle, side lights are actually lamps to idicate the position of the vehicle, numberplate lamps are to illuminate the numberplate. So some are lights that are there to light up, and thus used for seeing, others are there to indicate positions and as such are not required for seeing, but to be seen. Also comes back to MOT regs - there is no requirements for ther to be a reverse light - but if fitted it must work. There is not requirements for a third high level brake light, but if fitted more than 50% of the ligh sources must work (where multi-light sources are fitted) - ie be fir for purpose. So your clear LED bulbm fit that to your NP Light or sidelight and you're all good - put it in a stop lamp or indicator and youre not. TY&GN 10 years in a WOLF, WIMIK and Snatch and this is all I have to show! |
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27th Jun 2016 2:25pm |
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| excossack Member Since: 22 Feb 2012 Location: North West Posts: 5744
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I have ordered another matching pair. 1999 Defender TD5 110 Regards John M0VAZ Econet Station 48 no clock |
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27th Jun 2016 5:33pm |
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