red brake light bulbs
 

hi all
can you get red bulbs for rear brake lights my red lenses are fading
just a thought !

Call 0800 246 5678
Classic Car LED's
They will be able to advise you for the correct BA15s (or similar) lamp for your car depending on the reflector colour/shade.

Of course!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10-x-380-...D/112101575226

red tail light bulbs
 

hi thanks for your valued input !

Cheap-skate, and quick, alternative: go to your local model shop and buy a bottle of Tamiya clear Red acrylic paint for about £2 and apply one or two coats to the bulbs or lenses, followed by a coat of clear (nail) varnish.

I used the orange on the Valdez's repeater lens and it lasted for 10 years before fading to the point where a re-coating was necessary.

If you go down the LED route Jim, don't forget to change the high level brake light bulb for an LED version as well. Duncan at Classic Car LEDs can supply a current/intensity matched red LED bulb for that as well.

They do make a big difference and even on lenses that are still red, still give a brighter, "richer" light :

https://i.postimg.cc/sXJMCMK0/IMG-20...-193712010.jpg
Tungsten Filament bulbs ^^^^^

https://i.postimg.cc/Hx49v0KJ/IMG-20...-194221889.jpg
Right hand bulbs red LEDs ^^^^^

https://i.postimg.cc/xC3TkqJD/IMG-20...-194451439.jpg
All LEDs ^^^^^

https://i.postimg.cc/63hXpRkn/IMG-20...838917-HDR.jpg
With brake lights on ^^^^^

https://i.postimg.cc/sX9MCT3r/IMG-20...809368-HDR.jpg
Brake lights only ^^^^^

https://i.postimg.cc/DZdTwDWx/IMG-20...-165613540.jpg
The red LED bulbs i used and got from Clasic Car LEDs

https://www.classiccarleds.co.uk/

They're not cheap but they are fit and forget. Note that the single filament bulbs shown above are for tail light use, they also do single filament red LED bulbs for use in the high level brake light and if you want, the rear fogs as well. ;) :D

LED exchange
 

Changing the rear/brake lights for LED is not entirely without problems.
If you only exchange the two low rear/brake light bulbs for LED you will see the "bulb failure" warning come up every time you brake. You have disturbed the OS light / NS + high level light balance.
If you also exchange the high level brake light bulb for LED the balance is restored again, so no "bulb failure" warning, but you will probably find the ABS and Cruise control are not working anymore.
It may sound strange, but both systems send a low amp signal via the filament of the brake light bulb to ground. When braking, this signal is counteracted by the 12V feed to the bulbs, telling CC and ABS the brakes are applied. A LED does not have a filament, so the low amp signal during non-braking cannot find ground and CC and ABS will not work. With some LEDs this low amp signal is powerful enough to even cause them to light up, as they use far less energy than a normal bulb.
The filament of one bulb is already sufficient to activate the ABS and CC, so not exchanging the high level light will overcome the non-working ABC/CC problem.
I am still thinking about how to solve this, but have not yet found a good solution.

That's why it was my first bit of advice Rob! :thumbs_up:

If he hasn't got cruise control then it won't matter if the LEDs aren't enough to give the virtual earth or short out the pull-up resistor in the CC ECU but the answer is simple if so.

Total wattage of all 3 brake bulbs = 63W so draws about 5A, therefore the resistance is ~2.4 Ohms.

As we now know this, using a 50W resistor of 3 Ohms as a dummy load will keep the cruise operating.

Take the feed to the dummy load resistor from the switched side of the brake light switch - it's before the Bulb Failure Module so won't effect the operation of that. You'd probably get away with something like a 10 or 12 Ohm resistor as a dummy load for the CC and be able to derate the power requirements of the dummy load resistor accordingly. ;) :D

PS i've not encountered any ABS problems with LED brake lights on my 827s and they use the same Bosch system as the Volvos. :thumbs_up:

Sod the LEDs, just glue some Quality Street wrappers to the inside of your lenses.
'Tis the season! :D

Cheers

One bulb
 

One bulb is sufficient to keep the CC / ABS working, so you can either leave the high level bulb in place and live with the bulb failure warning or indeed use a resistor directly on the brake pedal switch and also use LED in the high level light.
Personally I am not too happy with a 50W heating element under the dashboard, so I was planning on doing some experiments with higher value resistors. If one bulb already does the trick, 7 or 8 Ohm should also work and only radiate 18 W of heat when braking.