LED wedge bulbs

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Satch

MB Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 24, 2003
Messages
3,508
Location
Surrey
Car
S211 E320Cdi Avantgarde Estate & Toyota Land Cruiser
About to order some Platinum White PIAA wedge bulbs to eliminate the clash between the nasty yellowish sidelight versus Xenon headlights.

Noticed there is a range of LED wedge bulbs

http://www.piaa.co.uk/bulbs/bulbshow.asp?ID=led

Anybody used these? Any good?
 
I would not recommend the LED bulbs, they are very directional and do not light up the reflector, you just get dots of light. Go for the Platinum Whites, they are very white looking.

If you do want some LED wedges, let me know, we have about a dozen pairs that we cannot shift.
 
Thanks for the advice. I shall stick to the Platinum White.
 
When are we going to start getting LED brake lights for older models?

I'd like to replace the rear brake bulbs with LED's for a kinda SL look :)
 
I've been thinking about this for Edna too. I love the xenons but the piddly yellowy side lights look naff.

Is it easy or hard :crazy: bearing in mind hubby don't touch cars any more tho he'd help me do it if it's easy enough.

Maybe some nice kind soul would have a look on Saturday for me :eek: :p :D
 
Pammy ..... not likely to be any more tricky than reading the manual!! Easy enough on the 202 anyway - I'm sure the SLK is no more difficult !

S.
 
LED lights have a higher imepdence than standard bulbs, so you can't just do a straight swap unless you don't mind driving around with your blown bulb warning light permanently lit up on the dash.

If you fit LED lights then you'll also need to fit loading balasts (basically a resistor in parallel to the LED). These loading equalizers can run very hot too.

S.
 
The bulb failure device does not seem to be affected by the LED sidelight bulbs, I tried them in mine and the warning light did not come on.
 
Think my bulb warning light is knackered ... failed to tell me about a blown number plate light bulb the other day ... perhaps it only comes on if both of them fail !

S.
 
jimmy said:
The bulb failure device does not seem to be affected by the LED sidelight bulbs, I tried them in mine and the warning light did not come on.
Really? Hmm, may have to give them a try afer all then, I'm pretty sure Koolvin and RichardM tried LED sidelights and their blown bulb circuit was permanently activated. :confused:

sym said:
Think my bulb warning light is knackered ... failed to tell me about a blown number plate light bulb the other day ... perhaps it only comes on if both of them fail !
Now that sounds like a familiar scenario, a shame you didn't have a kindly driver following you to let you know the bulb had failed ;)

S.
 
Last edited:
Steve_Perry said:
Now that sounds like a familiar scenario, a shame you didn't have a kindly driver following you to let you know the bulb had failed ;)

Oh yeah !! :) I had to rely on a kindly reflection whilst reversing ! :crazy:
 
On my old BMW 7-series, the blown bulb sensor was so sensitive that it could detect the nationality of the tail-light bulbs!

German - alles gut!
Chinese - immer kaput!
 
pammy said:
I've been thinking about this for Edna too. I love the xenons but the piddly yellowy side lights look naff.

Is it easy or hard :crazy: bearing in mind hubby don't touch cars any more tho he'd help me do it if it's easy enough.

Maybe some nice kind soul would have a look on Saturday for me :eek: :p :D

Remind us Tomorrow Pammy. :D :D
 
Steve_Perry said:
Really? Hmm, may have to give them a try afer all then, I'm pretty sure Koolvin and RichardM tried LED sidelights and their blown bulb circuit was permanently activated. :confused:

Yep, they didn't work in mine!
 
sym said:
Think my bulb warning light is knackered ... failed to tell me about a blown number plate light bulb the other day ... perhaps it only comes on if both of them fail !

S.

See , thats the new thing on the blown warning lamp :)

IT acautlly tells you which bulb is out. I had a number plate left bulb out warning a few months back
 
Fitted the PIAA Platinum White sidelight bulbs over the weekend, Huge improvement. Tried it with one PIAA and the standard sidelight then really did show up as pathetic compared to the headlights in terms of colour temperature.

She Who Must Be Obeyed was appalled to discover she had been driving around with such an obvious and vulgar mismatch on public display!

A small thing, but a mandatory mod. for those with Xenons I think.
 
PIAA platinum whites work really well with the xenons in the 211. not sure if there is an equivalent replacement for the main beam & fog lamp bulbs - to be honest never really looked at mainbeam upgrades as it always seems like daylight out there at night. Think my fogs must be badly adjusted as they don't seem to improve overall lighting levels, or pick out the kerb/white line
 
The fog lights are well worth doing as they come on whenever you lock/unlock the car. The standard bulbs are very yellow. I agree with you that the main beam aren't really worth doing.
 
I have a telescope with a optional yellow filter for use in poor visibility. The idea is that yellow light is more visible to the human eye in misty conditions. Perhaps this is why the fog lights have a yellow tinge?

Regards,

Tim
 

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