Save 25 Watts (or more) LED lights mod (brake, tail, side markers, plate, etc.)

Hi!

You would think by now new cars would come equipped with LED lights everywhere. That's not the case and it beats me as to why?

It can't be cheaper to make incandescent bulbs than LEDs by now.

Today I tackled the two 5W bulbs per headlight and the two tag light bulbs in the back on the Mirage.

I had some fleabay LEDs laying around ( I believe 3W max rated )

With a 200 ohm resistor this LED draws 49mA (0.049A) with the engine off(12.X V), and 51mA or 0.051A with the engine running (14.X Volts).

That is about 0.72W.

Each factory bulb draws 380mA (0.38A)engine off and I have not tested engine on but I'm sure it's at least 400mA.

You can buy this type of bulb's LED replacement (5w5,194 etc.)but I made my own using the LEDs I already had.

Here is an image of the old bulb,LED,resistor and a piece of flat plastic strip I used for the bulb body.

http://mirageforum.com/forum/attachm...1&d=1385257212



I cut the plastic strip to the width of the original bulb,cut two notches for the wire to bend around later,
hot glue the LED to it , solder the resistor and the other wire,bend it around the bottom of the strip and done.

(BTW the hot glue is not going to melt at the back of the LED because the current draw is way below the LEDs rating and it is not running warm. If I turn out to be wrong on this,I will come back to report)

It is ugly but here it is:
http://mirageforum.com/forum/attachm...1&d=1385257985



In the headlight: (also behind amber corner marker but that is not visible)
http://mirageforum.com/forum/attachm...1&d=1385258169



Turned on in daylight:
http://mirageforum.com/forum/attachm...1&d=1385258270



At night:
http://mirageforum.com/forum/attachm...1&d=1385258376

http://mirageforum.com/forum/attachm...1&d=1385258429



Licence plate illumination:
http://mirageforum.com/forum/attachm...1&d=1385258515

So as of now six 5 Watt incandescent bulbs or 30 Watts replaced by LEDs for a total draw of less than 5 Watts!

I will probably do more like interior light,trunk/cargo light which btw comes on with the interior light, possibly tail lghts but that's a different kind of bulb.

Can I measure the fuel savings? No but it is there. If you don't believe me,you never turned a hand cranked generator to feel the difference between lighting a 27W bulb and just free spinning with no electrical load. :)

The engine has to do the same to turn that alternator. All the little things add up!

Cheers!

Nice writeup - thanks.

So the headlight replacement -- is that to replace the daytime running lights? Or just a parking light?

As far as I know this thing does not have DRLs so it is just parking lights that I use at dusk and of course they are on together with the headlights at night.

Aha - my mistake! We have DRL's on the Mirage in Canada.

maybe 25 watts is not a lot but during the life time of the car its a lot!
and there are more!! what about the inside!!

if y ou drive 2 hours a day that 50 watt per day savings and maybe 13.000 watt for a year

one car one owner

in a cuty with 40.000 cars they save 520.000 watts

do this to every car on this planet!! and you see where the savings are and thats just for a few light bulbs

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Aha - my mistake! We have DRL's on the Mirage in Canada.

---

Ah no mistake man! When you asked I became hesitant to say it has no DRL because most cars do have them.

http://mirageforum.com/forum/attachm...1&d=1385322406

Fortunately this one does not:)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by spacester

maybe 254watt is not a lot but during the life time of the car its a lot!
and there are more!! what about the inside!!

if y ou drive 2 hours a day that 50 watt per day savings and maybe 13.000 watt for a year

one car one owner

in a cuty with 40.000 cars they save 520.000 watts

do this to every car on this planet!! and you see where the savings are and thats just for a few light bulbs

---

Yes it adds up! Plus due to electrical efficiency/ resistance losses for every watt to be produced by the alternator,the engine has to crank out about two watts! Since nothing is 100% efficient.(belt,pulleys,friction losses,heat created in alternator,battery cables,in the battery itself etc.)

I did the trunk light too! possibly dome light next.
http://mirageforum.com/forum/attachm...1&d=1385323041

nice what type is that? feston?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by spacester

nice what type is that? feston?

---

No just ebay 3W white led without heatsink. Last time I got 20 of them. I have been using them on my old car for years and had not had a failure! Although I run them at a fraction of their rating. If you push them to 3 Watts,you better have them on a heatsink!!!

use a T10 connector LED, even before delivered to me I already asked the dealer to fit in the LEDs. Check my garage.
Next step is installing Xenon lamps, 35watts instead of 55 watts with more light. Had Xenon on my Galant, very happy!

Nice write up 3dplane, thanks! I've added this to the FE forum index under DIY stuff.

1157 red "spider" LEDs that I ordered came in the mail.

This has five spring loaded arms. Each arm has six LEDs facing the rear (lens) and two LEDs facing to the front toward the tail lamp housing/mirror.

This is how it arrives:
Attachment 413

When the tie wire is removed it springs open:
Attachment 414
Attachment 415

I removed both tail lamps from the Mirage to try the LEDs.

First I replace the left factory bulb with the LED, (leaving incandescent in right side)parking lights on....bummer. LED does not come on and within a second I smell "Amps" and see the magic smoke leaving the LED. Remove ASAP!

WTF? I go test the LED by hooking it to a 12V battery and it works fine! Both tabs running lights (reduced intensity) and brake lights mode ok.

Back to the car and try again,same thing. Does not work installed in the car. Check car's socket with a fluke meter everything corresponds to the contacts on the LED! Try other LED...same thing.Stink,smoke,no go!

At this point letting out tarzan sounds and getting a beer...

Got the idea to try both LEDs installed in the tail lamps at the same time.(why not smoke both of them simultaniously?)...TADAA running lights and brake lights working fine...except PROBLEM!

Now the factory LED high mounted (3rd) brake lamp comes on with the running lamps! (some more tarzan sounds emitted).

Been through this with my old car when converted to LEDs...need diodes installed but can't remember where exactly.

Next beer and logic says put diode in each bake lamp circuit (2) to prevent backfeed up to the 3rd brake lamp!

I hate to do it to the new car but here it goes:
Silver band toward tail lamps!!!
Attachment 416

Heat shrink:
Attachment 417

That fixed it. 3rd brake lamp stays off with running lights and comes on with brake lamps.Tail lamps work fine too!

However....now every time the brakes are applied the FRONT parking lamps come on with it(which had been converted to LEDs previously)...forget tarzan,I'm laughing now.

Dig up two more diodes,go back to the tail lamps,cut the running light circuit (green with white stripe wire)and install diodes inline the same way as to the brake lamp circuits(green wire)!

Freaking tadaa all systems good,no weird stuff going on with the lights.

So if you decide to DIY your LEDtail lamps,be prepared with 4 diodes,soldering equipment,heatshrink tubing and willpower to cut wires on a new car.

DO NOT try the LED bulb one at a time! Install both at the same time! I have no clue why the car wants to smoke a single LED bulb in the tail!

Now that it works,here is how it inserts in the bulb hole:

Attachment 418

Sitting in the tail lamp turned off:
Attachment 419

Oh the glory:
Attachment 420

Brakes on:
Attachment 421

That factory 3rd brake lamp is nuts!

In all this excitement I forgot to measure current draw and I am not pulling the LED through the hole again to do the test. The little spring loaded arms are very fragile.

The closest specs I found on the page I bought them from was that the power consumption is about 30% of the incandescent that it replaces. Which sounds about right but darn I would like milliamp numbers. :)

Nice description and a pleasure to read! Thanks for the tips

Quote:

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Originally Posted by m4v3r1ck

Nice description and a pleasure to read! Thanks for the tips

---

Hey thank you m4v3r1ck!

I have a question for you! Could you please clarify for me wether your tail lamp/brake lamp is an LED or not on your car?

I can't tell from the photo in your garage for sure.

The reason I'm asking is because my car does not like the LED tail lamps!

On my way home tonight I flipped the parking lights on while driving and the car started bogging down!

I instantly turned the lights back off but tha car stayed running weak. Like starving for fuel.

Long story short if I cycle the ignition off and back on regardless of headlight switch position,the car runs fine.

Just can't go from off to parking lights or headlights with the ignition switch on already. It is freaking out some module in the car.

So I was wondering if you got LEDs in the tail and what they are that it does not mess with the car!

Thanks!

Hey there,

I don't think it's LED, too cheap ass to put (more) expensive LED. I'll get back to you on that, but for a car that doesn't even equipped with rear disc brake, I won't bet on a LED brake light.

It seems that some cars (including this one i guess) needs a LED regulator being placed somewhere in order for the computer to read that the lamp's still good.

That is weird what happened but it might be that the computer reads different watt usage (compared to a normal tungsten bulb) when you turn on the lamp and the alternator try to compensate for the lack of wattage by working harder, when you turn on and off the engine it resets the reading and consider it as a normal usage (instead of an anomaly).
I saw ppl selling the regulator somewhere on the net, if I happen to come across i will post it.

Well,it looks like the car can not stand the LED in the tail/brake lamp socket!

This morning on my way to work the ABS, stability and stability(or traction) off lights came on.

Everything else was fine as far as the tail lights,brake lamps worked fine and the car was not bogging down but as soon as I got to work, I reinstalled the factory tail lamp bulbs.

That turned the warning lights off soon after started to drive the car. However I wanted to see what DTCs were stored in the system so we hooked it up to the mitsu MUT computer for a scan.

It only had one code and it was a brake lamp switch circuit related DTC.(Diagnostic Trouble Code). Cleared it.

So it seems as the car has all these sensitive safety systems,it is better to leave the tail lamps factory.

Unless some better tried and true LED comes out,or someone is willing to experiment with resistors of such value that the car thinks everything is ok back there but the current draw does not negate the use of LEDs over the incandescent factory bulbs.

(if it's even possible! It depends on the criteria the car's various modules are mapped to trigger trouble codes.)

( FYI the diodes and the resistors could be easily built inside the LED bulbs if designed that way from the start)

On a good note I got this for my trip home:
Attachment 463
(26 mile trip,extreme hypermiling.)

Hello,

Nice write up! Pity it doesn't work for the tail lights. I like LED lighting a lot....

BTW what's a mitsu MUT computer ? Can you use it to read all Mitsubishi's?

greetings
Paul

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by zefke

Hello,

Nice write up! Pity it doesn't work for the tail lights. I like LED lighting a lot....

BTW what's a mitsu MUT computer ? Can you use it to read all Mitsubishi's?

greetings
Paul

---

Hi Paul! Thanks!

The Mitsu computer is actually called MEDIC and it is an abbreviation for their diagnostic system.(Mitsubishi Electronic and Diagnostic Information Center)Which is basically a large roll around box containing a laptop,a printer, the interface that goes between the laptop and the vehicle,some special cables etc.

MUT III might be the interface's name too,but for sure that's what you have to select on the laptop for diagnostics.

A bit weird to use,requiring getting used to,but it does have some good features for diag like graph,oscilloscope etc. besides the normal data stuff.

Yeah,pitty about the tail lamps! Hopefully soon every bulb will be LED on these cars,including headlamps like some already have!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 3dplane

1157 red "spider" LEDs that I ordered came in the mail.

This has five spring loaded arms. Each arm has six LEDs facing the rear (lens) and two LEDs facing to the front toward the tail lamp housing/mirror.

This is how it arrives:
Attachment 413

When the tie wire is removed it springs open:
Attachment 414
Attachment 415

I removed both tail lamps from the Mirage to try the LEDs.

First I replace the left factory bulb with the LED, (leaving incandescent in right side)parking lights on....bummer. LED does not come on and within a second I smell "Amps" and see the magic smoke leaving the LED. Remove ASAP!

WTF? I go test the LED by hooking it to a 12V battery and it works fine! Both tabs running lights (reduced intensity) and brake lights mode ok.

Back to the car and try again,same thing. Does not work installed in the car. Check car's socket with a fluke meter everything corresponds to the contacts on the LED! Try other LED...same thing.Stink,smoke,no go!

At this point letting out tarzan sounds and getting a beer...

Got the idea to try both LEDs installed in the tail lamps at the same time.(why not smoke both of them simultaniously?)...TADAA running lights and brake lights working fine...except PROBLEM!

Now the factory LED high mounted (3rd) brake lamp comes on with the running lamps! (some more tarzan sounds emitted).

Been through this with my old car when converted to LEDs...need diodes installed but can't remember where exactly.

Next beer and logic says put diode in each bake lamp circuit (2) to prevent backfeed up to the 3rd brake lamp!

I hate to do it to the new car but here it goes:
Silver band toward tail lamps!!!
Attachment 416

Heat shrink:
Attachment 417

That fixed it. 3rd brake lamp stays off with running lights and comes on with brake lamps.Tail lamps work fine too!

However....now every time the brakes are applied the FRONT parking lamps come on with it(which had been converted to LEDs previously)...forget tarzan,I'm laughing now.

Dig up two more diodes,go back to the tail lamps,cut the running light circuit (green with white stripe wire)and install diodes inline the same way as to the brake lamp circuits(green wire)!

Freaking tadaa all systems good,no weird stuff going on with the lights.

So if you decide to DIY your LEDtail lamps,be prepared with 4 diodes,soldering equipment,heatshrink tubing and willpower to cut wires on a new car.

DO NOT try the LED bulb one at a time! Install both at the same time! I have no clue why the car wants to smoke a single LED bulb in the tail!

Now that it works,here is how it inserts in the bulb hole:

Attachment 418

Sitting in the tail lamp turned off:
Attachment 419

Oh the glory:
Attachment 420

Brakes on:
Attachment 421

That factory 3rd brake lamp is nuts!

In all this excitement I forgot to measure current draw and I am not pulling the LED through the hole again to do the test. The little spring loaded arms are very fragile.

The closest specs I found on the page I bought them from was that the power consumption is about 30% of the incandescent that it replaces. Which sounds about right but darn I would like milliamp numbers. :)

---

\
mmm i dont see anything else when you press the brake beside the 3e light...

do you know the LED get brighter when you brake?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by m4v3r1ck

use a T10 connector LED, even before delivered to me I already asked the dealer to fit in the LEDs. Check my garage.
Next step is installing Xenon lamps, 35watts instead of 55 watts with more light. Had Xenon on my Galant, very happy!

---

i hope you also put in the auto hights adjustents because if not its a pain for other drivers. and against the law here.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by spacester

\
mmm i dont see anything else when you press the brake beside the 3e light...

do you know the LED get brighter when you brake?

---

Hi!

Yes the LED got brighter with brakes but not at the ratio of the original 5W/21W bulb.
(now that I got them out again,I will go measure wattage on each circuit of the LED and report back later for some clues)

If the 3rd brake lamp wasn't so brutally bright, blinding the camera we could see the difference on the pic.

0.13A running lights (X 12.93V at the time of test=1.68W)
Attachment 464

0.275A brake lamp X 12.93V=3.55W
Attachment 465

I bought some high power leds from ebay. They don't light up as much as original. Maybe I need to check the wattage.

I've bought LED lights a few years back to replace tail/brake light bulbs, but just going by my eyes, it looked like the incandescent lights were brighter. The same was true for the dome light I wanted to replace.

With that said, I may have to buy new ones with today's technology. Hopefully better light output.

That's a great idea, but I sincerely hope that those lights are running off a low enough current that the leads don't get too hot sitting on that Electrolytic Capacitor as that would be begging for heat related leakage.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by spacester

i hope you also put in the auto hights adjustents because if not its a pain for other drivers. and against the law here.

---

They're built in our cars, Mitsubishi's that good

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dracconus

That's a great idea, but I sincerely hope that those lights are running off a low enough current that the leads don't get too hot sitting on that Electrolytic Capacitor as that would be begging for heat related leakage.

---

A little late to reply but if the above comment was meant for me then here it is:

The blue thing is a resistor not a capacitor. Current draw is 51mA. While the resistor is probably 1/4 Watt rated and the assembly draws about 3/4 Watts,yes I am over taxing the resistor above it's rating however it has been almost a year and they have been working flawlessly.

You've had these installed for over a year now. How are they holding up?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daox

You've had these installed for over a year now. How are they holding up?

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The 2+2 in the headlights(park and corner markers) flawless. Dome lamp.trunk lamps also great.

Tag lights not so great. I noticed one night while checking them that one of them was not lit so I started banging on them and with every tap I got a different combination between the two lights being on or off.

So I took out two factory made 194 replacement LED bulbs from my now retired mazda protege's rear side marker lamps and put them in for my tag lights on the mirage.

They are now so cheap on fleabay that I feel silly for soldering these up myself.

The factory bulbs draw 388ma. I replaced them with two LED's at the front parking light position. The LED's draw only a small fraction of the current and they "flicker" when the lights are on. I am thinking that I need to install a 40 ohm shunting resistor across each LED.
so that the circuit will "see" 388 ma. Do you think this will stop the flickering?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tortus

The factory bulbs draw 388ma. I replaced them with two LED's at the front parking light position. The LED's draw only a small fraction of the current and they "flicker" when the lights are on. I am thinking that I need to install a 40 ohm shunting resistor across each LED.
so that the circuit will "see" 388 ma. Do you think this will stop the flickering?

---

They flicker because they are from walmart :) Seriously if it is that multi chip (4 LEDs on the sides and one on the front) 194 replacement,they are garbage. I now replaced my homemade 194 LEDs first with the walmart multi chip and they both were flickering.

Later I bought some from advanced auto parts store.They were about $7 each and they work great sofar. They have a milky dome diffuser on the front. Under the diffuser there are two tiny LED chips. I removed one of the diffusers to see the difference and the dedomed one is brighter.(not surprising).

So with all these bulbs replace, how much mpg did you actually gain?

Thank you for confirming what I suspected. The six LED's that I bought on line for $3 each are junk. I replaced them with $8 bulbs from auto-zone parts store. They have a Sylvania brand and run cooler without flickering

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 3dplane

1157 red "spider" LEDs that I ordered came in the mail.

This has five spring loaded arms. Each arm has six LEDs facing the rear (lens) and two LEDs facing to the front toward the tail lamp housing/mirror.

This is how it arrives:
Attachment 413

When the tie wire is removed it springs open:
Attachment 414
Attachment 415

I removed both tail lamps from the Mirage to try the LEDs.

First I replace the left factory bulb with the LED, (leaving incandescent in right side)parking lights on....bummer. LED does not come on and within a second I smell "Amps" and see the magic smoke leaving the LED. Remove ASAP!

WTF? I go test the LED by hooking it to a 12V battery and it works fine! Both tabs running lights (reduced intensity) and brake lights mode ok.

Back to the car and try again,same thing. Does not work installed in the car. Check car's socket with a fluke meter everything corresponds to the contacts on the LED! Try other LED...same thing.Stink,smoke,no go!

At this point letting out tarzan sounds and getting a beer...

Got the idea to try both LEDs installed in the tail lamps at the same time.(why not smoke both of them simultaniously?)...TADAA running lights and brake lights working fine...except PROBLEM!

Now the factory LED high mounted (3rd) brake lamp comes on with the running lamps! (some more tarzan sounds emitted).

Been through this with my old car when converted to LEDs...need diodes installed but can't remember where exactly.

Next beer and logic says put diode in each bake lamp circuit (2) to prevent backfeed up to the 3rd brake lamp!

I hate to do it to the new car but here it goes:
Silver band toward tail lamps!!!
Attachment 416

Heat shrink:
Attachment 417

That fixed it. 3rd brake lamp stays off with running lights and comes on with brake lamps.Tail lamps work fine too!

However....now every time the brakes are applied the FRONT parking lamps come on with it(which had been converted to LEDs previously)...forget tarzan,I'm laughing now.

Dig up two more diodes,go back to the tail lamps,cut the running light circuit (green with white stripe wire)and install diodes inline the same way as to the brake lamp circuits(green wire)!

Freaking tadaa all systems good,no weird stuff going on with the lights.

So if you decide to DIY your LEDtail lamps,be prepared with 4 diodes,soldering equipment,heatshrink tubing and willpower to cut wires on a new car.

DO NOT try the LED bulb one at a time! Install both at the same time! I have no clue why the car wants to smoke a single LED bulb in the tail!

Now that it works,here is how it inserts in the bulb hole:

Attachment 418

Sitting in the tail lamp turned off:
Attachment 419

Oh the glory:
Attachment 420

Brakes on:
Attachment 421

That factory 3rd brake lamp is nuts!

In all this excitement I forgot to measure current draw and I am not pulling the LED through the hole again to do the test. The little spring loaded arms are very fragile.

The closest specs I found on the page I bought them from was that the power consumption is about 30% of the incandescent that it replaces. Which sounds about right but darn I would like milliamp numbers. :)

---

Hi, can I ask the rating or value of the diode you put in? I'm having the same problem also when I changed the bulb to LED's. Are also able to elaborate a little, on what wires you cut to put in does diodes? PLEASE!