TheSamba.com :: View topic

Tue Jul 01, 2014 4:53 pm

Have you switched all your bulbs on your sedan to LED? if so where did you buy them and did you need to do anything to the electrical system? Ill be doing the alternator conversion so it will be a 12v system. I'm looking to change every bulb out, obviously excluding the headlights. thanks for any help.

Tue Jul 01, 2014 5:34 pm

I thought a 69 was already 12 volt?

Tue Jul 01, 2014 6:42 pm

I originally did it with mine about 8 years ago but have changed most of them back to regular bulbs.

leds for turn signals and brake lights can be dangerous.
they are nice and bright to cars directly behind but to cars in the lanes beside they are very easy to miss in mid day sun.
I notice this problem even on newer cars with factory leds.
its just because leds cant put out 360 degree light like a regular bulb can.

If you do the turn signals youll need a proper led compatible flasher relay so they don't hyper flash and the speedo turn signal being reverse polarity causes problems.

Tue Jul 01, 2014 7:38 pm

What about these? Some are listed as being 360 degrees.

Tue Jul 01, 2014 7:44 pm

Those are what I had in mine,
little LEDs wrapped 360 degrees around but they still didnt throw off enough light in all directions to be safe.

Tue Jul 01, 2014 9:49 pm

Yes it is already a 12v generator but I'll be converting to an alternator. And even if it's just the interior bulbs that's ok. Does just about every auto parts store carry the small gauge bulbs?

Tue Jul 01, 2014 9:52 pm

I still run leds in my dome light, glovebox, license plate light, speedo and running lights,
got them off ebay.

Tue Jul 01, 2014 10:31 pm

Joel wrote: I still run leds in my dome light, glovebox, license plate light, speedo and running lights,
got them off ebay.

You don't happen to have a link to the ones similar or exact your running? I'm just looking now and finding the correct size for the speedo etc. There's to many

Tue Jul 01, 2014 10:50 pm

Hi Shameless.

I have some LED bulbs in my Aussie Jackaroo (Isuzu Trouper/Monterey).

But as Joel says the light from them is not as general, and even though mine are supposed to give off about the same lumens, they don't. I have two complete sets of tail light assemblies on this car and have converted one set to LEDs and left the others as normal bulbs. I can see the difference at night when looking at the car - the LEDs are just not as bright, and are slightly less visible from the sides, even though they have sideways pointing LEDs in the bulbs.

Converting the blinker bulbs to LEDs will usually result in a rapid blink as the LEDs don't use enough power for the heat blinker element to get hot enough to blink at normal speeds. That's part of the reason I have not converted all my rear lights to LEDs.

Another issue for you, especially since you say you are converting to an alternator. If you do that, leave the Gen/Alt light in the dash as a normal incandescent, because the alternator needs the current through that light to start producing power, and the LEDs use so little current the Alt might not start charging the battery at all. This is not a problem if you leave the generator on though - it doesn't need the current through the Gen/Alt light to start making power.

Tue Jul 01, 2014 11:46 pm

The speedos use BA7S LEDs BUT I would not recommend them in a speedo,
I've tried them and they have the same problem of not diffusing the light enough and VW speedos rely on that they make the fuel gauge bright as hell and the rest almost unreadable.
What I did was put an LED strip in there instead.
You can buy lengths of it from ebay cheap in all colours,
I do a lot of night driving and found plenty of other places to use it also.

As well as in the speedo I put some in my glovebox and under the dash

For the dome light you just need a festoon style LEDs, from memory they are 42mm long.

I get the SMD style as they dim properly, I've got a delay feature so it stays on for 15 secs after the door is shut then fades out.
Normal LEDs cant handle doing that.

Wed Jul 02, 2014 10:21 am

Except for the dome light, I don't think it is worth the hassle of changing to LEDs in our bugs. I did the LED in the dash lights and since they are directional, they only lit the one spot in the speedo. I had to change them back again. And unless your use reverse polarity leds, they won't work in the oil, gen and turn signal lights.

My son is a deputy sherriff and he says that he sometimes has to stop people who have switched out their bulbs for leds in their tail lights because they don't do the side illumination very well. LEDs are directional, and even if you have them "around" the sides, they still only point straight out, so they leave "dead" spots. This is rather unsafe.

And even if they do say they put out the same amount of light, because an incandesant bulb puts it out all over, it is perceived as brighter than the led that only puts it straight out.

Wed Jul 02, 2014 1:36 pm

This is all not entirely true. There are LED's now that have wider spread. You can buy these LEDs, which have a 180 degree projection angle:

To be precise, these are 8 mm 1200 mcd (1.2 times a candle light) 3500K nm LEDs with 180 degree projection angle.
These LED's have a nice "yellow-ish" light, and spread the light around, just like a normal light bulb.

I have used them in my speedo, and you really cannot tell the difference with normal bulbs:

There is only one drawback, and that is that these LEDs are not dimmable. So the dashboard light dimmer is a bit useless now. The LEDs can be dimmed, but they go to black pretty fast when using the dimmer.

Read the full story here: http://www.gerrelt.nl/section-modifications/modifications-led.html?start=1

Wed Jul 02, 2014 1:58 pm

I got these and love them!

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1569726

Wed Jul 02, 2014 5:30 pm

Quote: I got these and love them!

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1569726

X2.

Just make sure you get the reverse polarity ones for the oil, gen, and turn signal indicator.

Thu Jul 03, 2014 12:41 am

jfly wrote: I got these and love them!

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1569726

In the advert it says they work great for Generator and oil lights. They DONT mention alternators even though it says "68 and up" VWs; and as I pointed out above, if you have an alternator, it NEEDS the current through the dash Alt bulb to start producing power. An LED draws so little current it might not be enough to get the alternator charging (generators don't need that current to start working).

Thu Jul 03, 2014 3:32 am

Joel post a photo of your speedo! I've been thinking about led strip lighting mine but haven't done it yet.

Thu Jul 03, 2014 2:02 pm

Here ya go,
I'll have to get another pic of it in action with the face and glass back on.

Important to use SMD style so they still dim normally with the rheostat.

Fri Nov 16, 2018 12:54 am

Joel wrote: I still run leds in my dome light, glovebox, license plate light, speedo and running lights,
got them off ebay.

Hi Joel.

I see you say you replaced the speedo light or cluster lights/bulbs to LED.

Would you be able to point me to the correct bulb on Amazon etc so I could get the correct LED bulbs to insert there? The beetle speedo cluster bulbs are tiny and I've purchased many online just to realise they're all too big when they arrive!

The ones I have on my bug are the original little bulbs with a tiny base that pushes and tightens down - the base is metal that makes the earth contact with the speedo cluster itself.

Would anyone be able to help fellow enthusiast?

Thanks in advance!

Fri Nov 16, 2018 1:56 am

I would like to disgree with the statement that modern LEDS do not give out light that is equivalent to incandecent bulbs. Maybe 8 years ago they didnt but now they do. I fitted the following to my car and they more than match incandecent bulbs.
Note the red bulbs are the wrong ones as I couldnt find the correct fitment.

Fri Nov 16, 2018 6:08 am

LED headlights are well worth the $$. Tom at vintagecarled can hook you up.