I am contemplating converting my rear tail lights over to LEDs on my 2002 VW jetta TDI. I have (4) 21 watt incandescent bulbs and (1) 5 watt bulb in each tail light assembly. One of the four 21 watt incandescent bulbs is yellow/orange so I will use a 3 watt yellow/orange LED for that one. All other LEDs on the tail lights are red. For my brake light I will use a 5 watt red led and the others will be 3 watt LEDs. I will be using appropriately rated constant current LED drivers for all bulbs and not the resistor based circuits that are extremely wasteful IMHO. My question is that with the wattage of LEDs do you all think they will be bright enough?
I don't want dim bulbs!!-especially the brake lights that's why I'm going for the 5 watt red LEDs on those. I choose a wavelength of Red LED that should be comparable to the red tail light lens/filter so I am hoping that the lower wattage LED with appropriate wavelength will be allowed to easily pass through increasing visibility while decreasing electrical consumption at the same time. I will also be fabricating a custom heat pipe based cooler to passively remove heat from the LEDs so I get max light output while retaining bulb longevity.
With the constant current drivers and all LEDs needed it will be about $52.00 and take about a month to come from China. I don't mind putting in the time to put it together electrically and also to create the LED cooler assembly. I am getting darn tired of changing these incandescent bulbs and chasing intermittent connection gremlins on my vehicles external lighting so this should reduce my long term maintenance demands
. For reference, do the drop in LED replacement bulbs with relatively low wattage give the same visual effect as the standard incandescent bulbs? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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