i was just wondering if i could replace my reverse lights with LEDs. its a 1998 gmc jimmy. the reverse light number is 3156. do i just buy those number lights in LEDs? and also can i do the same for my brake lights with LEDs? the brake lights number is 3057. and should i buy those in red or clear?

also where is a good place to buy them?

 

Yes you just buy those bulb numbers in LED. It will be like a 3057/3157/another number. They are all the same bulb. Yes you can replace both your brake lights and reverse lights. Red it always handy to have for the brake lights, in case you decide to move to clear lenses, plus they wont hurt behind the stock tails.

Note that if you change the brake lights, they will blink super fast when you signal, as the LEDs have a much lower resistance than the stock incandescent bulbs. You can solve that with an LED flasher module ($20 give or take) or by modifying your stock flasher (no going back).

Check out superbrightleds.com or vleds.com for some bulbs or flashers. I purchased every LED bulb I have so far off of ebay with no complaints, and I've replaced nearly every bulb inside and out.

 

be carefull, i just received my ebay back-up led lights, i bought those with about 30 leds, and i had to dremel my taillights a little bit to make them fit.

they are a bit bigger than original bulbs.

 

Regardless of which lenses you have (colored or clear), using the correct color of bulb will yield the most visible light possible Red LED to Red Lens, and so on.

Nothing saying you can't use clear LED's though; it'd be just like the bulbs you're replacing.



Aaron

 

For whatever it's worth, most LEDs (especially the cheaper kind like on the common led bulbs) produce specific wavelengths of light. They put out a couple of colors to give the appearance of white light but do not include the full color spectrum. Regular halogen bulbs produce a smoother spectrum of white light that includes all wavelengths, the red plastic taillight (or coating on the bulb) helps block out all wavelengths except for red.

Using red LEDs will be much brighter than white LEDs that don't produce much red light in the first place.

 

I didn't want to go in to that much detail....... but EXACTLY my point



Aaron

 

thanks for clearing things up guys. and thanks RangerG for everything and the websites. ill be sure to check those out