FUNCTION
From the factory, tail light bulbs are powered by standard incandescent lights that light up white in color, and cast light through your red or amber tail light lens. This results in a washed-out color.
Newer luxury vehicles are using LEDs for turn signals, because LEDs offer a crisp, instant on/off function, increased brightness, and true, vibrant color. By replacing the bulbs in your vehicle, you can achieve this modern look!
The installation is 100% plug-and-play, just replace your factory bulb. The bulb may blink faster since it uses less power, and your vehicle thinks the bulb is out- to fix this, please see "hyperblinking" section below.
BULB DESIGN
SMD27: 27 three-chip 5050-size Epistar SMDs arranged in 360 degrees. Six radial panels of three chips, and a forward-facing six-chip panel. Main body material is PCB.
HP11: Four side-firing 1.5W-rated Osram LED chips, and one 5W-rated LED chip on top, which is projected by a lens for maximum effective brightness. The bulb is housed in a machined aluminum casing, which provides superior heat diffusion for long life.
XP80: Each of the four sides of this bulb contains three 5W-rated chips, and the top is fitted with four more under a projector lens. This is the brightest self-contained automotive LED bulb on the market, and is housed in an aluminum casing with a textured finish for maximum heatsinking properties.
Fitment. All three bulbs use a quality inject-molded 3157 terminal, with a full-size base connector and proper pin alignment, designed for exact replacement of your factory 3157 bulb.
Included in your order is TWO BULBS.
COLOR
These LEDs illuminate in a crisp, bright, red hue. Choose the color of your rear turn signal lens.
BRIGHTNESS
Diode Dynamics offers several brightness options so you can choose what fits you best. These options are listed by the design and the lumen output of each bulb:
SMD27: Slightly lower brightness than OEM bulbs, but still provides the crisp, modern instant on/off of LED technology.
HP11: Slightly higher brightness than OEM bulbs.
XP80: Much brighter than OEM bulbs. These are bright!
Lumens: BUYER BEWARE! Most sellers just provide "calculated" lumen numbers, based on the maximum potential brightness of the LED chips on the bulb. For example, if a bulb has five 10-lumen chips, they will rate it at 50 lumens. However, this is not accurate, as the design of an LED bulb does not get rid of heat fast enough to run the LEDs at maximum.
These "calculated" lumen ratings are much, much higher than the true, measured light output, so it will look like competitors' bulbs are brighter than ours. This is because Diode Dynamics does not provide inflated "calculated" numbers; we believe it is misleading. We test the actual brightness of the bulbs in our lab, to provide real lumen output measurements. Our measurements are accurate, but they are usually much lower than the misleading "calculated" figures. Please click here to learn more about LED brightness measurement.
QUALITY
LED Components. Diode Dynamics uses only the highest quality LED chips in the production of its bulbs. This means we use only brand-name suppliers such as Epistar, Cree, Osram, and Samsung.
While Diode Dynamics bulbs may look the same as others on the market, most copycat bulbs use economy-grade LED chips in order to reduce costs. This greatly reduces the reliability and overall brightness of the bulb when you compare it to Diode Dynamics.
Construction. Although LED technology allows for extremely long bulb life, the market is flooded with cheap LED bulbs that fail prematurely due to inferior construction. The worst enemy of LEDs is excessive heat, and when bulbs are not designed properly, they do not disperse heat as well, leading to premature failure.
Off-brand, cheap bulbs exhibit poor solder uniformity, high levels of flux in the solder, uneven chip placement, low-gauge terminal wires, poor assembly, and bulbs held together with inferior adhesives. At best, solder joints will crack and fail on low-quality LEDs after a few weeks of use. In the worst case, these bulbs can damage housings as the extra flux and adhesive evaporates and creates a residue on the lens of the housing.
Diode Dynamics bulbs are produced with modern, computerized equipment, and only the best materials, to ensure complete uniformity, high quality, and long bulb life.
All Diode Dynamics products come with a 30-day satisfaction guarantee and a 3-year limited replacement warranty. For more information, please view the Warranty Information page.
HYPERBLINKING
The turn signals on most vehicles will begin to blink fast (hyperblink) when LED bulbs are installed. This is because the new LEDs will use less power than the original bulbs, so your vehicle thinks that the bulb is out and warns you by hyperblinking.
This phenomenon will be the same for every LED bulb on the market- there is no such thing as a "no hyperblink" LED bulb, even though some companies advertise them as such.
Flasher Replacement: Replacing the flasher relay, the module that controls blinking speed, is the easiest option to correct hyperblinking. You can remove the flasher on your vehicle, which is a small relay module under the dash, and replace it with a new flasher designed for LEDs. You will only need one flasher for your vehicle, whether you are replacing just one pair or both sets of turn signal bulbs (front/rear).
Resistor Kit: If you prefer not to change the flasher, you can add resistors to the bulb's circuit, and mimic the power consumption of the original bulb, returning the vehicle to normal turn signal speed. Resistors are a universal fix for any vehicle. Diode Dynamics resistors are 50W, 6 ohm, and come with extra-long connection wires for easy install. If you have both front and rear LED turn signals, you should purchase one set for each pair, to create enough resistance for the whole turn signal circuit. The installation itself takes only 10-15 minutes, and involves making two simple connections. Everything you need is included in the kit.
