You're welcome. A lot of my blather is gleaned from the factory manual, so if you pick up your own copy (http://www.helminc.com, or use the coupon in the back of your owner'* manual), you don't have to listen to me droning on.

Right. If you watch closely when the HIDs are switched on, you can sometimes see a little initial sputtering for a half second or so as the arc establishes itself. Since there is this slight delay when they come on before they reach full brightness, BMW (and probably GM as well) keeps them on for both Low and High beam settings, and uses halogen bulbs for the High beams and flash-to-pass feature since halogens come on virtually instantaneously.

Yes, mine sometimes flickers upon startup for one second when it is cold. Also you want to minimize the amount of times that you turn off and on the bulbs, it wears out the bulbs and the ballasts.

(I'm not gonna quote the whole thing, that'* just mean)

However, What I meant was to disassemble a set of SSE tails and use the inner colored portion to mount probably thousands of LED'*, series paralell in configuration, so each column adds up to 12V, then paralell the columns. then power the LED'* by way of a fast acting super small relay of some sort and straight battery connection. Oh, and a voltage regulator right there to tighten things up.
I bet incandescent is a little bit dimmer.

(is it obvious I'm tired? and can't think of those little bitty relays, about the size of a transistor?)

...and I believe we'll all thank you for not doing that.

Oh, yeah, no argument there; what you're describing would be really something, but all we've seen so far are those stupid plug-in 1157 clones that point a few LEDs straight out the back. Those are what I was referring to before.

(In fact, with your design, would you even need a relay? How much current would something like that really draw?)

Y'know, Cadillac is already doing something similar to what you describe on the LED taillights of one or two of their models (DeVilles?). Maybe you could find a way to modify those and shoehorn a pair into the Bonneville taillights. That would be... interesting...

Am I gonna have to go to Autozone at lunch to try this?

Has ANYONE tried these LED bulbs in any car? My tails are tinted fairly dark, so if they're brighter, it might be nice. My concern however is that the LED'* are red. I'd prefer white behind a red lens.

EDIT:

FYI, some time ago, I lost my 3rd brake light (back window). Lamp monitor showed the failure. For lack of a better replacement, I used a standard 12V RV light (for interior lighting) with the same base. The light worked, but the lamp monitor didn't like it. I had to replace it with an automotive correct replacement. The point is that the module isn't ALWAYS adaptable.

Go right ahead, as long as you're sure they'll be returnable after you've opened them. IIRC, the last ones I saw were something like $5.99 each.

As I said, a long time back somebody posted a snapshot showing the original incandescent bulbs on the left and the LEDs on the right, and the difference was dramatic (and kind of pathetic ).

You're going to have several, um, expectations to adjust here:

-- They won't be "brighter," in the sense that you will have no side-bounce light to fill out the reflectors and the lenses. All you'll get is a red blob in the middle, shining straight back. (Come to think of it, if the bulb installs base-down instead of base-forwards, the illumination will be even worse.)

-- Your ALM warning will probably complain bitterly, as discussed previously, until it re-learns the new current draw level.

-- The LEDs are indeed red, a very specific wavelength that hopefully will pass through the red lenses of the car. That is, the lenses block all light except a range of red, which a clear bulb will freely emit. The red LEDs will emit only a certain range of red, and that'* all; you won't get the extra hotter and cooler ranges of red that the lens would allow through if they were present.

Compare, for example, what happens if you put an amber bulb behind the red lens: You'll get less light than a clear bulb, because the amber coating of the bulb blocks all but the amber wavelengths, and then the red lens blocks most of the amber, and all you're left with for visible light is the "slop factor" of wavelengths sneaking through all the tint. (Conversely, an amber lens will allow either red or yellow light to pass through, so you can see a red bulb behind an amber lens, but it'* difficult to see an amber bulb behind a red lens.) With the pure red of the LEDs, you don't get as much of the other wavelengths in the first place.

I have some of the same concerns you have, however, HP invented the ultra-bright LED, so I have plenty of clear to swap in if I need. The bases on the ones I've seen are fairly compact, so I don't think the shadowing effect will be too bad.

The red LED/Red lens effect is my biggest concern, especially with VHT tint on top of that. Something to try. We can settle this once and for all.

What'* the pathetic effect you're referring to?

Dark lenses with two little bitty blobs of red light in the middle. The same sort of effect you'd get if you spray-painted the inner reflectors black.

I dunno about you, but when I have big red taillights on my car, I want big red lights shining out of them.

That'* all I needed. Thanks Andy. I'm not going to waste my time. I think light mods should be restricted to the headlights, fogs, and backups.

ive got an idea, when modding the tail lights you could disassemble the red lennze, and then glue or fassen the mounts of the new led'* red or not depending on the whole color wavelenghth copatiblilty, so you have (for the size of our bonneville red tail lights) lets say, 50 LEds, so reflection is not an issue inside of the light housing, this would take some work but give you the same result as caddlac'* i belive, (DTS, DHS, and CTS) to name a few, i belive they use very little relfection whithin the housing and rely on an array of LEDs facing aft. if done right this would sure look damn cool and give the import blah blah gag me with a spoon drivers something to gauck at on a real american automobile...........................

neekolas.