yeah im wondering if you have ONE LED,

or do you have lines of 5x5 LED like the bmw 3-series coupe

 

but unless each LED is housed in a reflector housing (thats how they do it on OEM cars with LED tails....like the BMW's).....the LEDs are far less safe. Without the proper housings, they can only be seen at certain angles and are often much more dim than the stock bulbs.

A friend of mine had some of these LEDs installed in her MINI's lights and after driving behind her one night, another of my friends absolutely refuses to be a passenger in her car until she goes back to non-LEDs because he couldnt tell she was gonna be stopping.

I've said it before....but people should register on the forums of www.hidplanet.com if they are interested in LED taillights they show how to get LED buckets to reflect the light properly and safely.

Here is a pic of what a reflector would look like for an array of LEDs. You can go without the array but you have to be sure to aim enough LEDs in the proper direction


And for people buying pre-made arrays....its important to make sure its the right LED's....often those LEDs arent really meant to be used in taillights. Taillights use the incredibly bright LEDs

this place is just the start of good places to look for the high power superflux LEDs that are reccomended. You will also need to start searching for the reflector housings if you want people behind you to actually see your brake lights.

http://www.ledcar.com/products_led_luxeon.html

 

I agree RallyMINI its really the same with people that put HID bulbs in halogen housings that there not designed for. You dont get the optimum light output or safety from it. I mainly wanted to use the LEDs for the turn signal cause i wanted the housing to be clear and i wanted to get that blinking rate like the LEDs on the 3 series. I would eventually like to build a set of actual LED tailights, but i havent the wiring or fabricating skill to create it.

 

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing right......especially when it involves as much safety as brake lights

 

yeah i have been on HiDPlanet for a while researching everything.

 

Many months ago, mikeythemini (of newministuff.com in the UK) posted on MINI2 that he had a vendor working on LED tail lights, but I haven't seen anything since. Some of the DIY projects on HIDPlanet are very impressive but they are serious time consuming projects for electronics hobbyists.

I have not been willing to compromise on brightness, so I have only updated interior lights, where an LED can in fact be brighter than a standard 5 watt bulb. For the exterior, it is pretty tough for an LED replacement bulb to match the brightness of a 21+ watt incandescent in a reflector housing designed for a standard bulb. I've been thinking about using even brighter incandescents. Daniel Stern has taillight bulb upgrades (not LED) for MINI.

For the exterior, the effectiveness of a replacement LED bulb pretty much depends on the brightness of LEDs that fire sideways into the reflector. In the front turn signals I've tried a tower style bulb with superflux leds, and I thought it was fairly bright. It was actually brighter than a "stealth" (silvered) incandescent turn bulb that I have also tried. However this LED still wasn't as bright as the stock bulb so I didn't put it into service. Autolumination has new tower SMT 1156/1157 bulbs that I think may come very close in brightness to stock. However they are $25 each and I am not confident about reliability (yet another issue with retrofit LED bulbs that are not custom designed for the car).

 

Mikeythemini has just posted this on MINI2:Great news but I'm afraid to think how much they will cost. BTW, "facelift style" is referring to 1st gen MINI, '05 and beyond.

 

Perfect, i cant wait to see them, i will probably end up buying them if the are UK spec with a amber turn signal.

 

Mikeythemini has posted preliminary pictures in the MINI2 thread. I'm not so sure about the looks and need to see them on a car. However it is probably a moot point because I think the price will be quite high and beyond my budget.

 

Yikes....those definitely belong on a honda or something...yuck

 

In that MINI2 thread someone had seen them at a German vendor. Price is 229 Euros: http://www.topauto.com/en/shop.pl





The brakes are on here (see 3rd brake light). The tails don't look bright at all.

 

Yah, it doesnt look like they achieved OEM brightness quite yet. It's also a bit disconcerning that they appear to be sunken in a circular recess. LED's already suffer from providing light in all directions. Recessing them would only cut-off more of their visible angles.

 

All I have to say is watch out for the size you get, but who cares if they look like this, then I'm welling to do anything

as everyone said, they are NOT as bright from the side, but they are very visible from the rear

 

that looks really dim I think I'm going to stick to my plan of adding LEDs on top of still running the Halogens which seem to be our brightest option

 

This one looks very dim, even from straight back. I think you could do much better with some other LED bulbs that are currently available. I would recommend a tower style like one of these:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/VLEDs...em280116769490
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NEW-R...em280119154640

 

those stupid clear ones came on my car.(bought used) And even after i used the tail light tint spray to a dark black appearance they are still very visible! its all about the bulb you use on those, i know this is about LED's but someone said those clears were dim.

 

I like them, im not sure which of the 4 different styles shown here i like but i would definitely get some of those. Maybe just cause im obsessed with LEDs, and im on a quests to make the whole car LED. I noticed with the first 2 styles you would still need a red reflector like the one that comes with the OEM white 02-04 white taillights. The second one with the red housing but the white LED circle reminds me of the new VW passat. Anyway im happy to see someone come up with them. And im sure there plenty bright, and if not i have seen threads on HIDPlanet about replacing the LEDs with brighter ones like someone did on there 3-series BMW

 

The photos that Mikeythemini posted are greyscale (black-and-white). In the second photo, the dark areas might be either red or black.

 

I noticed that the first two clear and black examples even if grey scale still have room for a reflector and the clear one just looks like its a clear/white reflector so i made it red to see what it would look like and thought i would post it. I think that would help keep the clear taillight look but save you from having to mount red reflectors in the bumper. And in my opinion dont look too bad.

 

Just thought i would bump this back to the first page i am super excited about this, cause i have wanted these since i got my MINI.

 

Another bump Mikey says he should have them by July 6th

 

the smoked ones are incredible. how much will they be US$

 

Not sure yet but the other site that has them in red sells them for $229 Euros which equals $307 dollars

 

He updated again with another picture its dark but it shows them illuminated

 

These guys used to have some tails but they were priced at $800. The website now says to call for details/pricing. They are a little expensive but looks like nice work.

http://www.clearcorners.com/