MrDude_1

well, i got a little upset this weekend...

i noticed i was getting BUBBLES on my rear brake light.... last week i got my LED brake light kit... so i took out my light to replace the bulbs.




look at this.. now the CENTER bulb was burnt out... it was a opened package at radioshack... i think someone touched it and got their oily fingerprints on it...
anyway... look at my light housing


notice the heat discoloration. the red lense itself has bubbles in it...

basicly, i need a new housing.

MrDude_1

ok heres another pic.


you can see the sockets were overheating.... and the housing lense

MrDude_1

last pic... here is a closeup of the "chrome" reflective top... now discolored






i plugged power to these bulbs when i had the lense off, just to see how hot it was.


these bulbs put out ALOT of heat.. a whole lot. like i cupped my hand over it and i could REALLY feel it coming off the bulb. far too hot for the housing.

do NOT use the radioshack bulbs in your brake light


also, they suck ALOT of power... more then the little wires going to it should be pulling.....

MrDude_1

btw, i have a solution for this... i found a guy that makes LED replacements for our cars...

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=295065

JeffW

were those shack bulbs really led's? ive never ever seen an led get hot.. did you have the resitors in line? could of been overpowering them. since an led only need .7 amp to light it should draw next to nothing which in turn generates no heat.

jeff

MrDude_1

umm re-read my post.

the radio shack BULBS overheat the housing.

ive since replaced them with LEDs that work great.
and you're correct about LEDs and heat.. LEDs are highly efficent at producing light, and create almost no heat.

87CIZ

iTrader: (8)

yeah someone mentioned using them as a cheaper replacement but they got alot hotter and melted my housing similar to yours. Need to get the word out about those. As far as myself. I've since made my own lights. I used 3 LED's in each one for a total of 15 led's i believe the led's are 11000MCD's in red of course. I just cut the pins from the bulbs and used them. But on 2 of them i couldn't so i used a paperclip of the same size. I've been running them for about a month and a half and no problems yet.

firebirdjosh

iTrader: (1)

My incorrect-o-meter is off the charts!

Bulbs (incandescent bulbs specifically) are NOT the same as a Light Emitting Diode. LEDs can get hot, some newer ones require heat sinks even, but thats irrelavant with the amount of light needed for a third brake light. Overpowering an LED will cause it to burn out, not get hot like that. Where the hell did you get .7A to light? First off, thats not true since all LEDs are different. Average LEDs probably draw about .02A. .7A is a fair amount of current and can generate a fair amount of heat.

DakotaSLT

I expect he mixed up volts and amps. Most diodes have a "turn on" rating of ~.7 VOLTS, not amps (this is probably where that number came from). They need to see .7 Volts before they will conduct current. In a 12 Volt system with all the LED connections in parallel, this is certainly not a problem.

f355bird

iTrader: (2)

If that happened to me i would give radio shacks corporate a new *** chewing and make them fix my ****.

firebirdjosh

iTrader: (1)

If its not the same number as the stock bulb then technically, being a different bulb, it never made the claim of being able to operate safely in the brake light enclosure. Basically they aren't responsible for a customer's misuse of their product. However, if it was a freak batch and the bulb did that damage you should definitely mention it.

DJP87Z28

Never had a problem with the g4 base 12v 20watt Halogen Bulbs from Radio Shack p/n272-1177. They last as long as the stock ($14.00)) ones. I must have used Five of them over the last ten years. never got that hot to melt anything. Unless people have them wired to stay on or ride their brakes all the time.

BackInBlackGP

What is the bulb number that is supposed to be in the 3rd brake light? Mine uses T91L bulbs.

87CIZ

iTrader: (8)

im pretty sure its an 891 bulb all 5 of them which are $6 - $7 each here

cdoyle

What wattage bulb did you put in there?

I've had mine in my housing for about a year, and haven't had a problem.

I wanna say the ones I used were the 10w. I think RadioShack also has a 20w version too.

I tried the 20w at first, but noticed how hot they got, and then I went back to the 10w.

I wonder if you got the 20w ones by mistake?

87CIZ

iTrader: (8)

i dont know I'll look when i yank them. I got the part number someone told me on the boards, so i dont know.

firehawkslplus

If they were a halogen design then they make more light ,but put alot more heat doing it. IIrc all incandescent bulbs make more heat than light.

D's89IROCZ

Mr. Dude ...what was the part number you used that melted your brake light.


DJP87Z28 said his worked fine with this part number

so it makes me wonder about the 20 watt version to the 10 watt version . I need a cheaper replacement but not cheap enough were it melts my light

DJP87Z28

Think about this very hard, how long do you have to keep your foot on the brake pedal to get those bulbs so hot they melt thick plastic??

MrDude_1

think about this very hard. how much air is moving in this housing?

so you catch a light as it goes red.... on the brake coming to the light, on the brake at the light... could be 5 mins.

yup, thats long enough to have a effect on the lense....


or stop and go traffic?




or lets pretend traffic is normally perfect where you are... but today, some dumbass wrecked on the hwy, and now you're in traffic, brake on, idling at 5mph as everyone merges into one lane... that'll fug your light.























anyhoo, looked at my bulbs... it has 20W printed on it.

DJP87Z28

Everyone has opinions, so buy whatever 3rd brake light bulb you want. I will continue to use what works for me at a cheaper price. It is now three years since I last replaced one of the super hot bulbs. Note: original factory bulbs were also Halogens.

MrDude_1

no ****?! really?! i thought they just printed halogen 7w on the stockers for no reason!!!!

firebird89355

im not trying to be harsh but i work at radio shack for 3.5 years now and every led package i have ever seen there has a very specific voltage and a very certain resistance you have to use with the specific LED depending on which ones you get. also if it was an open package someone could have opened 2 packages and swapped them because they have no writing on them to tell which one is which. and 1 more thing from what i know of corporate radioshack they have no responsibility if the customer uses them for a custom application. like i said man not being an *** just letting you know if you or anyoneelse trys these you should get unopened ones or order them off of www.radioshack.com that way you have brand new bulbs.

THOMAS

MrDude_1

you work at radio shack?? dont worry.. i wont hold that against you.. lol




go re read what i wrote.

keep in mind that im a electrical engineer, so when i say BULB i mean a actual bulb.. NOT a LED...

when i say LED, then i mean LED not bulb.



then you'll catch on.


not trying to be harsh.........

88 WS6 TransAm GTA

iTrader: (1)

Ive been running the Radio Shack halogens in my 'vert 3rd brake light for years with no problems what so ever.