LED lamps owe their popularity to their low power consumption, the creation of a very bright luminous flux, the absence of heating, and a long service life. Even the high cost does not stop motorists from wanting to provide better illumination in the dark and get a durable lamp for their car.
When releasing modern LED car lamps, manufacturers take into account that many car enthusiasts will install them instead of standard ones. Therefore, most LEDs are produced with standard caps, which makes it possible to simply replace a traditional lamp with an LED one without any alterations. The main problem with the installation is different; which lamp to choose for different vehicle lighting systems?
Front parking lights
Today, manufacturers in most cases install lamps without a base on manufactured cars. Such a lighting fixture has the code W5W (the base is marked as T10). If you have a lamp with a base installed, then it will be a T4W type (base brand BA9S), or an H6W lamp (here the BAX9S base has projections offset from each other by 120 degrees). For example, devices of the T4W type with BA9S base are standard for Russian VAZ "classic" cars (models 2101-2106).
When installing side lamps, it is necessary to remember about the peculiarities of the location of these lighting devices: they are located next to a powerful source of heat - high-beam lamps. Therefore, there is a risk of destruction of the LED crystals. To avoid such a "nuisance", LED lamp manufacturers supply their products with current stabilizers. They reduce the voltage supply as the temperature rises. Stabilizer lamps designations:
- T10-1WF, T10-5SF, T10-9SE: without base;
- BA9S-1WF: with base.
Rear dimensions, brake lights
Today, the bulk of cars are produced with two-pin conventional lamps, where one contact is responsible for the dimensions, the other for the feet. The marking of such a lamp is P21 / 5W, the base is designated as BAY15D, or 1157. LED lamps with two contacts are marked as follows:
- 5WF series;
- SMD: such devices can have from 15 to 27 LEDs;
- SF: Considered a budget option that uses SuperFlux (or "piranha") diodes.
If a lamp with one contact is installed in the car, then the base will be designated 1156, or BA15S. A number of Japanese and American cars can be equipped with lamps without a base. In this case, single-pin are marked as W21W (base of the 7440 series), two-pin as W21 / 5W (base of the 7443 series).
Turn signals
Here, single-contact lamps with a power of 21 W (P21W) and a BA15S or 1156 base are installed. If the optics in the car is transparent, then lamps with yellow glass are suitable: PY21W with a BAU15S base, or 1156. To replace these lamps with LED ones, you must use products of the SF, SMD, 5W series. There is also a nuance here; after installation, the LED lamps start blinking much more often, so you will have to replace the standard turn signal relay with a special one designed for LEDs. However, you can get out of the situation in another way; you need to connect a resistance in parallel to the LED that simulates a standard lamp - then the blinking frequency is normalized.
