[Philg]

Anybody try swapping their 2nd gen firebird dash and exterior light bulbs for brighter, low power consuming LED's? Do you need to install an electronic flasher to control the LED turn signals?. Any info would be helpful..brand used. Brighter or not, tips, trouble you might run into etc.

Thanks

[pontiacman63383]

you will need an eletronic flasher with the turn signals unless you dont mind them flashing really fast. Though i have not done any led work to the gto i have done alot to my other cars/motorcycle. I make all my led set ups myself so i cant help you with a brand. I normaly use about 6k mcd and up on the brightness. With 4 or 5 of them together are more then birght enough to replace a standard bulb.

[george kujanski]

Pontiacman: are you saying with the led's the flasher will flash faster? I would expect the opposite.

The (assumed) lower bulb current would heat the bimetallic strip in the flasher less, therefore it would make and break the circuit more slowly, I would think. When I hook up my trailer, the increased current makes it flash faster.

george

[pontiacman63383]

Yes leds use less current then regular bulbs. The less current used in the circut by the bulbs the more current that is going though the flasher relay. The more current going through the realy the quicker it flashes. Same idea behing when a normal bulb burns out. you go from 4 lights to 3. That is a resistane drop in the circut allowing more current to run though the flasher.

[george kujanski]

A standard flasher will flash more slowly with reduced bulb current, such as when a bulb is burned out. Just replaced one this morning for that reason.

George

[LPete]

Originally Posted by george kujanski

A standard flasher will flash more slowly with reduced bulb current, such as when a bulb is burned out. Just replaced one this morning for that reason.

George

Definitely. In fact, the original flashers were rated to flash a certain number of bulbs, so if one burned out the rest wouldn't flash (so you'd know you had a bulb out).

Heavy duty flashers (#536/552) don't behave this way -- they'll flash with bulbs out. I don't know if they'll flash LED lamps, though. These were originally intended for trailering, so the lights wouldn't flash too fast with the extra trailer lamps.

[pontiacman63383]

well older car flashers must work different then newer cars. New cars will flash faster with a bulb out. They will also flash faster with leds replacing a regular bulb. like i said ive never tried them on my gto so im not sure what they will do on an older car

[Philg]

Hey George, Thanks for turning this into your own flasher speed debate. Maybe I can get this back on track without creating a new post. But first Thanks to pontiacman63383 who's post included the info on 6K and the 4 or 5 bulb clusters.

So, Anybody out there who has already had success swapping their 2nd gen firebird dashboard and/or exterior lights for LED's. I am looking for recomendations on brands you used. Hoping I can just unplug the old dashboard bulbs and insert an LED cluster. Mainly focused on increasing dash light level now that the flasher info has been exhausted.

Thank You

[george kujanski]

Well Phil, I just thought that someone might want correct information, I guess I was wrong.

I'll try to restrain myself in the future as long as you are happy being in the "dark".

George