Spyder tail assemblies- 1156 led bulb replacement comparisons

Just wanted to share some led replacement bulb comparisons on a few different led's with my current setup. Have had the assemblies for about 2.5 years now. But never found the patience to try and find some decent bulbs for the non-led replaceable bulbs in these housings. I first ordered the 'star' shaped ones from superbrightleds.com thinking they looked kinda interesting. And they did, but were not very bright at all. And over time, kinda thought they were too, "ricey" looking... But one finally started to give out after the 2.5 years of service so I finally cracked down and ordered some different led bulbs. I have even tried the smd "tower" bulbs in the past and they were not very good at all. Enough to light up the housing, but barely any actual output. So those are not included in this comparison as I will never try those again...

I regret not doing this sooner, because I am kinda anal about my lights working properly, and actually being bright enough to work as they should. I've always felt that the ones I had in there were not very bright at all, and worried about other drivers not seeing me signal. It annoys the crap out of me when people don't signal in front of me, or have dark tinted assemblies where you can barely see them braking/signaling. So I don't want to be that kind of person...
**And if there's any haters out there that wanna troll regarding my opinion of that, save it for someone who cares And btw, if anyone feels it necessary to comment on the fact I have tinted lenses myself, you obviously don't own these tail assemblies or you would know that the tint has hardly any affect on the output. ESPECIALLY with led's.**

Here are the ones I have ordered thus far:

Turn Signals: (were the first choice shortly after I got the assemblies, lasted a couple years before experiencing issues with one recently)
1156 LED Bulb - 30 SMD LED Spider - BA15S Retrofit

Reverse bulbs: (Have had these ones just as long, couple years with no issues. There's newer versions of these now I believe.)
PCC x2 pcs 1156 Rear Turn Signal Super White Plug & Playment CREE 7.5W VE9148

Recently purchased these two sets:

JDM ASTAR Super Bright 5730 Chipsets 1156 1141 1073 7506 LED Bulbs with Projector,Amber Yellow

JDM ASTAR Super Bright 5730 Chipsets 1156 1141 1073 7506 LED Bulbs with Projector,Amber Yellow

Z8LED Fits for Jeep Wrangler | Paracord Door Limiting Straps CJ YJ TJ JK | 550 Pound Strength Durable Swing Limiter Restrictor Pair (2 Pieces,red)

Amber 2pcs 1156 7056 Ba15s Auto LED 30w Ultra Bright Orange LED Fog Light Z8led #9g1156y


Also ordered some jdm astar 194's for the front markers but havent installed yet.
I'm a bit leery of these, as well as the other 1156 jdm's. Because @alphabravo has installed these and have had issues with them almost immediately after install.

Laiweier Extremely Bright 5730 SMD 194 168 2825 W5W T10 LED Bulbs,Amber

JDM ASTAR Extremely Bright 5730 SMD 194 168 2825 W5W T10 LED Bulbs,Amber Yellow(Brightest T10 Bulb in the market)

**On a side note, I currently have THESE from superbrightleds.com in the marker lenses now. Again they have been in for about 2.5 years, no issues. But are not very bright or aesthetically pleasing. SBL also has some similar to the jdm astar, but use 5630 leds whereas the jdm's use 5730. Not sure if that's all the difference there is, but HERE they are too for anyone curious. If the jdm's dont last (whenever I get around to putting them in) I will try the SBL ones...**

Anywho.. Here's some output pics. This is with the SBL "spider" bulbs.









The JDM 1156(driver side) and "Z8" (passenger)1156 comparison:
Hard to see the difference in pictures. The video will show better. But the JDM's definitely outshine the other ones. They are freaking BRIGHT!! The Z8's are actually pretty nice. But seem like they should be brighter than they are... I should also note that even though in some of the pics they might appear yellow, they are actually that "true" amber color. I will also report back when I have seen them during the daytime, as I had taken these at dusk. Like I mentioned at the top, as far as led's go, it's hard to find one that is bright enough/designed well enough that they can easily be seen in direct sunlight. With the "spider" led's from SBL, they were pretty much completely washed out in direct sunlight and you couldn't even hardly tell they were flashing. Some (including myself) consider this a hazard. I want to be SEEN by other drivers when i signal. Because I hate it when other drivers don't signal for me!!! Not to mention possible hassle by authorities claiming they didn't see you signal...












Reverse bulbs:
I found that these are certainly better than stock incandescent bulbs, but I think there may be better options out there. The problem with these is that they do NOT light up the reflector one bit. So the biggest problem, is during the daytime. For example when you want to back out of a parking spot, no one seems to notice you are reversing until you are halfway out! That's because during the sunlight hours, the reflector isn't lit! BUT, it's not that huge a deal. Because people are asshats regardless and just don't wanna stop for you. They think they have the right away. Which yes in some cases they do, but if I'm backing out and look both directions, and some car comes screaming through honking their horn at you and not even think twice about slowing down or let alone stop for you, then thats a dick move. ANYWAYS.. I like them and haven't had any issues. But I will probably try something different in the near future. Something that actually lights up the reflector as well. Because I also plan on installing some 8" led bars, flush mounted, in the rear bumper for reverse lights

(I took a few shots at late dusk hours, then some in pitch black. Not sure if it helps)

 

Oh yeah, forgot the video comparison:

As you will see, the output on the ground shows it all. The JDM washes out the other one and shines a LOT brighter. Not only shining on the ground closer to the bumper, but also much farther out. You can barely see the output of the other "Z8" brand.

https://youtu.be/xItLQtmlQEg




Oh and one more thing.. if anyone is considering getting these leds that I just installed, I might suggest giving it some time so I can report back on the quality of these jdm's. Seeing as I mentioned above that another member didn't have the greatest luck with this brand. Albeit they were the 194 bulbs for the front marker lenses, I'm not convinced these will actually last. Perhaps being used as signals and not "always-on" marker lights, they will be more reliable and stable. Idk.. Time will tell..

 

sub'd for your results later on

 

Subd.

 

Decided to snap a few pics tonight to help show a little better the output with some background. Albeit cell pics.

1st shot is just ambient..
2nd hazards.
3&4 reverse.

 

Actually I have a great luck with JDM ASTAR 1156 and 1157 bulbs. I had 1157 red as my tail and stop bulb and 1156 white as my reverse light. I replaced the tail lamp with red-clear one, removed the plastic divider (which doesn't make sense when color bulbs are used) and swapped position of signal and reverse light (signal is in center, reverse is on the top)



I don't have picture with reverse light working, but JDM ASTAR 1156 works great together with the stock reflector. Enough light to provide good color image for my backup camera at night.

Yesterday I tested JDM ASTAR 1156-5730-24Y comparing the light output to stock 1196NA I had for quite time. If anyone thinks about getting LED signals in 1st gen Tacoma (I have 95.5) I can recommend these bulbs. If you have doubts about the quality, they come with 2 years warranty - not that I expect to need it, as I have their 1156 and 1157 for over a year now.

This is how the JDM ASTAR 1156-5730-24Y compares to 1196NA





As for the light output JDM ASTAR is a bit better than stock 1156NA. This is picture taken during the day light:




Same result at night:



Youtube video showing the same comparison:



JDM ASTAR 1156-5730-24Y takes 0.42A at 12V consuming about 5W from the car circuit (Standard 1156NA takes 2.1A at 12V consuming about 25W). Of course you need to swap flasher for LED compatible like EP-35 for about 13 bucks in local auto parts store (forget about the resistors).

Actually on the video you can see that LED bulb does not start at full brightness immediately and there is a split second "warming up" effect. I believe the reason for that is that remaining 3 signal bulbs in the truck were stock incandescent bulbs and at startup they take few times more current than after they are on. This is the nature of incandescent bulb that the cold filament has much lower resistance than when it is hot and there is a spike of current when you turn the bulb on. That spike creates such voltage drop on Tacoma wires that for split of second the LED bulb gets few volts less than 12V. This is a very good lesson to learn - save your truck's wires and switch to LED blinkers.

I'm getting clear front signal lamps today ($25 from ebay) so I will swap all 4 bulbs for LED (and the flasher for EP-35).

 

Yep my jdms seem to be holding up well. I think they're much more stable being used as blinkers rather than always on lights. I expect them to last quite a while. Still haven't put in the T10's up front yet though.

 

Good reviews, where r u ordering the jdm's from

 

Amazon. I linked it in first post.
Should also show up at bottom of page vvvv

 

I have JDM ASTAR Super Bright AX-2835 Chipsets 1157 for tail/stop lights which can be safely assumed are used a lot. After more than 1 year thy work OK. The only design flaw they have is the small "current leak" between stop light circuit and marker light circuit. Now there are new version of these bulbs (JDM ASTAR Super Bright 5730 Chipsets 1157) that are similar design to my new signal bulbs. I don't know if they suffer from the same "current leak" problem or not.

 

You said no resistors for the blinker LED bulbs? What do you do about the hyper blink if you don't use resistors?

 

So you are just talking about marker led bulbs not the blinkers. NVM

 

There are two options we have (besides adding resistors):
1. Modify existing flasher to remove current sensing capability. I haven't tried it yet, but I will.
2. Get EP35 (LED compatible flasher), it is direct replacement for original 1st Gen flasher. I got one for 12.99 at auto parts store. Or look for Tridon EP35 Flasher on

$21 Novita EP35 Flasher

Amazon.

My clear front signal lamps arrived - even amber bulbs were included which obviously will go to "obsolete parts bin". I'm going to get everything swapped on Saturday (I hate winter when it's cold and dark late afternoon).

 

I finally finished my LED signals and for the hyper-flashing fix I don't like the option 1 (quoted). The problem is in the design of the original flasher unit (TOYOTA 81980-02010):



As you can see on the picture the unit is based on standard chip UAA1041B. It is an Automotive Direction Indicator chip with Short Circuit Detection and Defective Lamp Detection.



I did reverse engineering Toyota Flasher to see how the chip was implemented:



It is standard implementation with Short Circuit Detection disabled (missing capacitor between pin 1 and 2 and connected pin s 6 and 2). However it is still detecting "Defective Lamp". In order to disable Defective Lamp there should be 0.08V or more between pin 7 and 2. In the flasher this is the voltage on the "sense resistor" 0.03ohm.

There are solutions on the web to replace this resistor with 0.12ohm resistor and the flasher will detect one broken LED bulb by hyper-flashing but will work OK with 2 LED lamps (like stock Tacoma works). However if you connect a trailer with incandescent bulbs and you turn on hazard lights the total current will be at least 6A and that will make the new resistor quite hot (0.7W). If you don't tow "unknown" trailer this mod will be OK.

I went for solution number 2 - I bought EP35 flasher from local auto parts store for 13 dollars. It will work with LED bulbs and incandescent bulbs (for example in Uhaul trailer).



At first I was confused if this is the right one. Some contacts were described not the same way and I was worried it will create a short. Here is the comparison between these two:



Notice contacts described as E and B are reversed. However when I plug EP35 into Tacoma it worked OK.

This is the tail lamp with original 1156NA bulb



And this is how it looks with JDM ASTAR LED bulb




You can see I have now all JDM ASTAR bulbs in the tail. I replace front lamps with the new ones with clear lenses and now my truck is not orange anymore.

This is the second part of the test video showing the JDM ASTAR in action.



The video does not show correct color on the front LED - it is not that yellow. It is brighter than the original lamp but still correct amber color.

 

So you swapped the flasher and it still worked just fine with the LEDs without using resistors? Where is the flasher relay located? Seems like a really easy fix for hyper blinking.

 

That's what I did. And yes it works fine. The only thing, being electronic, is when the flasher completes its "cycle" afterwards as well as when it begins when activated again, is there's a slight "delay". Hard to explain. So if you activate your signals, then it clicks off after you complete your turn or whatever, if it stops in the middle of a flash it will continue when reactivated. So if its about to flash in that split second when deactivated, it will flash immediately when reactivated and then resume it's normal cycle.


Edit: look at it like a "pause mode" when it's deactivated.

Edit2: And iirc, it's behind the dash, above the interior fuse box. You have to put your hand up there and feel it clicking with your signals on. That's easiest way to locate it. Or snake your head in underneath and you might be able to see it. But it pulls out towards the firewall iirc, from the fuse box. Retarded ass place I know. Pop it out, push new one in. Done. No resistor bs.

 

Edited @thunderone ^^^

 

Yes, I did not fake the video . The whole idea to have 5W LED bulbs instead of 25W incandescent bulbs was to reduce current running through the car's wires. It is not about conserving energy but reduce the risk of some bad contact overheating and setting this 20 years old truck on fire.

I just measured the resistance of cold 21W bulb; it is 0.4ohm. It means at the startup each bulb would take 30A so 4 bulbs would take 120A of course it is just a split of second but it is not healthy.

Using LED bulb and 6ohm resistor would eliminate the "startup" problem, but still it will run 8A through some wires. I don't like the idea. It should be excommunicated.

In my truck (95.5 4x4 base model Ex cab) it is on the top of fuse box (under the dash driver side). I'm sure the design of the fuse box changed in years even in first gen line so it may be oriented differently in your truck. I saw some fuse boxes where the flasher is pointing to the front of the car.

It is easy to take the lower left dash trim panel (where the hood release is attached) - just few bolts (10mm socket) and one self tapping screw (Phillips type) on the left top corner. The entire fuse box will be exposed. In my truck the flasher was on the top of it pointing up. I needed to yank it up (was kind of tight). In other fuse boxes it might be pointing to the front of the car.

The easiest way is to remove the fuse box - two bolts 10mm socket and without unplugging any wires turn it around to see the flasher. Fuse box is held in place by one bolt at the bottom, the other one on the left top corner, kind of hidden but easy to get with 10mm socket and 5in extension.

Now regarding the flasher action and complains about being "electronic flasher". Original Toyota flasher is also "electronic" type. maybe different design or using different chip but now in 21st century the termo-mechanical flasher is a history

Regarding modifying my original Toyota flasher I see two possibilities:

1. Disconnect pin 7 of UAA1041 - maybe the chip has some pull-down resistor and will act as there is enough voltage to not hyper-flash. The short circuit protection is already disabled so it will no kick-off it the voltage on the pin 7 is to high. This is undocumented solution and may not work. It worked on flasher 81980-AC030 which is based in similar chip U643B.

2. If the solution 1 does not work then disconnect pin 7 from RS and add a pull-down resistor (between pin 7 and pin 1). It should be at least 10k-ohm (or probably more) as it only needs to set the reference voltage in the internal comparator input pin.

This way you will save 13 bucks and have the original high quality Toyota flasher in the truck, not some "aftermarket junk"

I'm still gonna try to modify my Toyota flasher and then report it back.

 

Finally I forced the stock flasher to cooperate. First of all option 1 and option 2 did not work. When I cut the trace to disconnect pin 7 the flasher went into super-hyper-flashing. Connecting pin 6 to ground via pull down resistor did not change the flashing speed. Man, I tell you that UAA1041 is stubborn SOB. It can not be easy tricked from dead bulb detection.

Finally after many experiments I found the setup when the flasher speed is normal when loaded with 2A bulb. The solution kind of makes sense and I can imagine how UAA1041 is designed. So in order to not hyper-flash the circuit has to have a little bit over 85mV between pin 2 and pin 7 when bulb is On. Like in the original design. And in order to not super-hyper-flash that voltage has to be less than 85mV when bulb is Off. Like in original design.

In order to achieve that without changing the sense resistor two resistor have to be added (after cutting connection between pin 7 and sense resistor). I don't know all possible combinations and values, but this is what worked for me: 570ohm between sense resistor and pin 7 (where I cut the trace), 100kOhm between pin 7 and pin 1 (pull down resistor). At 12V when the bulb is On, the voltage between pin 7 and 2 is equal to voltage on sense resistor plus about 67mV, which will not hyper-flash if the voltage on 30mOhm sense resistor is greater than 20mV (current from bulb has to be no less than about 0.75A). If the bulb is Off than the voltage between pin 7 and 2 is 67mV.

Increasing the value of "pull down" resistor (100kOhm) will cause to hyper-flash at higher current going through sense resistor. Lowering the resistance of the "pull down" resistor will lower the minimum current causing hyper-flashing, but at about 80kOhm the flasher will go into super-hyper-flash mode as the voltage between pin 2 and 7 will be higher than 85V when the bulb is OFF (at 12V from the battery).

Please be aware that this circuit will be sensitive to the car battery voltage and at 14.4V with my resistor values (570 ohm and 100kOhm) the unit may go into super-hyper-flashing mode (the voltage between pin 2 and 7 will be 82mV when the bulb is Off). This can be fixed by adding a voltage regulator to the circuit but it would complicate it even more.

So, the bottom line is: it is possible to "fix" my Toyota flasher to work with LED, but why bother. It is a hell complicated and after all soldering work may not be reliable any more, at least not as much as aftermarket EP35. Just for 13 dollars save yourself from a headache and forget about Toyota flasher modification.

 

Just "for shits and giggles" and to put my money where my mouth is I modified my original flasher to work with lower current load. I went for simple solution with two resistors added (no voltage regulator), and it happily blinks with 10W bulb.

Here are the guts of modified flasher:

1. Trace cut between sense resistor and pin 7



2. Pull-down resistor 100kOhm between pin 1 and pin 7




3. Voltage divider resistor 560 ohm added between sense resistor and pin 7



Another view of the connection point for this resistor



I will keep this flasher as my spare in case EP35 fails.