Gy6.35 HIR 921 reverse light upgrade (vs high power LEDs)

You seem to be missing the point. It’s great you like your LEDs, it’s your truck run what you like. The Gy6.35 halogen IRs that this thread is about are 3x brighter, your backup camera video actually makes it readily clear they are no where close to the HIRs. Yet you keep posting about an inferior LED product in this HIR thread, which has nothing to do with this thread. Your posts would be better suited for one of the LED conversion threads.

 

No need to be jealous. LED technology has far exceeded halogen bulbs in heat reduction, light output and efficiency. I'm merely enlightening you to this fact. Have a great day.

 

My 15 year old son is the same way, in that we're just "boomers" that don't know any better. We're better off just dropping the subject.

 

Dude you put a LED bulb in a halogen reflector. Nobody is mad.

 

On a less dramatic note I broke both of my bulbs bending/installing the probe. Like a fellow user said of their selves, "a bull in a China shop" :/

 

You might want to try the alternate method @crashnburn80 suggested in his original post where you bend the contacts in the socket instead. That's what I did and had zero issues.

 

You could try the socket pinching method first next time if you order more. Did you use 2 sets of pliers, to hold the prong from moving at the base of the bulb?

 

Yes I did it kept slipping out like you mentioned. I kept on trying to bend them to prevent it from slipping out, but ended up breaking them. Im going to try and bend the connectors next. Bummer. I tried them on when i got to sit them in the socket and they looked nice.

 

I pinched the sockets and bent the prongs, the bulb holds snug-ish. There's the issue of the filament position not lining up correctly. While a hell of a lot brighter, most of the light output is down towards the ground because of this.

 

You certain you have them pushed in all the way? Below is the 30w HIR vs the stock bulb, while it might not exactly match the stock pattern, I wouldn't say it points a majority of the output at the ground. It does point a lot more output straight back. In this photo my truck is on a slight incline, meaning the bed/tail lights are pointed slightly down.

30w HIR left, stock incandescent right:

 

For whatever reason the left side bulb didnt hold still and started pointing down:

I fixed it by wadding some electrical tape in on both sides,

Much better. The output should be better now too.

 

What vehicle is that? It looks like electrical tape has a service temp upto 221 degrees, the bulb capsule itself will be hotter than that. What you don't want is the tape to smoke and coat the inside of your taillight with a film that would be impossible to clean without taking the lamp apart. If you need tape to secure it, you may look at getting some high temp tape instead.

 

Let's hope he read this before going out for the night.

 

You're right, I may have to use the 921 bulb in the meantime while I find a better strat.

But I'm backing up for 5 seconds usually -- do halogen IR bulbs heat up quickly enough to smoke the tape?

 

The halogen cycle requires very high temperatures within the capsule to operate, starting around 500 degrees F. I don’t have data for how quickly the bulbs comes up to temp or what the temperature will be at the base of the bulb after 5 seconds, but it seems likely it would exceed 220 degrees F. If I had a Flir and a spare bulb on hand it would be an interesting experiment to measure.

 

It's a Mazda Miata btw. 921 reverse bulbs are common in cars, so your post is cited on headlight forums, like hidplanet.com, which is how I got here.

 

Yeah, I'm familiar these threads have been cited/reposted many places and 921s are common in many vehicles. Ironically Amazon now lists a Gy6.35 as an automotive bulb... I was just curious on the specific vehicle.

 

Thanks Crashnburn . Got mine installed today. Ordered 3, broke one, installed... All good ha ha

 

@crashnburn80
Hoping you and or someone can help me out since I must be doing or seeing something wrong. I picked up a couple Osram GY6.35 35W bulbs to do the reverse light upgrade. I don't have the stock reverse lights. I have the AUXITO LED reverse lights (https://www.ebay.com/itm/AUXITO-LED...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649)

I plugged in one of the Osrams and lit up the reverse lights. One Osram and the other AUXITO LED. Visually, the LED seemed much brighter, but I thought LED's throw light all over so maybe I wasn't comparing them equally. I downloaded a basic light meter app to my phone and tried measuring at 10" away, same position, each side. The Osram gave me a reading of roughly 300 lux while the AUXITO gave me roughly 600 lux. I know the app may not be accurate, but it was to compare the values. It seemed like it confirmed that the LED's I already have produce more light for a given distance.

Is my wiring/harness not enough for the Osrams or am I missing something?

 

A few things to consider. Was the truck running? If not you are not running your lights at full voltage, causing ~36% output loss on the halogen without affecting the LED output. That style LED with large external heat sinks is actually very bright, initially. I would expect initial peak lux readings to be a little higher than the HIRs, however that product quickly overheats and looses output. The halogens do not reduce in output with temperature. Some resellers include warnings that those LED bulbs are overdriven and is intended for very short use only. Prolonged use will cause early product failure. With the rear facing LEDs I'd also expect more of a hotspot on the LED output vs the HIRs very uniform illumination. A phone light meter app will definitely not be remotely accurate for a comparison, you need an LED Lux meter (not just the basic incandescent meter). Also you will want to do a visual comparison from standing in the truck bed looking in the same direction the lights are pointing, not looking at the lights themselves. Human eyes are very sensitive to short wavelength light, a halogen produces very little short wavelength light and an automotive LED produces significant amounts short wavelength light. Meaning if you are looking at the light source, the LED is going to register as brighter because your eyes are far more sensitive to the light it is producing, not necessarily because it is brighter.