| IMO, stock backup lights suck, and I really wanted to see better when backing into my driveway. I've used LEDs successfully in other places on my Z, so I looked around for a few LED replacement bulbs for the stock 1156 bulbs. Finally I decided I just had to try them out for myself. I bought 2 different LED "bulbs", one Xenon bulb, and made one attempt at a custom solution using "LED driving lights". The only options I didn't consider were HIDs and having a totally external set of lights mounted below the valence or some goofy thing like that. (Maybe on my Land Cruiser, but not the Z.) One issue I have with the Z's reverse lights is that there are 2 lenses per side but only one bulb. The view the bulb "sees" from inside the housing is this:
 So any LED bulb that is directional is going to have issues with the design of the Z's reverse light housing. Nevertheless, here are my experiences in case you're thinking of trying LEDs for reverse lights. 24-LED bulb (alongside stock bulb, and head-on):
 5W LED (from autolumination.com):
 Xenon bulb (also from autolumination.com):
 I also modified the following so-called "LED driving lights" so that the two 6-LED strips were mounted inside one reverse light housing. I removed the circuit board with white LEDs from the plastic housing and mounted them horizontally inside a spare reverse light housing from an old center panel.
 The following pics have the LED driving lights on the right and the variations on the left. First the stock 1156 bulb:
 Next the 24-LED bulb:
 Next the 5W LED bulb:
 And finally the 50W Xenon bulb:
 From these pics, it's hard to beat the stock bulb which is unfortunate as I was really hoping to crank up the intensity of my reverse lights and it doesn't seem like there is anything out there that will do it. Even my attempt to adapt the "LED driving lights" really didn't bear much fruit. Further, the Xenon bulb at $4 out-performs any $20 LED bulb combo I can find, and I'll probably buy another Xenon bulb and be done with it. I didn't notice that the Xenon got incredibly hot or anything so I'm not too concerned about it melting the housing or lens or anything no longer than my reverse lights are on. There may be other "tower" LED arrangements which mimic the diffusion of a stock or Xenon bulb, but I'm not sure the expense of those designs warrants the basic lack of intensity.
 |
My experience with LED reverse (backup) lights. - 
