LED bulbs (P21W) in rear

[tester]

Instead of forking out circa 400 pounds for the official replacement LED rear lights. A more cost effective alternative would be to replace the standard rear bulbs (P21W) with LED equivalents. Has anyone tried this?

[avant_adam]

Can't see any benefit in doing this. The Audi LED tail-lights look snazzy and improve / change the appearance of the car. Changing to LED bulbs in the regular housing will only illuminate 0.1sec faster. They'll look just the same as normal bulbs once lit.

Personally (and I have the basic tail lights too) I wouldn't bother. I considered buying the LED tail lamps but can'it really see the point in that either.

Save your pennies for something that will make a difference (Quattro badges...!)

[Zafi]

I use them on bikes because they cope with the vibration far better that filament bulbs.

But on a car I cant see the point, may also cause havoc with the canbus current monitoring circuitry as LEDs dont take as much power as the vehicle will be expecting.

[SC03OTT]

I tried them in my last car, but found that during bright days you couldn't really see the brake lights. They showed up as little red dots and didn't really have the glow that a regular filament bulb does. My advice would be to either get a full LED cluster or just leave the bulbs as they are now.

Here is a picture in fact. Ok it's a different car and style of light cluster, but it gives you an idea of how they might look.

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg147/vavavoom_404/LED-2.jpg

[ScottyUK]

I use them on bikes because they cope with the vibration far better that filament bulbs.

But on a car I cant see the point, may also cause havoc with the canbus current monitoring circuitry as LEDs dont take as much power as the vehicle will be expecting.

Bikes : have them on mine too and my only concern is that they seem brighter so people may think they're brake lights....until I brake and then they're really bright. :D I fitted them as my topbox bracket and the alarm makes changing them a real pain.

Canbus comment : 100% agree. I wish they could do LED indictors that worked with the canbus alert etc. I know you can stick in resistors etc but it's fiddly and I don't want to splice into the harness.