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MG MGA - Brighter Stop/Tail lamps....

A friend sent me a pair of the new Sylvania Silver Star 1157A dual filament tail/stop lamp bulbs and I thought I would share with you my reaction to them since I have touted the virtues of the Halogen bulbs Jeff Zorn sells from his LBCarCo site for many years on this BBS. They may have not been perfect, but they were certainly brighter than anything else out there.

"Perhaps the one thing that I find best about them is that the difference between the "tail lamp" brightness and the "Stop lamp" brightness is pretty great, making the act of braking much more easily grasped by whoever is behind you than with the halogens I have been using. The halogens that Jeff Zorn sells ... have a stop lamp filament which is only somewhat brighter than the running lamp and that has been an arguing point for many years with folks who have chosen not to switch to the halogens. I never "seemed" to have any difficulty having my halogens seen, but I can tell just by looking at these Silver Star units that there is (in contrast) a VERY obvious difference between the two filaments. Seems like Sylvania did their homework."

I wanted to share this because I think that it is important for us to be seen and for our intentions to be seen, since we sit so low and are small targets for the careless. These bulbs seem to be available at most of the usual auto parts houses like Autozone and Checker/Schucks/Kragen and are about $20 for a set of two. Certainly not too expensive to try and you might like them better than the OE types or even the halogens we have had for years. FWIW.
Bob Muenchausen

I have been toying with the idea of making up a new system using Hi-intensity LEDs, mounted on a circuit board that would fit inside the existing rear light units. It should be a fairly simple piece of work.

Has anyone else tried this or thought about it?

In sunlight, it's almost impossible to see the rear lights are working at all, even though the lenses were replaced a few years ago because the old ones had become so dark.

dominic clancy

Bob - How is the current draw of these Silver Star 1157s as compared to the original 1157s? and how do they affect the turn signal flasher? The added light output is always welcome, but if they pull a large amount of current, they will have a detrimental effect on the standard flasher rate. Cheers, Dave
David DuBois

David,
I will post some photos of actual use on my website sometime soon, and in the meantime, I would guess that you might be able to find some of the tech info you are looking for by emailing Sylvania at this site, http://www.sylvania.com/ContactUs/ At this point, all seems to work as it used to with the halogen lamps in place, but that is just the empirical side of the answer.
Bob Muenchausen

Thanks for the tip Bob. Being Rear ended is my greatest fear in the 1500 MGA. People seem to love to tailgate especially in the huge honking pickups and SUVs. Tey drive me crazy. The original 1157 bulbs are marginal, especially in bright sunlight. I bought some of the halogens and didn't like them for the reason you stated above. They are back in the bags. I ended up using 2057s which are a higher wattage. I will definitely look into the 1157A bulbs.

Ralph
Ralph

Bob, just to confirm, are these drop-in replacements for the standard MGA bulb? No modifications needed?

M.D.
'57 Coupe
M. D.

Bob

I had answered your post on the C board and am adding my response here also.

Just did a Google search on "Sylvania Silver Star 1157A" and what I find is that they state "clean styling of clear lens signal designs and produces 100% street legal amber light when lit". Can you check the part number?

Do you know what the wattage rating is for each of the filaments? I recently put halogens from LBCarCo into my E Type and as I remember the ratings were 15/35.

Larry
Larry Hallanger

Bob--
I looked at some on my way home this evening. The bulb is made for clear lenses, so how does the amber bulb work with red lenses? I would have assumed it wouldn't be as bright through 2 color filters. Does the light still look red?
I don't mean to sound picky, they sound like a great improvement--I'm just curious about that part.
John V.
John Vallely

I made up a 'centre high mount stop lamp' (CHMSL) using 20 high intensity LEDs. Mounted on tonneau panel just inside rear window on a magnetic base. It connects to stop/turn lamps through an AND gate so it only works when both lamps are energised (braking).
Unfortunately, the LED array wasn't bright enough so I've replaced it with an incandescent unit I bought several years ago which was intended for CHMSL upgrades. There must be higher intensity LEDs out there than what I used.
That's my solution to the dodos in the SUVs who might try to run over me.
Does anyone know if the high intensity 1157s described above get hot enough to damage the plastic tail lamp lenses?
Fraser Cooper

Fraser

I am running the halogen 1157 replacements from LBCarCo with no heat problems. Wattage rating is 15/35. So long as the max wattage on the new 1157s is no more than 35 everything should be OK.

Just did a search on the Sylvania web site and it appears that they are 7/27 watts.

HTH

Larry
58A
Larry Hallanger

I have the LBC rear 1157 bulbs. When my foot is on the brake pedal, my (usually accurate) ammeter drops over 10 AMPS. No other bulb or accessory -- except maybe head lights (total 9 bulbs including parking, halogen dash lights and two Sylvania SilverStar headlamps) -- draw as much power.

Note that I have a generator, not alternator, so that may make a difference, but still...those two little bulbs draw a lot of power.
Jim Paul

Been away for awhile.

There are, I have been told, two of these Silver star units available, 1157 and 1157A. The "A" units are simply amber tinted and intended for from signal/running lamps. Here in Boise, I have not been able to find the clear 1157 units, and so used the amber ones, just to see what the relative brightness must be. A red tail/stop lense basically passes only the red end of the spectrum anyway, so using the amber lamps will pass all the red in the light produced, altho it probably blocks the yellow and any blue component. The tail/stop lamps do look quite red with these, so I guess the amber color has less to do with its output as seen by the guy behind you than does whatever Sylvania's engineers have used to cook the performance of the filaments.

These Silver Star lamps appear to be brighter than the LBC halogens in both the tail and the stop lamp modes when seen and when photographed. I will try to post the photos taken on my website under MISC MG stuff.

As for heat considerations, I found the Silver Stars to be cooler than the halogens, but neither seems to have any effect on the plastics our lamp lenses are made from. Consider the small spaces, poor cooling of all lamp housings, and then think about how small they are on an MGA. Yet in the several years I used LBC halogens in my 56 MGA, I never had any of the plastic lenses melt or otherwise show any signs of discoloration or disfigurement from using them, altho they did eventually discolor themselves, a normal trait of halogens.
Bob Muenchausen

Here is a link to the photos: http://www.s95408591.onlinehome.us/33601.html
Bob Muenchausen

Bob

Thanks for the photos. Definitely shows Silver Star as brighter than the halogens. The question that it does not answer is the one about the relative difference in brightness between "stop" and "tail" conditions. The pictures appear to show a greater difference with the halogen but I don't trust the conclusion since your exposure time was probably governed by the brightness of the lamps. What is your observation on this?

Thanks

Larry
Larry Hallanger

Larry,
I will reshoot the photos at fixed everything and then we will see what it is like. I used a fixed shutter speed and a film speed of ISO 100, but will reshoot with all parameters fixed so as to satisfy all similar inquiries as yours (and I have had a few!). I am thinking I may reshoot film with my old Minolta SRT 101 instead. Nothing is auto on it, and so, the possibility of any auto correction is obviated.

If you look at the two shots I did post, you may notice that the exposure of the plates in between did change, but only very slightly. However the plates are reflective and the scattered light from the tail/stop lamps does spill over to the plate area, so the question remains for some as to whether the exposure was correct to give a true reading or not. I believe it was, but when I do reshoot, I will cover the plate with a flat black cloth, as well as the bumper and the 3rd stop lamp.





Bob Muenchausen

Moss sells a magnetic "third" brake light. It is a Hella rear (red lense, chrome housing) fog lamp converted to a magnetic base. It is easy to hook up to the rear wiring harness and is removable. Works best mounted right behind the driver so as not to be in the middle of the rear view mirror. End of problem, and in the line of sight of the SUV mobile phone talking drivers of the kid transportation tanks.

Ted
Ted

Has anyone tried these?

http://www.ledtronics.com/ds/aut1157/

(neg ground only)
Jim

I found it interesting that the lamps shown in the photos at LEDRTONICS now have LEDs aimed out from the periphery of the housing as well as directly towards the viewer. Quite different from the units I bought when they first came out some years ago which had only LEDs aimed directly at the viewer.

I think this is an attempt to take into consideration that in a reflector housing, the lamp NEEDS to broadcast its light in as close to all directions as possible, simply because the original resistance filament lamps did so and most lighting systems are set up for that sort of light dispersion from the bulb. Not having that extra light broadcast in all directions fails to take advantage of the reflector system, which is used to enhance and make full use of all lumens put out by any given type of lamp to the viewer. It is little wonder then that the early LED lamps I tried were quite disappointing.

It would be interesting for someone who is using these LEDTRONICS LED lamps to take a couple of photos comparing them with the resistance filament lamps we mostly use, halogen or not. It would certainly be of interest to a great many enthusiasts. I will be looking forward to what their photos have to show.
Bob Muenchausen

This thread was discussed between 03/06/2005 and 20/06/2005

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