Has anyone tried using the LED bulbs for the exterior lighting like brake lights, blinkers, etc? I once tried some on my 2000 Cadillac Catera and they really messed up my electrical system. Just wondering if they would do the same to my 1986 Fiero GT. Thank you!
The stock flasher unit will get unhappy if you use LED lights in the turn signals. But you can fix that with an electronic flasher unit, made for LED bulbs. Also, the front side marker bulbs use a floating ground. If you put LEDs in there, the side marker lights will act funny. IIRC there's a work-around using a rectifier diode.
Edit to add: This stuff has been covered many times, over the years. A forum search should turn up a bunch of info.
[This message has been edited by Blacktree (edited 11-23-2021).]
I use switchback LEDs in bases with clear lenses in my front turn signals to meet Australian Design Rules for vehicles (white running lights and yellow turn signals). To get them to work with the standard bi-metallic flasher I had to wire a 5-watt ballast resister into each circuit to increase the resistance to the point where the flasher would operate the turn signals. Without the resistor, the flasher didn't sense enough resistance and acted like I had blown tail light bulbs. If you are replace all of the signal bulbs with LEDs, you'll probably need an electronic flasher.
All of my Meras have been converted to LED tail and stop lights in the rear. Remember to change both flasher units to LED capable ones for the best result.
I've converted all my exterior light to LEDs with the exception on the third brake light. I had a few connection related issues until I changed out the bulb sockets and of course installed the 3 wire LED flashers.
I’ve heard some people are using something called a blinker genie to control them
Don't waste your money on the blinker genie. It is used to make a single function led (like a brake light) into a two function light (turn and brake). Just use the correct quality bulb in clean or swapped out sockets with the 3 wire flashers. Some bulbs (lower quality) are polarity sensitive. If you go cheap on some 1156 / 194 etc and they don't work just reverse the bulb in the socket. Some people (myself included) use the same color bulb as the lense. (It's alledged that it helps the light show up better). Of course if you have a clear lense any color bulb will work. I have clear running , turn signal lenses on my 308 kit front bumper and use yellow bulbs.
Don't waste your money on the blinker genie. It is used to make a single function led (like a brake light) into a two function light (turn and brake). Just use the correct quality bulb in clean or swapped out sockets with the 3 wire flashers. Some bulbs (lower quality) are polarity sensitive. If you go cheap on some 1156 / 194 etc and they don't work just reverse the bulb in the socket. Some people (myself included) use the same color bulb as the lense. (It's alledged that it helps the light show up better). Of course if you have a clear lense any color bulb will work. I have clear running , turn signal lenses on my 308 kit front bumper and use yellow bulbs.
I bought some LEDs from superbrightled.com. For my firebird taillights…1157. They are slightly brighter and blink a bit faster….also used a electronic flasher …no issues. I do think I might leave two old and one new led as it draws more attention to it as it’s kinda sequential..
The stock flasher unit will get unhappy if you use LED lights in the turn signals. But you can fix that with an electronic flasher unit, made for LED bulbs. Also, the front side marker bulbs use a floating ground. If you put LEDs in there, the side marker lights will act funny. IIRC there's a work-around using a rectifier diode.
Edit to add: This stuff has been covered many times, over the years. A forum search should turn up a bunch of info.
Thanks for all the info! I did check the forum before but all I found was about LED bulbs in the instrument cluster. I think I will just stay with stock for now. Thanks everyone for your input.
The only thing stopping you from converting to LED would be the flasher modules. Replace them both with LED ready flashers and it's that simple. Yes there are two of them in the fiero, one for turn signals and one for four way.
