I want to swap all the light bulbs in the rear of my VS including the license plate lights. What are the numbers? I’ve read 1156s and 1157s (I’m guessing for the tailights). What’s the number for the license plate lights? Thank you in advance!
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I am doing such a conversion for my liscence plate light myself, let me know what you find.
RE LED's BTW Gratie Luis.
I have found that the issue sometimes is not whether a
BA15s = BA 15 mm Single filament which relates as far as I know to the bronze base mostly,
but what the size of the glass attached to it in size and shape and this remains to be known.
Same bases can have multiple glass size and also the way the light reflect when you choose an LED bulb is important as is the waterproof requirements. MOST LED shine Straight, directly from it.
There are many different LED chips and quality varies, and it is a wild west as to the true lumen output of LED bulbs. Just saying.
Ray, we had all that mechanical spec data for every light bulb (incandescent and LED) in the known universe when I was working. This is the closest I could find in a short search and it might help you. I searched on "automotive incandescent bulb dimension specs" (sorry that it's fuzzy-looking):
http://www.autolumination.com/...inder_T10_wedge.html
Also, I found a site in Oz that has license plate lights that might help for bulb type designation in the Great Green North:
Thanks Gordon I will look at them. It might take a month to get here 
...
My experience with LED bulbs has been mixed, which means my car has a mix of LED and incandescent bulbs ;-) I call it trial and error science.
- even after finding led bulbs which both fit in the connectors and under the lenses ( I have bee-hive lights in the rear), that fire light at 360deg, and with high lumen ratings.... some oincandescent bulbs are still more visible than many retrofit LED bulbs under specific driving conditions.
For my particular use (mostly daylight, with direct sunlight hitting the lights) ;
- For my brakes and Rear blinker lightsifound incandescent 23w lights ( small globe— motorcycle bulbs Allan recommended years ago) to shine brighter (easier to see) than the highest compatible LED Red bulbs when under direct sunlight... can’t explain why.... they are just brighter/ easier to see in my experience and the small globe keep my lenses from melting when using the high23w bulbs.
- The third brake light under the grill is LED- direct sunlight does not hit it, and it appears to shine brighter than incandescent bulbs.
-License plate, front parking and front blinkers are LED ( soft while color- looks like incandescent light)... which does shine brighter/ are easier to see than their incandescent counterparts.
- I followed my wife driving the speedster for a weekend while experimenting with different bulbs installed in the left/ right sides for comparison. This was the trial and error experiment - science bit of my conclusion process.
- headlights are LED.
- gauges are a mix of LED and incandescent... color looks identical, but I found that in the winter the heat generated by the one incandescent bulb I keep in each gauge keeps the gauges from capturing condensation- when driving Early mornings- in the rain- with the hard top on. ( when the heat in the car and the cold outside do create some condensation in the glass surfaces inside the car). With LED bulbs only my gauges would fog up... with one incandescent bulb in the mix they do not. The power of heat generated by one bulb in a confined space inside the gauge ;-)
Everything with these cars is a madness..? that’s the fun of it!
For your Beehives, Culayered makes custom LED for beehives and @Bob: IM S6 has them, maybe he could comment.
I have their teardrop versions, it is an Array of LED's and the circuit is made to run differently daytime and nightime for increased visibility. As far as I know those are the best available lighting but of course does they do not fit the kiss Guapo method, find it at any autoparts store.
Actually I am not using LED but I want halogen. Sylvania has a line called Silverstar and I wanted to get those bulbs in that line. I took off some of the bulbs from my car; the small ones for reverse and license plate lights say “97” on them. Another (the single filament) says 1103 LL 2609 (probably for Long Life) and the double filament says 12VP 18/6W.
Halogen is a high heat producing bulb and can also melt your lenses so I would discourage you from using those IMO.
Now in a headlight and H4 is halogen and depending on the bucket you have and the wiring you can go to 100W on high beams and get a nice lumen output as nice as an LED IMO. They are very inexpensive from China.
At one time the Culayer teardrop taillight system didn't work most of our replicas because our taillights were wired differently than "real" 356s.
Is that still the case?
@IaM-Ray posted:Halogen is a high heat producing bulb and can also melt your lenses so I would discourage you from using those IMO.
Now in a headlight and H4 is halogen and depending on the bucket you have and the wiring you can go to 100W on high beams and get a nice lumen output as nice as an LED IMO. They are very inexpensive from China.
Take that back; they’re not halogen. They are white light and brighter.
@Michael McKelvey posted:At one time the Culayer teardrop taillight system didn't work most of our replicas because our taillights were wired differently than "real" 356s.
Is that still the case?
You can call Jim up and he will give you one with the connections you need or even simple pig tails properly identified.
I found this in a 10-year-old thread:
There are two issues to consider with most of our cars... Most of the reproduction taillight housings on the market today are made in Taiwan. While they certainly look just like the originals, they are not on the inside mechanically the same as the Porsche OEM taillights or the German-made reproductions. They have to be modified to remove a divider between the bulbs that is in a different position than original, and then a ground wire soldered to the circuit board of the new LEDs... on the Porsche original taillights, the board grounds to the divider between the bulbs.
Also on the Porsche system, the brake light is toggled on and off for the turn signal function (single filament bulb). Our cars have dual-filament bulbs, one acts as the brake light and the other used for the turn signal or running light. To use the new LED units, you have to wire in a 3-2 wire adapter like you would use for a trailer.
@Michael McKelvey if you know what your existing wiring it should not be an issue to do the mods, we communicated with Jim and I had the lights shipped to IM and my circuit boards came with pigtails so that IM could fit them.
I am unsure if the divider had to be moved but I believe the circuit board LED lights came with their own ground as well wired into the circult so it was pretty much a simple match the wire setup without having to solder them to the circuilt boards.
If there is some form of adapter or mod needed I am unaware of it but I would think a work around should be able to be done. I had to use some diodes on my flash to pass unit to make my single idiot light, directional flasher on my guage , work with the unit to show me that the signal lights were working so I think jim should be able to help anyone wanting his lights.
In any case I would not go back to regular or pop in LED's for sure.
I mean he has 356 leds in the lights.... actually only 72
http://culayer.com/product/model-356/
Here is a quote from the site:
Michael I seems you are correct I checked with Jim and he says some states require a replica to have the exact same wiring as the original car it reproduces and some replicas will not function with his lights if you must keep that wiring... I still do not know all the details at this point nor can understand why one would not take advantage of a better design. Go figure.
"What makes the Model 356 LED Taillights so effective is that we use seventy-two high-brightness LEDs in each set."
Reminds me of the big ceiling light I installed in our hallway. Must have 50 LEDs in it. Turn that sucker on and it lights up this entire end of town - I think airplanes use the glow as a beacon towards Worcester airport at night. I had to put a dimmer on it just to prevent "flash shock" when we turn it on.
Turns out that I could use dual filament 1157s and single filament 1156s on the tailights. I couldn’t find the miniature 97 bulbs for the license plate and backup lights on the Silverstar line because they don’t make them. I tried to optimize the license plate lighting by painting the inside if the housing with “chrome” paint. Still not sure if it made a lot of difference but we tried.
I am not really concerned if they see my get away liscence plate
@IaM-Ray posted:I am not really concerned if they see my get away liscence plate
🤣😂
@Impala posted:Turns out that I could use dual filament 1157s and single filament 1156s on the tailights. I couldn’t find the miniature 97 bulbs for the license plate and backup lights on the Silverstar line because they don’t make them. I tried to optimize the license plate lighting by painting the inside if the housing with “chrome” paint. Still not sure if it made a lot of difference but we tried.
Back before Silverstars were widely available in the states, I used to order them from PowerBulbsUK. John is great to deal with and he often has specials like "Order a pair of H4 bulds and get two 5w festoons free." Now that carry they them in most auto parts stores, I haven't ordered from him, but I bet he would have those bulbs. He also shopped free via Royal Mail and I used to get my bulbs in about a week.
ETA: I looked and didn't find Silvestars. I did find this, though.
https://www.amazon.com/SYLVANI...-Bulbs/dp/B000G7ALD8
You might try emailing John, though. I'd bet he has them (Silvestars)
Thanks a lot! If you look closely those come in a blue packet but they’re not from the Silverstar line, they’re the conventional ones. I do have the Sylvania Long Life versions installed (they come in a red packet).
