Rear licence plate lights - Halogen or LED?

[Robocop2310]

Hey guys,

So I was cleaning my R34 GTR the other day and thought I'd do a check on all the lights and discovered that the rear registration light had one blown bulb. I think they're stock halogen ones and I've never bothered to check them as I rarely drive this at night. So replacing them is a must but this begs the question should I leave them stockish halogen yellow or upgrade to LED bright white?

I front lights are LED globes so are relatively brighter white (not a fan of HIDs) so rear LEDs would suit but I've seen a few cars with them on and it looks like a midnight disco ball which attracts a lot of attention and looks a bit flashy then again the stock lights on cars like the Mercs have LEDs on the rear but they look nice and more tame. 

What do you guys think and what have you done on yours? Photos would be great.

Cheers,

Alex

 

 

Edited October 19, 2018 by Robocop2310

[GTSBoy]

Not halogen.  Just normal automotive incandescents.  Halogen bulbs are in headlights.

Old cars like ours should not have LED lights anywhere on the outside.  Looks cheap and nasty and wrong.  Warm white auto bulbs for parkers, number plates etc.  LEDs are good for brake lights if you can get ones that illuminate the housing properly (which is rare).  LEDs for indicators need careful selection to make sure that they have suitable resistance to flash at the proper rate.  All in all, not worth the pain in the arse to try.  Globes work fine.

[Robocop2310]

3 hours ago, GTSBoy said:

Not halogen.  Just normal automotive incandescents.  Halogen bulbs are in headlights.

Old cars like ours should not have LED lights anywhere on the outside.  Looks cheap and nasty and wrong.  Warm white auto bulbs for parkers, number plates etc.  LEDs are good for brake lights if you can get ones that illuminate the housing properly (which is rare).  LEDs for indicators need careful selection to make sure that they have suitable resistance to flash at the proper rate.  All in all, not worth the pain in the arse to try.  Globes work fine.

Awesome honest opinion mate thanks.

So just regular T1 whiter globes or just keep them the same do you think?

Which gloves do you have?

Cheers!

[GTSBoy]

I have just normal T1s in the front and regular globes in the rear.

[Robocop2310]

6 hours ago, GTSBoy said:

I have just normal T1s in the front and regular globes in the rear.

Thanks mate. I think I'll just replace the blown regular globe with the exact same one and leave it at that. 

I went out to dinner this evening and saw a VW Golf GTI with LED rear licence plate lights and they looked awful. 

[niZmO_Man]

On 10/20/2018 at 10:26 AM, GTSBoy said:

Not halogen.  Just normal automotive incandescents.  Halogen bulbs are in headlights.

Old cars like ours should not have LED lights anywhere on the outside.  Looks cheap and nasty and wrong.  Warm white auto bulbs for parkers, number plates etc.  LEDs are good for brake lights if you can get ones that illuminate the housing properly (which is rare).  LEDs for indicators need careful selection to make sure that they have suitable resistance to flash at the proper rate.  All in all, not worth the pain in the arse to try.  Globes work fine.

Excuse you sir, Philips 4000K LEDs look just fine on my R32, although I do have HID projectors with OE Philips D2S bulbs.

Although they are quite expensive (~$25 a pair for T10) so not worth it unless they're on sale.

The issue of firing pattern has been brought up, so better to stick to standard incandescent bulbs. I only have the parkers and interior lights in LED.

[Robocop2310]

On 10/22/2018 at 10:52 AM, niZmO_Man said:

Excuse you sir, Philips 4000K LEDs look just fine on my R32, although I do have HID projectors with OE Philips D2S bulbs.

Although they are quite expensive (~$25 a pair for T10) so not worth it unless they're on sale.

The issue of firing pattern has been brought up, so better to stick to standard incandescent bulbs. I only have the parkers and interior lights in LED.

Thanks mate totally agree.

So I went off to Supercheap and bought a pair of Philips T1 bulbs that are non LED but is a little brighter calked Diamond vision or something. Fitted them on and made the GTR’s rear light up line a Xmas tree. I went back to the stock yellow globes that I had laying around and it looked much better in my opinion.

Just shows just because something is popular or newer doesn’t mean it will suit everyone’s taste. Personally, I hate yellow as front and parker lights but they definitely suit the rear licence plate area.

 

[niZmO_Man]

Which is why I like the Philips 'vision' T10, they aren't brighter than incandescent and have a good spread pattern (essentially emulating the incandescent). Essentially look like LEDs out of a 2005-ish Lexus.

[Robocop2310]

4 hours ago, niZmO_Man said:

Which is why I like the Philips 'vision' T10, they aren't brighter than incandescent and have a good spread pattern (essentially emulating the incandescent). Essentially look like LEDs out of a 2005-ish Lexus.

Totally agree. 

Good lesson learned from this exercise.