Hi Guys,

 

Just wondering if anyone has put LED brake lights on their Octavia (2015 Estate)?

 

I have noticed that the car uses W5W and P21W bulbs and uses the same P21W to be both tail light and the brake light, i would assume through voltage regulation, now in my mind a LED bulb from ali express may not handle this very well can anyone shed some light :P on this for me?

 

thinking of using https://www.aliexpress.com/item/iJDM-Car-T10-Canbus-Error-free-W5W-168-194-Car-motorcycle-LED-Reading-Mirror-License-Plate/32868797837.html?spm=a2g0s.13010208.99999999.272.1ee43c00MsG6n7 for W5W

and https://www.aliexpress.com/item/NAO-2x-1156-LED-BA15S-P21W-S25-18-led-3030-Chips-6000K-White-Brake-Lights-Reverse/32810391568.html?spm=a2g0s.13010208.99999999.260.1ee43c00MsG6n7 for P21W

 

Cheers,

Josh

Looking at doing this in the next month or so on mine. One thing to note is to get red LED replacements behind the red lens. The colour will not be right with white LED's. 

 

 

The W5W are just tail lights iirc. The top bulb is a tail/brake bulb, and the bottom is the tail/fog. 

 

On my car also, the top bulb (tail/brake) is fed by two wires, with the bottom (tail/fog) being fed by 3 wires. 

 

I can attach photos if required. Not sure if you've taken your bulb units out yet. :). 

You'd be far better off retrofitting the factory LED rear units than fitting LED bulbs for brake and tails into the halogen units.

Hey J_D,

 

Yeah I had them out to do the reverse / fog's  which was a big improvement of both brightness and colour, do you have any thought about the top and bottom P21W's and being LED? I noticed when I was testing the reverse/ parking lights (ignition on, engine off, car in reverse, handbrake on) that both the top and bottom P21Ws were illuminated, just dimly. I’m sure there’s an engineering advantage to this over using the lamps with dual filaments with different current ratings but I’m not sure the LED P21W's are going to deal with whatever the car is doing to reduce the brightness.

 

Good point on the light colour, I had already decided on red LED's as I’m after that deeper red colour that can be achieved, I would imagine if you fit white LED’s behind red lenses you would end up with pink lights.

 

I can take a punt, worst case scenario £30 wasted.

 

 

 

Yes ahenners, I know, the only units I have seen seem pretty pricy for the sake of an aesthetic improvement I’m just trying to keep the price down, £30-£45 for all the lights in the rear clusters to LED vs £300+ for 2 LED complete units.

 

Thanks for your reply’s,

A few people have tried LED's over on the MkII Superb forum (similar set-up to the Octavia), and they didn't look great.

 

The standard non-LED set-up is designed to utilise the reflectors built into the clusters to achieve the uniform 'C' shape to the rear night lights.

 

Using LED W5W and P21W's results in different light intensities at various points around the 'C' shape, making it look like the brake and/or fog lights were on when they weren't.

A combined Stop/Tail light bulb has 2 filaments in it 21w/5w respectively and there are 2 contacts in the base and the bayonet prevents incorrect insertion. Earth connection is through the metal bayonet.

The Car doesn’t vary any voltage.