Looking to go back to regular bulbs for T10 License plate lights on some of my cars (Some have quality bulbs as bright as headlights, others have cheap ones that could fail without me knowing) but I don't like the yellow look with the LEDs everywhere else. Is there any good white looking bulbs that are reliable from a good company that don't have a significantly reduced life span because they are considered high output? I want white, not brighter. Not $20 per 2 bulbs like Osram wants would be really nice too.
Best White Colored Bulb that's not brighter than factory?
- Thread starter Ang
- Start date
Diode dynamics is what you want. Been running a lightbar from them for a few years now, haven’t touched it since install. 194 is the same as T10 basically. These are $10/pair, pick the color you want, and they’ll be about the same brightness as the factory bulbs.
https://www.diodedynamics.com/194-smd2-led-bulbs.html
https://www.diodedynamics.com/194-smd2-led-bulbs.html
I know diode dinamics is supposed to be good, I have a light to install from them soon. But these look identical to my 12 cent eBay generic 194/T10 leds, is there anything proving these are higher quality? It's definitely a rebranded generic and not a product custom by them.
There is not, however DD probably likes their reputation (which is good IMHO) and won't offer junk to jeopardize it. AND they offer a 3 year warranty to back it all up. How many chip-sets in those cheap eBay ones you have? If they're too bright, pop one or more off until it becomes the brightness you want. If they fail, just get more. At .12 cents, you could have dozens of back-ups.
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I have a variety of different generic china designs, some have 2, some have I think 4 or 5 inside of a plastic dome e.t.c.
The reason I wanted to go back to a name brand non led bulb was reliability. If that goes out you are less likely to notice it immediately and risk getting pulled over.
While I have had a generic led in one car for 4 years without issue. I've also had the cheap tail lights go out multiple times in those 4 years. have some Pilot brand leds that I got for like $2, I don't know if they are any better than the no name stuff but it's likely that those leds along with the generic ones are still a bunch brighter than a basic bulb, which I don't want. I want it to be legal, not stand out on the car or give extra visibility from a mile away.
Diode won’t risk their reputation on garbage, hence the warranty you can actually use. I had a pair of PSX24W (what a dumb, absolutely useless bulb) leds in my fog lights on my Durango for almost 5 years before I sold it. Never once had a problem, even getting blasted by road grime and water.
Also being in manufacturing, it’s very very easy to copy a product. Making it correctly however is a whole ‘nother story.
Look into Philips W5W LEDs. They're not brighter but have a clean pure white color temperature, so they're perfect for licence plates. I believe they're even available as a factory upgrade from Toyota
I didn't realize this until now but they actually directly provide the lumens and it appears it's only 24. This sounds great, I'd even worry that it's a little bit too dim. I just installed some Pilot LEDs and they are dimmer than basic OE Bulbs, and after a while of looking at it I've had to determine that it seems illegally dim.
I've used Osram's blue tinted W5W bulbs as well as the Phillips LED for license plate lights. The blue tinted bulbs are not as white as the LEDs, but they are a small improvement in color temperature over standard bulbs.
Unfortunately the Philips LEDs that I have are old and I cannot find their specs anymore. For reference, the 50 lumen 6000K Philips Ultinon Pro6000 LEDs are road legal in Europe, so I imagine any bulb with similar specs like these would work.
I've also used aftermarket units with integrated LEDs and they are obnoxiously bright!
I must be going crazy. I swear I saw a post of someone opening a Toyota box with Philips LEDs in it, but I cannot find it anymore!
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Also want to add that $20 for the LEDs may seem steep at first, but my Philips W5W LEDs are still working after nearly a decade while I've gone through many many many cheap interior W5W LEDs in the same time period.
