Rear lights

[Anonymous]

Hi all
I have a 1952 11BL. I have been told that it is nearly impossible for car drivers following me to see my brake lights come on. The glass lenses are indeed very, very, dark. One of them was sourced from TOC about 1 year ago and is the same colour as the other one. I have fitted LED bulbs behind them but makes no difference.
Have any of you noticed the same problem on your own Traction and can you advise what solution, if any, you have come up with?
Many thanks

Terry

[Anonymous]

Is your car 6 or 12 volt?

The problem with LED festoon bulbs is that they are ‘directional’ and not as bright as people think. I tried all kinds and gave up in the end.

Standard brake light festoons at 18w are actually pretty bright, anything higher I found out though, overheat and blacken very quickly.

Make sure that the units are earthed properly and the wiring connections are clean and secure, especially on 6 volt as it doesn’t take much to drag the available power down.

You could always add a 3rd LED high Level unit which is pretty simple to do by tapping into the junction block at the left rear of the car, just below the parcel shelf and is very effective, even when kept as low down on the rear window as possible so it’s almost invisible when not lit.

[Anonymous]

I fitted my Light 15 with a “high level” LED brake light. It is attached to the bottom of the rear window and is only about 1/4″ wide so pretty unobstrusive. There are some on the market that are even narrower than that. Tapped into the rear brake feed and all wiring hidden out of the way when I reupholstered. At least everyone can now see me braking even if I think nothing is happening when I push down on the peddle!

[Anonymous]

Forgot to add, CTA and others sell a reflector http://www.ctaservice.nl/product/22048/REFLECTOR-ACHTERLICHTKAP that sits below the light unit which does improve things but you can make the same effect by using white reflective ‘Trailer Tape’

I used that under the front and rear indicators to help improve those as well 🙂

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the comments. My car is 12v.
I did fit a 3rd brake light as a safety measure. It is an old Marshal reverse light and is fitted to the rear bumper. Of course I painted the glass with a special red paint.
I would still like to solve the problem of the 2 standard brake lights.

[Anonymous]

what size bulbs are the stop lamps 18 watt?

Have you put any reflector underneath?

[Author]

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