Body Interior Exterior Lighting Reviews on body interior exterior lighting for G vehicles.

Questions about LED Turn Signal Bulbs

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Old Jul 11, 2019 | 10:07 AM
  #16  
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Originally Posted by hexotic
I believe the 7443 isn't just a size and load standard. It also has standardized housing that twists into place via quarter turn like the OEM bulbs. The Amazon, diode dynamics, and Morimoto bulbs I've used were all different, but all had the same standard housing.

Hope I redeemed myself lol.
The bulb designation identifies the behavior and the connection fitment to the harness. AFAIK, it has nothing to do with the harness fitment to the larger assembly.

It looks from the pics that this "universal" fitment is just a tapered rubber collar with notches.

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Old Jul 11, 2019 | 10:28 AM
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Originally Posted by ngolbuff
These look nice and seem extremely bright. In the reviews, there is a video that shows a comparison of old switchback bulb vs. these and from what i can see, they have a resistor installed to help keep the normal timed (slow) blink
I checked the video and it's almost a sell however they do hyperblink, if you keep scrolling you'll see.
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Old Jul 11, 2019 | 01:48 PM
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Yeah, the bulb designation has nothing to do with the socket that fits into the light assembly. Just how the bulb fits into the socket.

With my RX8 I used 7443 amber bulbs from SuperBrightLEDs - never had any problems, except that the bulb tech around 2010 wasn't that bright. They worked great at night. On with parking, bright blink with turn signal. Clear/black bulb housing and board so got rid of the egg-yolk look in the clear light housings.

In the RX8 there was a flasher module wherein you could cut a trace of the chip that measured bulb resistance and voila- no hyper blink. I think this chip in the Infiniti is in the BCM or IPDM and I haven't found it yet - the IPDM is not exactly easy to get apart to reverse engineer much less to mod.
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Old Jul 11, 2019 | 06:48 PM
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Originally Posted by Rochester
The bulb designation identifies the behavior and the connection fitment to the harness. AFAIK, it has nothing to do with the harness fitment to the larger assembly.

It looks from the pics that this "universal" fitment is just a tapered rubber collar with notches.

Interesting, I had it all wrong. Guess I just got lucky, every time I bought a set it was a direct fit that locked into place perfectly.
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Old Jul 11, 2019 | 07:31 PM
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I'd really like to find a member who installed one of these designs here. The ones that have a fixed bulb, with a universal fitment collar into the light assembly, an in-line load resistor, and a standard 7443 connector into the harness. Maybe someone reading this will think, "Hey, I'll buy a pair!", then come back in a week or two with a review. That would be awesome.

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Old Jul 11, 2019 | 07:45 PM
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As I study that universal-fit rubber collar, I think this is what happens... When you push it into the light assembly hole and twist, the uneven plastic edges of the hole will catch on the notches, causing the rubber to buckle so that the hole's ledge can slip underneath the rubber. That's how it stays in place.

At least, that's what I think, but I don't know...
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Old Jul 14, 2019 | 07:51 PM
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Originally Posted by Rochester
I'd really like to find a member who installed one of these designs here. The ones that have a fixed bulb, with a universal fitment collar into the light assembly, an in-line load resistor, and a standard 7443 connector into the harness. Maybe someone reading this will think, "Hey, I'll buy a pair!", then come back in a week or two with a review. That would be awesome.
Nobody? Fine, then I'll buy them. $32 after tax free shipping.
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Old Jul 14, 2019 | 08:00 PM
  #23  
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Originally Posted by Rochester
Nobody? Fine, then I'll buy them. $32 after tax free shipping.
Lets be honest, we all would enjoy to read your review of them and that will probably determine if there is going to be a group buy of them after you try them or not.
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Old Jul 14, 2019 | 08:47 PM
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Originally Posted by ngolbuff
Lets be honest, we all would enjoy to read your review of them and that will probably determine if there is going to be a group buy of them after you try them or not.
We'll see, I guess. I'm prepared to write them off because of fitment, or because I don't like the quality for whatever reason.

I do like the in-line load resistor design better than a load resistor in the bulb itself. And it would be nice if the amber signals matched the LED fogs better than the current bulbs.
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Old Jul 15, 2019 | 03:12 PM
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It seems that some amber LEDs use a high-power white LED with amber lens over it, or amber phosphorous over the blue LED chip (like the white leds do, but amber doped phosphorous instead of white), and some use actual amber LEDs.

* Diode dynamics XP80s are supposed to be 597 nm and are amber emitters..
* Superbright amber 7443s (what I had leftover from the RX8) are 595nm. Those show through the red tail light as amber, albeit dimly. Gives me hope the XP80s will give me an amber turn through the tail light lens. EDITED TO ADD: THESE DO WORK AND SHINE AMBER through the red taillight plastic.
*Not sure the wavelength of these:
Amazon Amazon
but they show through as red. No hyperblink; I think these are white LEDs that are doped or lensed. They are darn bright in a clear housing like the front turns - they will probably go in my wife's CX5 so people can see when she's turning.

I have no idea of the wavelength band that an incandescent 7443A bulb has, but bear in mind that an incandescent is white light that is bandpass filtered. An LED (should be) one wavelength only.

Last edited by rotarymike; Jun 2, 2021 at 01:45 PM.
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Old Jul 15, 2019 | 04:00 PM
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My damn computer reset in the middle of a really good reply, but I'll try to sum up:

2 kinds of amber LEDs - white LED with doped phosphorus to be amber/lens over white LED, and single-wavelength true amber LED.

I've used Superbright LED 7443s, which have a wavelength of 595nm. They show as amber through the red taillight lens, albeit dimly (old tech, 90 lumens).
Diode Dynamics XP80s are 597nm but far brighter. They are on the purchase list for the rear lights in my car.

I also have these:
Amazon Amazon
which are the lens over white LED type. They are bright but show as red through the red lens of the taillight. They do NOT hyperblink, at least in my car, even though they say they will. Since I'm using them in a 7440 application, I have no idea of the brightness or color in a clear lens marker/turn application.

Keep in mind that incandescent bulbs are white light with a bandpass filter for the amber color so are a bunch of wavelengths.
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Old Jul 16, 2019 | 02:23 PM
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That was quick!

Nice packaging. And the devices themselves are way more substantial than I was expecting. The heat-shrink over the wires is thick and solid, and not at all separating from the ends. The 7443 connection piece on the one end, and the bulb on the other, are both very sturdy. The bulb is impressive looking (based on nothing whatsoever, except a few years long ago buying crappy LED bulbs from China over eBay.) And the load resistor is a heavy chunk of aluminum.

All in all, I'm pretty impressed so far. Granted, what really matters is how they work and how the light looks when working. That's TBD.



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Old Jul 16, 2019 | 03:16 PM
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Originally Posted by Rochester
Nobody? Fine, then I'll buy them. $32 after tax free shipping.
Sorry you have to be the guinea pig
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Old Jul 16, 2019 | 03:21 PM
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BY the look of the chips, those are white LEDs with amber overlays. Should be perfectly fine in a clear housing. Would not use with tails.

The generic cone insert thing is a very interesting engineering solution to a problem with standards...
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Old Jul 16, 2019 | 07:34 PM
  #30  
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I took a good, hard look at access to the bulbs, and I can certainly do it from above... without having to remove a wheel and peel back the liner. However, I will have to remove the R2C air intakes. Not just the filters, but the shields too, which essentially means the entire intake. And since the only way to do that is to remove the engine cover, which means removing the tower brace... well, not tonight, LOL. Maybe not even tomorrow. Not exactly in the mood to be tearing things down, however simple the task.

The headlight bulbs I had to install from the wheel wells. But for anyone who's messed around with their turn signals, which is easiest, from the top, or from the wheel-well?

And I haven't figured out where or how to mount the load resistors. I'm thinking a thick strip of 3M indoor/outdoor mounting tape should do the trick, wherever I put it.
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