Month: March 2014

By now, the basics of LEDs are well known: longer life, faster light up time, and reduced power consumption. Many Delorean owners are converting their incandescent bulbs to LEDs for all of these benefits. One really well written blog entry on Delorean LED conversion and benefits can be found here:

http://delorean2109.blogspot.com/2011/07/going-100-leds-on-your-car-is-good-idea.html

I saw someone else used these 48 LED SMD Panels as a trunk light. I liked the look, and had a few panels left over. This is a big improvement in brightness over the incandescent festoon bulb, and my later LED festoon bulb:

I should have probably bought bigger brake lights, but after testing, these 42 LED bulbs were deemed just as bright as the incandescent brake lights. I purchased amber colored LEDs for the turn signals, however I was disappointed that the turn signals were dim. I decided to replace them with some bigger white LEDs.

I added a 48 LED SMD Panel to the engine bay light as well:

I reclaimed the LED festoon bulbs from the trunk, engine bay, and interior lights. I used two of them in the rear license plate lights. I like the white color they produce, compared to the dim, yellow-ish light.

The flasher relay I purchased wasn’t set up correctly for what the Delorean needed. Swapping some relay pins with some jumper wires was a quick and easy fix. New flasher (left), old flasher (right):

Using the same 12 volt battery for my testing, I measured the amperage of the lights I removed, and the new LED lights. Here’s the breakdown:

Now all these lights aren’t lit at the same time, so the savings isn’t always over 20 amps. However, I have significantly reduced the load on the electrical system. Maybe my alternator will live a little longer.

Costs: