Help me identify my bulbs!

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Bernoulli1

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Following on from my thread a few weeks ago, it turns out I don't even know what type of bulbs are in my car!

I have Googled at length and cannot seem to find my answer. The first photo shows the two bulb types in question, they appear to be the same size.
gpf7.JPG


This photo is the base of my brake/stop lights (dual filament).
zh7d.jpg


This shows my turn signal/indicator bulbs, note the asymmetry of the pins.
94pu.jpg


If anyone could help, it would be extremely appreciated! The car is a 2011 Holden Cruze (Australia), my owners manual doesn't talk about bulb types.

Cheers!
 
Something seems awry here with your brake/tail bulbs. They have red envelopes and dual filaments. That would make them PR21/5W bulbs, except PR21/5W bulbs don't have the index pins straight across from each other like that; they're more like the pins on your amber turn signal bulbs in terms of their placement on the metal base (except they're not at the same height as each other as the turn signal bulb pins are). The base pins on your red bulb look like those on a P21/5W bulb, which is a white-light bulb with uncolored glass. So I'm guessing someone installed non-legitimate red bulbs in place of original clear/white light bulbs in your brake/tail sockets. Another clue would be the apparent lack of any markings on the metal base of the red bulbs. A real bulb would have the manufacturer, the type designator ("PR21/5W" for example) and the E-mark.

Your turn signal bulbs are PY21W type.
 
Hi mate,

Thanks for your quick response!

I have had the car for 6 months and the previous owner had it since new, so maybe he replaced the brake lights? I do have red lenses/reflectors so I am not sure why I have red tinted bulbs!
So essentially I need to get the P21/5W to replace my brake/tail lights, and PY21W for my turn signals. Are there any upgrades or recommended replacements for these? I’m chasing a nice bright look!

Cheers
 
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AFAIK there's no upgrade for PY21W. You should be able to upgrade the P21/5W with the Honda bulbs mentioned in the earlier thread.
 
Ah ok cool. I just checked on Powerbulbs and Philips offer amber LED PY21Ws, looked at a few videos on YouTube and these things look amazing! Pity they are illegal, hopefully one day we can fit high quality, legal LEDs.

I digress though, I will get a few of these Honda bulbs and live with my current turn signals :)
 
Just curious, what make/model car is this that we're talking about, and are the taillights original or aftermarket w/ clear lenses?
 
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Odd, even Narva's .au site doesn't even seem to recognize that the hatch exists

http://www.narva.com.au/products/globeChart

do you have the owner's manual and does it list replacement bulb types? I'm suspecting that what is specified is a bog standard P21/5W; the double red filtering caused by using the red tinted bulb will make the taillights appear dimmer than they would have been stock possibly prompting your inquiry? In any case I'll defer to SWM's recommendation for the Honda bulbs as I haven't tried them but I haven't seen anyone complain after having used them however.

It does appear that Narva sells what appears to be a P21/5W with red glass in Oz

http://www.narva.com.au/products/browse/stoptail-indicator

but it's unnecessary if you have red tinted stop/tail segments on your lights... Probably you would notice an improvement in output simply by replacing the bulbs with regular clear P21/5W.

I also whenever replacing bulbs give the sockets a squirt of Deoxit (contact cleaner) even if they look clean, and put a swipe of dielectric grease on the bulb base before installing, to prevent corrosion and resultant resistance. My cars tend to be more well used than yours however :) (but the lights are all bright!)
 
It's funny, the hatch has been around for a few years now but a bunch of related websites don't list it. I ran into the same thing when trying to buy replacement wipers. No big deal, but sometimes a pain.

The owners manual doesn't list replacement types which is why I've signed up to a lighting forum :) It does't even list head light replacements which is just odd.

The plan is to buy the Honda bulbs and leave my turn signals alone, since the OEM ones are supposedly no worse than others, and the Philips LEDs are illegal.
 
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Bernoulli1 said:
Philips offer amber LED PY21Ws, looked at a few videos on YouTube and these things look amazing!
Click to expand...

I'm not sure they're as amazing as I wish they would be. I looked at this video of the Philips red LED P21/5W, and while the performance may be compliant (no way to tell by looking), I see prominent shadows cast at roughly 9:00 and 3:00. The car shown is obviously not a US-market vehicle, and the US-market version of that car doesn't use the stop/tail lamp to provide the side marker function, but those shadows make me think this bulb would effectively destroy/delete the side marker function from many vehicles that do rely on side-output light from the brake/tail bulb for that function.

(EDIT: I finally got an answer as to the package claims of "5x more light": they mean 5x more light than some other "LED bulbs". That's probably true, but it's one of those package claims that doesn't quite mean what it looks like it means...)
 
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Obviously I am no expert, but they definitely have the ‘look’ I’d like: the quicker on/off and brighter. As for the rear turn signals, my car uses a separate housing within the tail light assembly for the turn signal function.

These are crazy expensive too. To do the set on my car (4 lights) would cost about $140 if I was to order from Power Bulbs. For that sort of money, probably not worth the upgrade.

And of course I am speaking hypothetically too, due to the legality of the LEDs as previously mentioned. Again, I have no plans to install these.
 
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Bernoulli1 said:
Obviously I am no expert, but they definitely have the ‘look’ I’d like: the quicker on/off and brighter
Click to expand...

They will be quicker on/off, but not brighter.

(Please don't put unnecessary font formatting in your posts, thanks.)
 
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