brightness, which led?

I am thinking about putting LED's behind the red reflectors on my 2007 Taurus door panels. I know they won't come off so I plan on attacking them from the backside.

I read that the 1996 Taurus used a standard 194 bulb for these lights. I know that space will be limited so I need something thin to work with, a LED replacement for the 194 won't work (I don't think it will anyway).

I found out that the 194 bulb is rated at about 25 lumens but I don't know which LED to choose to achieve that brightness level. I don't want to use too dim or too bright an LED.

I have looked around at superbrightleds.com but nothing I see is near the 25 lumens of the 194 bulb.

I think this may work but I can't tell if it would be too bright or too dim(I plan on buying red LEDs):

https://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/index.cgi?action=DispPage&category=ACCENTS&Page2Di sp=%2Fspecs%2Fld1-x_alm.ht

I like the idea of buying a pre-made unit but I don't mind using individual components if it would be easier to figure out what to use.

Your thoughts would be appreciated!

Thanks to all

There are many 194 LED bulbs that well exceed 25 lumen.
Get a white 194. If it's too bright, it can be dimmed with a suitable series resistor, or some opaque cover.

Note however that it will not dim linearly if dimmed by an "analog" dimmer, but these days most vehicles use PWM dimming. (That's assuming they are dimmed by some standard car feature.)

I don't think a "bulb" style will fit. The reflectors are permanently attached to the door panel and there is not much room between it and the door panel. I plan on drilling in from behind and I need something "short" to put in there.

I'll rephrase:

There are many 194 LEDs that well exceed 25 lumen.

If they don't fit, I doubt you will do better - except for a LED or LED panel that you wire in.


Remember - Luxeons etc are LEDs too. (See Cree etc.)

I was looking at this on superbrightLEDs, but my link didn't work:

"LD1 series Little Dot SMD LED Accent Light Sub-miniature Module

Weatherproof 5050SMD 3-chip LED with 3 foot long 30ga. stranded wire. Built-in resistor for 12 Volt DC operation (9~14.8 range). Wide 120 degree beam pattern. 3M double-sided adhesive backing."


This looks like it might work, but I don't know how bright it would be.

Specs are 6000 mcd for single LED and angle of 120 degrees.

If too bright, add resistance.

Thanks for putting up with my questions. I'll let you know how it goes!

BTW - don't get a LED that is far to bright - it may be trickier to dim (eg, current limiter - 2 resistors and a transistor, or one resistor and an LM317 voltage regulator etc).

I am more worried about getting one that is way to dim. Some I have looked at are only 1-2 lumens and I want to make sure I get something that can be seen thru the red lens from 3-4 car lengths away.

That means a red or white LED.

If I understand correctly, 25 Lumens is about 500 Candela (500,000mcd) assuming a 15° viewing angle. For 45°, 20Lu ~52Cd.
You may need a Cree or similar - eg, a White or Warm-White XR-C "Star" (~$18) which are rated at 60 or 40 Lumens at 350mA & 80 or 50 Lumens @ 500mA.
(An adjustable constant-current source can be made with an LM317 (~$3), a trimpot & a resistor.)

Maybe it could be less bright is it's a red LED...?

I wanted to give you all an update on this.

I decided to use these LED's and I am happy with the results It converts out to 9.92 lumens per LED so I used two to get 19.84 lumens in each door. I was aiming for about 25 lumens but this is plenty bright enough. And at only $2.50 each I think I did well. Thanks for your advice on this project.

4 pin high brightenss LED

This is a pic of the completed install:

door lights