Brighter Reverse Lights?
 

Anyone know if there's a brighter alternative to P21W bulbs? They really suck as reverse lights. Can't see jack at night when it rains.
Light output is key. The brighter, the better. I'm not so concerned about whiteness. No LED or 50W halogens please as my car does not like those. Also no HIDs :)

A google search revealed type 3497 and 796 as fitting the sockets but being brighter. Anyone had experience with these?

If you found a good substitute, where did you get them?

Thanks :)

BUAHHAHHA i saw "brighter REVSCENE lights"... god

anyways why not leds? those are pretty bright I use 7440 and i switched to leds and its a lot brighter then before

^ LEDs give my car "bulb-out" errors.

Halogens, drawing twice the voltage, have a tendency to cook housings. Not good.

The amount of time you spend with your reverse lights on shouldn't cook your housing. If you're concerned about the amount of current being drawn, you can always relay those lights. Most MK1 and 2 Volkswagen owners do this for their headlights when they run higher wattage bulbs.

^ I understand and appreciate what you're saying, but still would rather not run the risk of more than doubling the current draw, even if only for a couple of minutes. I'm more worried about connectors and the silver reflective housing getting burnt.

I'm looking for something non-halogen that fits in the same sockets, but gives off more light. A bit more wattage shouldn't be too bad, but I don't want to go past the 40W range (ie 2x stock draw) as my car is out of warranty. ;)

Anyone try size 3497 or 796 bulbs? (there may be other sizes that also work that I don't know about)

you can put an HID kit in the trunk and your done.

someone with an 02-03 tl put HID's on the reverse light and brake lamps.

^ Original post updated to exclude HIDs ;)

what car is this if you don't mind me asking?

^ MB 2003 C-class.

u can put a load resistor inline before the LEDs then u wont get the burnt bulb reminder.

^ Yes, but that involves cutting up one's electrical system, something I would rather not do. Yes, it's *just* 1 wire, but still. I have this thing against mods that aren't 100% reversible.

2nd the led bulb,
just get your obc reset at the dealer after you install them to eliminate the error

1. Where do you buy them in Vancouver?
2. All I've seen done online complain of heat issues, melting whatever they mount the resistor to.

I have this on my todo list, and was going to wrap them in heat tape to prevent melting of other components.

There's no way to disable the bulb warning message AFAIK.

Stop babying that car! :D Its out of warranty, cut it up!

Did you tint your windows?

LEDs don't shine any brighter if you mean to use it as a form of illumination.

Buy a 20000 candle power flash light and hook it up to the battery with a switch near the shifter. Done.

u dont cut up the wires, u just splice the resistor into the existing wires, which mean strip the plastic layer, solder the leads onto the wire, and tape it back up, when u need to remove the load resistor, just cut the leads off from teh resistor, and tape up the exposed wires, DONE and DONE.

1. i dont know where to buy since i didnt buy them, but i'm sure if u know which ones u r looking for, i'm sure u can walk into electrical parts stores like Lee's on main and asked them for one.
2. tape the resistor to chassis metal, that way the chassis acts as a heatsink to dissipate the heat.

That might work on some Honda, but my car checks every time I start his car. And there's basically no way to disable it.Nope. Visibility is fine normally, but when it's dark + raining hard at night I've backed into darker-coloured stuff before. btw this isn't the only car I have problems with.Stripping plastic layer = irreversible change. Soldering by itself is okay, but I don't want to damage any plastic sheaths, or cut any wires. And you know that adding a resistor in series will ALWAYS result in something getting cut. Yeah I'm anal, but it's one of those things.

You realize the proper measurement for total brightness is lumen right? lux is the measurement of THROW brightness. candle power is, hype measurement as far as I care :D

How often do you put in reverse for more than 30 seconds? I haven't, in my last 500,000 km worth of mileage. High efficiency LED is the way to go and most trouble free solution.

get a bumper sensor kit.

brake lights + reverse lights + bumper sensors should be good enough. don't complain

AND BACK UP SLOWLY!

you might be right, but i know bimmers can go to the dealers or a bmw certified shop to get their computer reset to eliminate bulb errors, not sure about mercedes though, OP would need to do some research probably. lol

wow i didn't know ppl put HID on the reverse light. how would that work? seems like there would be no space to put the ballast

People do. Its nuts the amount of light coming out in reverse. In fact, manufacturers should look into developing it further to make it safer.