been besieged with adds for LED bulbs–type 1157 brake-turn signal… states that an additional load resistor kit is needed. has anyone changed to these bulbs??? michael 85 xjs
Not worth the effort, IMO. Especially dealing with bulb out warnings.
But I definitely changed to LED for my all my interior bulbs and instrument cluster.
Only car I bothered changing brake light to LED was my Volvo wagon third brake light. Repeated slamming of hatch would cause brake light to go out every six months.
I agree with Greg. I’ve done all the interior bulbs and am just getting started on the instrument cluster - plenty of cheap B8.5D LED bulbs out there. I may look at the brake lights, LEDs should react a little faster. I would like to change the side marker lights so that I can leave them on for longer without draining the battery. But if you change them to LED without adding the ballast resistor then the bulb failure system stops working. Adding the resistor gives the same current draw as a regular bulb so there is no real gain, apart from the possibility of longer life. Same story for the indicators.
I changed some on the S11 to get better light output.
Thanks. looks like to much trouble. Michael 85 XJS
Michael,
Was this post curiousity about LEDs or is there a problem that you are trying to fix?
Paul
curious about the bulbs
Do these load resistors get hot too so you have to be careful where mounting them? Or would that be just the ones used on headlights?
They are designed to work but I don’t know how hot they would get. They wouldn’t be used for headlights.
according to the add. they are for the 1157 replacement bulbs. looks like a lot of work to use them.
yes, and what do they get you? Standard brake lights are plenty bright, cheap, and last a long time.
But these LEDs for interior are great! No resistors needed. Just pop them in. They are much brighter, and I don’t worry as much about leaving a door open or the trunk open. The trunk and all four interior lights use the same size. The main light in the headliner is slightly longer.
For the trunk, I got the bright white, and at nighttime, when opening the trunk, it’s like an alien invasion 
For main headliner light, it’s worth getting a warm version.
The turn signal indicators on dash would certainly gain byLED bulbs. . the rest to me don’t matter. …thinking about changing them
just had dash out and replaced all bulbs–non led----still have no turn signal indicator lights, but have turn signals. michael
Maybe the printed circuit is bad