Your turn signal lights are essential of letting other drivers of your intention, which is this case, happens to be of your intention. No, it doesn’t mean when you signal to make a right (or left) turn, the other driver on the road, may or may not let you make that turn.
If the other driver has the right of way, it’s likely that driver will go on anyway. Your car’s turn signal lights are a method that is used to signal to other drivers of your intent to make a turn, or changing lanes
If you notice that your dash lights are suddenly blinking at a much faster rate, it’s probably that the bulb is defective. This is a fail-safe method of knowing if your turn light bulbs are working or not.
But generally, it won’t let you know which one, left front or left rear (for example) is causing the faster blinking. Still, it is a good way of letting the driver at least that a bulb is no longer working.
The easiest method of getting a new bulb is going to your favorite auto repair shop and having the bulb changed. Or you can visit your nearest auto parts store and purchasing the correct bulb; changing bulbs is a pretty method of changing bulbs.
Typically, the rear turn signal bulb is located in the tail light housing; it is simply a matter of exchanging bulbs. The front, although it uses the same mounting method, maybe be more difficult to gain access to the front housing. In either case, the bulbs are cheap and easy to get.
Traditional bulb
LED bulb
Traditional bulb
What are LED lights?
An LED light, stands for Light Emitting Diode. This a pretty recent phenomenon and an LED has advantages over the incandescent bulb, but also some disadvantages, too. Let’s look at some:
LED Life Span: Your typical incandescent bulb will last around 10,000 hours while LED bulbs can last 50,000 hours or more.
LED Economy and Low Cost: LEDs produce more light per watt than incandescent bulbs. High efficiency with low voltage makes it easy for LEDs to gain an edge over incandescent lamps, consuming 80% less electrical power.
Instantaneous switch-on: The LED switches on faster than the incandescent bulb and this is noticeable, especially on vehicle brake lights. It switches on faster even when it is cold.
LEDs are small: LEDs are packed together to give out the same amount as an incandescent bulb. Typically, a 1157 bulb (an incandescent bulb that has been around for 50 years) would require 15 LEDs. This can be an advantage or a disadvantage.
LEDs have a narrow viewing angle: Whereas a regular 1157 bulb spreads light in all directions, a LED element has a 20-30 degree angle. The LED bulb will look bright when you are directly behind it, but will also lose its shine when viewed at an angle
LEDs, like the 1157 regular bulb, will focus on a very closely beam of light. They will work well on small tail lights, for example, but may only work on a smaller portion of larger lenses- that means a greater number of LEDs are needed.
LED Short Illumination Range: LED engineers have found that LEDs have a short illumination range. LEDs are only suitable for short-range lighting applications.
Custom turn signals
Turn signal lights, whether they were round or oval, followed pretty much the same pattern, at least until the 1960s. Then car designers started to use the signal lights as part of the vehicle’s design.
By the 1970s, signal lights took to using different path.- they are no longer round or oval. Square, round, oval, aero headlamps, projector lights, curved parking lights, halo rings, and turn side lights - it was all open to interpretation. Of course, they still had to be red amber.
Custom Turn Signals are an area where the enthusiast can just purchase a new bulb to replace a burned-out bulb - or spend hundreds of dollars on a custom headlamp assembly. If your turn signal lights and your side market lights no longer match your vehicle.
