led indicator bulb upgrade

Hi,
had the mk1 out recently and one thing i'm interested in is upgrading the rear indicator and brake light bulbs to something brighter as mine are really quite poor , i can't see any problem with connections corroded or anything like that so…?
has anyone on here upgraded to something a bit brighter ? i don't want to give anyone any excuse to run into the back of me
thanks in advance 

Super bright led's with omni-directional lenses.  then if your film that is infromt is cloudy then you may want to remove it as it can diminish 50 percent of the brightness of the bulbs in your cluster.

Get the most MCD's that you can for the bulbs that you want to replace.

I'm interested in replacing all bulbs on the back of my cabrio with LED ones.
All of my electric wires/cables are not conducting too well, the copper has oxidised, turned black, probably due to electrolysis.
So low power bulbs will be useful.
Got any product recommendations?

So far, my research yields:-
Need an LED compatible Hazards/Indicators relay.
VW's need a relay with earth/ground/0v on the left hand pin/leg/spade, output on the top pin, 12v supply on the right hand pin (viewed from the relay base).
The above pin configuration is called CF14 by some makers (not CF13).
It's best to get an LED relay that you can adjust the flash speed/rate.
Golf Mk1 need 12volt LED P21W 382 SINGLE filament, with a BA15S contact.
382 = P21W car bulb, for VW use in brake, indicator, reverse and rear fog.
BA15S contact = BA15S bulb holder single contact 15 mm diameter with level bayonet pin arrangement, aka 1156 spec.

FYI: 380 is a combined stop and tail DOUBLE FILAMENT 12v 21w/5w w bulb, with an offset bayonet pin arrangement..
There is also a 207 spec. I haven't researched that yet.

The only issue that I had on the LED's that the Headlight switch dimmer didn't.  That is because the LED's have a lower threshold of off to full on that the Reohostat/Pot  of the switch can't go small enough to dim them, they go full on or off with very little travel of the switch.  I suppose that replacing all the lamps over to LED, and getting a different pot would of been the correct way to go, but I opted for easier.

I also opted to replace all the bulbs when one goes bad, as the less you have to Muck with it the better.

I opted for Different bulb holders and higher wattage bulbs from 3W to 5W.  I also removed the cloudy lamp cover and replaced the reflector in the Bulb holder on my Cabriolets.

Cleaning the mylar with Alcohol, and a soft pencil eraser, as well as adding a Ground splice direct to the Frame increased my lamps brightness.


 

H Briano1234
Thank you for the previous help you gave with the indicators. Ref LED headlamp upgrade.
I favour following your route and only upgrade the headlamps to start with. Could you please advise what is involved in this, is it a direct lamp change, or lamp holders need to be replaced, any advice on suppliers would be appreciated
1984 Golf Cabriolet GTI
Angus

I used the sockets out of the Warning Indicators from a honda accord 90 model years and a Isuzu Trooper.  I just went to the Autoparts store and got Warning Lamps as they have a higher wattage, as in 5watt vs 2-3 for regular dial faces.  The BrakeLight, Warning lamps for the Instument cluster are Higher wattage.

When I was doing my "led Conversion" it was DIY, with LEDs, as the Convex, and focal ones hadn't been invented.  

Going LEDS there are a lot of Vendors now-a-days.
Again the only issue is Full Bright to Off is about 1/100 of a turn of the Dial.  Even the ones used for Turns have to have the resistor added so the turn signal flasher will work properly, or but the LED flasher relay.

I've used LED bulbs from ebay on the rear of my cab, see pic.
The sellers on ebay dont seem to know what they are selling.
They advertise a bulb being for indicator, tail light and brake light.
The brake light (21Watt) needs to be brighter than the tail light (5Watt).
So, surely the bulb is different.
I bought LED's that were rated a 800lumen, and others at about 400lumen.
They both arrived, having the same brightness when fitted to my cab.
The 400Lumen ones dont have any side-facing led chips/elements, so no good on a Golf Mk1.
I've used the 800lumen ones as tail lights.
Sadly, I'm still using old filament bulbs for the brake lights, as none of my LED's are bright enough.

CAN ANYONE RECOMMEND AN LED BRAKE LIGHT BULB FOR A GOLF MK1??