The construction of the LED replacements is all wrong.  They won't cast
light on to the reflective inner surfaces of the taillight housing like a
good old incandescent does.  They just throw intense light out the rear.
The result is a small, intense light with washed out color.

I just skimmed this but it has some interesting pictures:
http://www.webbikeworld.com/r2/led/led.htm

This guy has a high wattage solution....also good pictures:
http://community-2.webtv.net/VanStuff/VanagonWestfalia/

Search the archieves for "LED" in the past 6 months.  There was good
input/output.

As always, don't qoute me  ;)   -John

'85 Silver Sunroof
'91 GTi 2.0 8v
'76 BMW 2002

>From: Matthew <mpteleski@YAHOO.COM>
>Reply-To: Matthew <mpteleski@YAHOO.COM>
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>Subject: FLAPS LED taillights
>Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2004 11:58:58 -0700
>
>I was at my FLAPS this weekend (getting Mobile 1) and
>saw they have LED taillights ("off road use only")
>that fit into normal vw type light sockets. So,
>anybody try these? they only had the red ones (white
>were sold out) else i would have purchased one. Cost
>was cheap, like 6$ for one.
>-matt
>
>=====
>Matthew Pollard         "Racing with the wind and flirting with death
>Dept. Of Chemistry     So have a cup of coffee and catch your breath"
>University of Idaho
>www.ftir.chem.uidaho.edu
>
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