I'll disagree here. This is one of the most important areas to have a decent LED bulb if you decide to go with one. When backing up at night it's important to have all the light you can get. I've tried many different LED's in my reverse lights and none of them are as bright a incandecent bulb. They look brighter but don't put out as much useable light. I have some CREE LED's in there now that seem to work alright. The projector style works ok but the light pattern is focused in one direction vs all directions with incandecent bulbs. On some cars this doesn't work very well because only a small portion of the reflector in the reverse housing is utilized making light output less. In our X-type this bulb works okay since the reverse lenses are clear and are decent sized on the car.

 

Which CANBUS LED bulbs do you get for the front turn signals? They are listed as 3457A on sylvania.com which I think is the same bulb as 3157 which is more common. Will CANBUS prevent them from blinking fast as well?

 

I've got some really crappy LEDs in my reverse lights and they light up like a camera flash when I put the car in reverse, it's almost too bright. I had the SMD style all around but recently switched the four tail light bulbs and turn signals to projector style which works much better (visibility-wise) in that application. I still have the cheap SMDs in the rear fogs as well but for some reason they work great there and with the reverse lights.

This is the bulb I'm using, for sale at the vendor I bought it from:

12V 18-SMD-5050 1157 2057 2357 7528 P21/4W LED Bulbs For Car

I'll take a picture of these lit up at night if anyone is interested. See my thread on the LED conversion process for more information.

 

I tried some like that but they didn't work very well. They looked bright but the useable light output wasn't nearly as good.

 

Well all I can comment on is my own experience. I bought the bulbs I linked to, installed them in my reverse lights, and noticed more/brighter light output than the stock incandescent bulbs.

 

Those 18-smd bulbs are the style I bought for the brake lights. Found a good deal on ebay. For the front turn signals do you need resistors or just canbus approved? I was reading about canbus and I wasn't sure if it was just for rear bulbs. Anyways, thanks for you help. Will probably post some pics when I get them.

 

You may find that the 18-SMDs are not good enough for brake lights. I had them for a while but wasn't impressed so I switched to the Cree LED projectors and couldn't be happier. Got them off eBay (all sold in sets of 2):

1 pack Rear Turn signals: 2X 30W BAU15S 150° 7507 PY21W High Power CREE LED Turn Signal Light Bulb Amber | eBay

2 packs Tail Lights: 7W CREE Q5 12 SMD LED Car Turn Signal Brake Stop Reverse Back Up Light Bulb | eBay

1 pack Front Turn Signals: 2X 3157 Q5 12SMD Amber Car Turn Signal LED Light for Chrysler 300C Dodge Magnum | eBay

And like I said earlier my rear fogs and reverse lights are still 18-SMD style but they are more than adequate.

As far as resistors, you need one per bulb. So in total 4 are needed. You won't need any on the side turn signals or any other bulbs, just the 4 main turn signal bulbs.