Replacing incandescent bulbs with cool LED alternatives?

[jimmyz80]

I think I got a dud. I had ordered a few spares, and the next bulb I tried, worked.

How do you like your turn signal LEDs? Are they as bright or brighter than the bulb it replaced? That may have to be my next purchase...

Glad to hear it was just a bum bulb.

So far I'm happy to report that the turn signal LEDs are completely error free after a week or so of driving with them. They must draw enough current to keep the car's sensors happy. They are FAR FAR brighter than the stock incandescent bulbs. I highly recommend them, but again...remember to get the amber colored ones.

 

[bart513]

Can you show exterior pics of how they look installed?

 

[Chillout]

Also, did you get the additional resistors?

 

[jimmyz80]

Also, did you get the additional resistors?

Nope, no resistors seem to be required with these turn signal bulbs. They are very high powered LEDs, so they must draw enough current to make the car think they are incandescent.

- - - Updated - - -

Here are a few pics I snapped tonight just to give an idea of what everything looks like. I promise I'll take better ones when I'm not in such a rush.

http://imgur.com/a/C9fIC

Also a quick video of the turn signal to get an idea of what it looks like.

https://vid.me/sO4D

You can really see how much brighter the parking light bulbs are, as compared to the crappy dim little yellow'ish incandescents that came from the factory. The license plate bulbs are perfect IMO, just a pure, bright white.

 

[bart513]

Awesome thanks!

 

[Chillout]

Oh dear, those LEDs at ijdmtoy.com are getting a bit expensive with shipping... would be around $100 for just 2 LEDs. Does anyone know of any other leds that do work?

Edit:
Forgot to say that that movie looks AWESOME!

 

[jimmyz80]

Oh dear, those LEDs at ijdmtoy.com are getting a bit expensive with shipping... would be around $100 for just 2 LEDs. Does anyone know of any other leds that do work?

Edit:
Forgot to say that that movie looks AWESOME!

If you're referring to the turn signal bulbs, they are sold as a pair. You don't need to order a quantity of two.

 

[heychubs]

If you're referring to the turn signal bulbs, they are sold as a pair. You don't need to order a quantity of two.

Yep! I original was hesitant to get them because $50/each would have been pricey, but $50 for the pair is worth it! They came yesterday, so I'm excited to get them in.

On a side note, does anyone know where I can get a replacement dome light? I sort of broke off the side clip when I removed it, and every so often it gets loose and tilts out a bit.

----Edit----

Found the replacement dome light. $56 from lotusgarage.com

 

[Chillout]

I know they are a pair... but sending to the Netherlands adds about $48 to the price, not including border-taxes

 

[jimmyz80]

I know they are a pair... but sending to the Netherlands adds about $48 to the price, not including border-taxes

Ahh ok. The $100 price you posted was suspiciously close to ordering two pairs.

 

[Chillout]

I ordered a similar pair from China, free shipping. If it turns out to be all right, I'll let you guys know

 

[jimmyz80]

I ordered a similar pair from China, free shipping. If it turns out to be all right, I'll let you guys know

Awesome! Any chance you can post a link to the item? I'm curious now. I might have to order some and do a side by side comparison lol.

 

[Chillout]

I got these:
CREE LED 30W Yellow BAU15S 1056 PY21W 2100LM AC / DC12V-24 Turn Lights LED, $11.52 | DHgate.com

Let's hope they are any good

 

[jimmyz80]

Looks like they have fewer leds but for that price it still may be a great deal. Very curious.

 

[augkuo]

Thanks Jimmy - I replaced my parking lights with LEDS and much brighter! I've included pictures with his steps:

Front Parking Lights
I bought a pair of bulbs off of Amazon that appeared to be identical to what I used in my dome light, but a bit cheaper.
Amazon.com: JDM ASTAR Extremely Bright 5730 SMD 194 168 2825 W5W T10 LED Bulbs,Xenon White(Brightest T10 Bulb in the market): Automotive
As far as I can tell these are basically identical to the bulb mentioned above for my dome light, although the metal housing is visually a little bit different. Originally I had tried some "CANBUS compatible bulbs here since I thought the car monitored the current draw on these, but those bulbs would overheat and flicker within 30 seconds of installing them into the housing. These non-CANBUS bulbs I linked to above seem to be reliable, but I just installed them tonight and can't say yet whether the car will throw any errors at me once I start driving with them.

The best way I found to swap these is the following:

1. Open the hood

2.Remove the black plastic cover that runs the width of the car in front of the cooling fans (it has the washer reservoir cap protruding through it). There are 8 plastic trim fasteners to remove with a phillips head screwdriver, and one 4mm hex/allen bolt to remove.

3.Once the cover is off, you can remove the rubber cap from the side of each headlight housing.

4.Twist the turn signal bulb and pop it out to give you access to the parking light bulb.
5.Reach in and upward with two fingers and you'll feel the little "spear" that the parking bulb is mounted in. There are two clips you need to squeeze with your fingers and pull to remove it. Some wiggling is necessary, since it looks like this particular bulb was never meant to be removed easily.

6.Swap the new LED bulb onto the "spear" and make sure it remains lit even if you wiggle it around a little bit. If it flickers, you might need to adjust the little contact wires on the bulb wedge to make sure they're contacting the contacts in the bulb holder "spear".

7. Do your best to re-insert the bulb and "spear" back into the hole you removed them from. It's a bit tight with the bulbs I used, but some gentile wiggling helped it all slide into place. One of mine snapped with with a positive click, and the other side just seems to be held in by friction. I don't know if the clip are worn out on that side or what, but the bulb seems to stay put regardless.
8. Reassemble the turn signal bulb, rubber cap, and plastic cover.

Total time to install should be less than 15 minutes.

 

[jimmyz80]

Awesome. Thanks for adding the instructional pics!

 

[augkuo]

Awesome. Thanks for adding the instructional pics!

By the way, the Phillips bulbs were like 20 Euros with shipping so it's really cheap now with the strong dollar

Seller: autolampen-hsk ( 8694 ) Seller Information: autolampen-hsk Verena Szinglober Auf der Hude 14 59823 Arnsberg DE Item title Price Shipping price​ ​ ​ Qty Item total PHILIPS - W5W LED T10 12V 1W 4000K X-treme Vision Philips 2 Stk. !!TOP PREIS!! (item: 201079748617 transaction: 1118974596010 ) Paid on Oct-02-14 EUR 14.30 EUR 6.00 1 EUR 14.30 Deutsche Post Brief Estimated delivery: You can contact seller for more information.

Subtotal EUR 14.30 Shipping and handling EUR 6.00 Total EUR 20.30

 

[spaceballs]

Thanks Jimmy - I replaced my parking lights with LEDS and much brighter! I've included pictures with his steps:
...
Total time to install should be less than 15 minutes.

Augkuo did you already add LEDs too your old Roadster?

Also I've had another roadster owner ask about the lights, are they xenons? because they are so bright, I haven't had time to check but I assume they are since they are really bright!

 

[augkuo]

#783 has the xenon upgrade but no LEDs for the parking lights since I had DRLs installed that were LEDs anyway.

 

[heychubs]

High Power 50W CREE 7507 LED Bulbs | Turn Signal or Back Up Lights

Note: Make sure to get the Amber colored bulbs, NOT the white ones.

Sadly, these LEDs did not work for me. They did the fast blink after install, and I kept getting "Left blinker error". It wasn't a bad LED bulb because even if I swapped sides, I'd still get the same error message. They would almost work, as there were no errors after I put in one reg and one LED bulb, but as soon as I put both LED bulbs in, I'd get the error message. Not sure what the problem is, but I've just put the reg bulbs back in for now.