FuzzyLog1c

iTrader: (4)

Dude. I have a $200 bag of horrible LEDs to show for it. The least I can do is spread the word. If you decide you want to do more lights around the car, let me know and I'll see if anything I'm currently using is still available.

For example, I've used both the red and white versions of the following 2W, 42mm festoon-style units. The V1 actually calls for 44mm bulbs, but they're rare. You can make the 42mm units work with a little fiddling. Originally, I was considering making all of my interior lights red, including the doors, but decided against it when I realized how stupid it looked.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2x-White-42mm-High-Power-Festoon-Dome-LED-Light-Bulb-2W-/261042051783?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3cc7519ac7&vxp=mtr
So I bought an extra set of white ones, and found that they did a really nice job in the doors if you pointed them up into the cup and let the reflected light shine down instead of aiming them directly down. They're already incredibly bright, which I really appreciate after it rains and they save me from stepping in a puddle. I've been toying with the idea of upgrading to the latest & greatest, but they're a tad expensive:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2X-ERROR-FREE-OSRAM-CHIP-6W-42MM-LED-CANBUS-WHITE-MAP-DOME-FESTOON-LIGHT-BULBS-/221247974629?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3383682ce5&vxp=mtr
I may also remove the door cups and spray their insides with a cheap metallic spray to prevent leakage through the plastic and put more of the light on the pavement instead of up into the door.

LAYGO

iTrader: (10)

The last bit of LEDs for my interior are the footwells. What are the good ones?

JDB

iTrader: (2)

Which state laws are you quoting that front turn signals do not have to be amber and can be white?

In PA, the front signal options do not include white for any type of vehicle or tailer. It doesn't say if the lense itself needs to be amber.

On most cars, the front signals are amber and the rear are either amber or red. If a side marker is near the front, it should be amber. A rear sidemarker (not very common) should match the rear signal color.

Before you spend money on lights, you better check your state laws. Or enjoy not passing state inspections and giving a cop a reason to pull you over.

rand49er

Got mine from Luke at Lindsay Cadillac. Sure, I paid a bit more, but they have OEM quality and proper lenses.


The guy is a walking talking search engine.



He's not in a "State." He's in a Province.

FuzzyLog1c

iTrader: (4)

I've never found a high-power 44mm rigid loop product. The best you'll find are 5050 arrays like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-x-Rigid-loop-44mm-9-x-5050-SMD-LED-Festoon-Light-Bulbs-12V-bright-white-leds-/261044255955?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3cc7733cd3&vxp=mtr
It's not bad, given the application, but it's definitely not what anyone would consider high power. Granted, if you could find a 60 watt Cree XR-E array for the footwells, you might not like what you saw down there.

For reference: each 5050 SMD LED puts out about 18 lumens maximum at 350 mA, whereas a single Cree XR-E/XP-G2 Q5 LED puts out 107 lumens minimum at 350 mA (by spec). And Cree Q5s aren't even state-of-the-art products. R5s are roughly 30% brighter.

I can't say this enough: it's always better to buy something with several power LEDs than something containing dozens of 5050 or 3528 SMD LEDs. Don't get sucked into the wattage game. Luminous efficiency (expresed in terms of lumens/watt) is all-important.

Edit: Hopefully that made sense. I know I talked a lot about the other LEDs in terms of wattage earlier, but that's the easiest way to relate to most people just how effing bright these are. Sometimes I feel like I need one of these:

FuzzyLog1c

iTrader: (4)

Just added a head's up to my earlier post about reverse lights. I test fit the reverse lights into our turn signal housing, and it worked just fine (no modification required). But the reverse light sockets are different--they absolutely require a 3156/3157. Don't buy the white reverse light that I listed--it won't fit, even after sanding.

johnny2343

Do you mind if I ask what you paid for the oe lights ??

rand49er

Over six years ago, I believe I paid $240 plus shipping. They've gone up since.

Andringa

Hey Fuzzy, do those 6w 42mm festoons work in the trunk as well?

FuzzyLog1c

iTrader: (4)

I'll be able to tell you this weekend. I've got two of them for the doors, and was planning on showing you guys how I painted the inside of the door cups and the difference in light output. It'll be easy to toss one in the trunk and see how it does.

GXP25

iTrader: (3)

Those 25W CREEs I bought without projectors are pretty much dead. I've only had them since May. Since they're being used to replace my stock 3157 turn signal bulbs, at night, they're supposed to be amber, albeit at a lower voltage, then when I use my turn signal, they're supposed to flash but brighter.

Well after a while, one wouldn't turn on as a driving light but still flashed. The other was fine. So I decided to swap their positions (right to left and vice versa). Well now, the one that only worked when flashing continues to do the same and other works intermittently; sometimes it wants to flash, sometimes it wants to work as a driving light. I waited well over a month (from China) for those LEDs. The identical reverse lights (white instead of amber) that I purchased work without issue, though they do see less use.

I'm thinking about going for the 50W CREEs, however, as FuzzyLog1c pointed out, they all seem to have that stupid projector lens. The one eBay seller, when asked, said it could not be removed.

Now if I could get [potentially] twice the light output with the 50Ws that would be great. The 25Ws were bright, but I'm looking for something brighter during the day. I'm just hesitant to buy them since they'll take too long to get here and I'm unsure if I'll be able to remove the projector lens without damaging the bulb.

The ones that are failing (without lens): http://cgi.ebay.com/300780205297/

The ones that I'm looking at (lens cannot be removed): http://cgi.ebay.com/300928121756/

FuzzyLog1c

iTrader: (4)

Give me a day or two to get mine installed. Then we can all judge whether the projection lens is a non-starter.

Edit: these are the ones I purchased:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/300885479273...84.m1497.l2648

GXP25

iTrader: (3)

Yeah, that's the same seller with the extremely long shipping times.

I looked at those but didn't want to buy them since they weren't CREEs.

In my opinion, http://cgi.ebay.com/300928121756/ > http://cgi.ebay.com/300885479273/

I've had another set with the lens before. It created a nasty hot spot on the turn signal housing. And that was with a Samsung LED behind it. Maybe a CREE or another 5W LED will look different.

GXP25

iTrader: (3)

Well I just pulled the trigger on those 50W bulbs. If they're bright enough then I'll see what I can do to take that lens off.

There's another $90+ on LEDs... I bought four bulbs: two for the turn signals (amber) and two for the reverse lights (white).

My 25Ws that I use for the reverse lights are great. I'm just interested in what these 50Ws will look like.

FuzzyLog1c

iTrader: (4)

Practically speaking, I *need* something very bright for the reverse lights because of my tinted glass. These LEDs have been sitting on my counter for about a week now because I haven't had a weekend away from work in about a month.

If worst comes to worst, I know for a fact that the amber projection lens 3157s work great in the rear turn signals because the CTS-V signals are so darn tiny. Options for the lenses on the front turn signals include: sand the lens, block it out, drill it out, or saw/sand the end of the LED housing off.

Ultimately, I plan on replacing the entire fog assembly with a vacuum-formed, ram-air intake (similar to the D3 CTS-V2 intake) that splits air between the rotors and a variety of parts. My plan is to open it up into a box large enough to house an AMSOIL EAAU-6080/6081 intake filter with an integrated 6" Spectre velocity stack on the driver's side. It's possible that it might be able to also include provisions for a large power steering cooler. On the passenger side, I definitely want to do an engine oil cooler with a slide-in bypass deflector to block air from entering the radiator in cold weather. Again, it's possible that a transmission cooler could also be provisioned, depending on the size, because the brakes don't mind receiving 150 F sloppy seconds from the intake. Right now, they're getting nothing.

Andringa

I received my 6w 42mm festoons that Fuzzy linked to earlier in this thread and they work well in the doors and trunk. I had only ordered a pair, so I may still go a different route for the trunk, but if anybody is wondering I think it would be a good choice.

FuzzyLog1c

iTrader: (4)

How's the brightness and viewing angle? I assume that you're looking for something wider for the trunk because that one little light has to cover a lot of area.

Andringa

I'm completely happy with how they work out in the doors when pointed down.

But I've never liked how the trunk light is off to the right. It's probably about as good as you can expect based on the stock bulb holder location, but I've been considering a festoon plug hooked up to a strip of LEDs like this.

LED Trunk Strip

FuzzyLog1c

iTrader: (4)

Good news / bad news:

1. The bad news is that I hate the 6W, 42mm OSRAM LEDs. Although bright, their dispersion pattern is bad and when flipped upside down, doesn't outshine my current 4x4 5050 SMD arrays.

2. The good news is that the white 3157s are impressive--equal to or brighter than 35W HIDs. Despite the projection lens, there are no significant hot spots in the reverse lenses.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121136236661...84.m1497.l2648


The LEDs are so bright that they're roughly equal to the direct sunlight shining on the side of the white condo to the left. Note: tail lights are 25W OSRAM SMD LEDs.


The white fence is 15 yards distant. The silver Corolla is 28 yards distant. I stopped casting a shadow at 75 yards (despite interference from the overhead lights), which is about 3/4 of the way to the far condo building.


Standing at 50 yards from the car. In real life, I was not liking looking directly at the reverse lights from this range.

GXP25

iTrader: (3)

And they're cheap too!

Hmm, kind of got me thinking about how I spent over four times as much on practically the same bulb...