Originally Posted by Levi (Post 107991)

Yes, I always make a full LED cnversion in "cool white". The LED pack without errors costs about 40 €. That is not a problem. A bigger problem is LED blinker conversion.

Originally Posted by [M] (Post 107959)

At 2:47 I noticed that the license plate lights were yellow, which got me thinking...are the dome,map,glovebox,trunk etc. lights going to be yellow( is it halogen?)

If so, I plan on doing a full LED conversion to either a 'cool' white or bright white. Does anyone else have a preference on this or is it just me!? :iono:

Originally Posted by [M] (Post 108011)

You know, I never have worked with doing blinker conversions. I had planned on doing it with my Integra but unfortunately didn't get around to doing it. I have had pretty good experiences with superbrightleds.com (US based) in the past. So I will most likely use them again.

Something about doing LEDs is just so appealing to me. I find that lighting, like wheels, can have a huge impact on the appearance on a vehicle. Which is why I was slightly disappointed seeing the lights in the video.


@Dave-ROR

As yes, thanks for clearing that up for me. I look forward to having factory HID headlights!

Originally Posted by 00NissanNinja (Post 108180)

^VLEDs sells some LEDs that go in the fog light housings

Originally Posted by Slide (Post 108176)

Can someone convert the fog lights to a cluster of LEDs?

Originally Posted by old greg (Post 108237)

Just bear in mind, LEDs need to be run cool. If they feel warm to the touch they're too hot and are on their way to burning out. XM-Ls are about as efficient leds can be these days, but they'll still create a significant amount of waste heat that you'll need to safely dispose of. That means you're going to need a heatsink at the very least, you can't just stick them in a fog light housing and call it done. Then there's the power supply to consider (12v will do a pretty good job of melting them).

Originally Posted by 00NissanNinja (Post 108248)

You shouldn't need a separate power supply, resistors can be added to lower the voltage down to the the forward voltage of the LED which is usually about 1.5V. I usually get LEDs from Vled since they wire the resistors and add heat sinks as needed in a nice plug and play package. When I wired an LED in my dimmer switch all I needed was to solder in the proper resistor in series with the LED. Heat sinks will likely be needed for groups of higher power LEDs

Originally Posted by 00NissanNinja (Post 108248)

You shouldn't need a separate power supply...

Originally Posted by Slide (Post 108239)

Not sure about the power thought :S what can be used?

Originally Posted by Pinkidoo (Post 108347)

I think "cool white" leds is a very good idea.

Originally Posted by cc700 (Post 108559)

Why?

in fact, to every person that likes led i'd ask the same thing:


WHY?

halogen lamps are a subset of incandescent. most if not all interior lamps are not halogen, they are incandescent and low power.

if you think blue light looks nice, that's fine... but you should realize that there are only a handful of reasons why LEDs are 'better' and none of those apply to a car that was designed for incandescents in the first ten years of use.

1. longevity
led's last a long time when they are high quality and shielded from the elements properly. when they're not, they do fail and generally the super cheap ones are cheap for a reason- high quality costs more.

2. power usage
led's are very efficient, and don't have as much thermal output so more of the input gets converted to light. however, the power usage has to be specifically designed into the eletrical system. if you just place an LED into a system that is used to pulling the type of power a small, efficient incandescent bulb pulls, it will likely not use any less power, especially with a resistor, the resistor will eat up the rest of the power. that's its job.

3. looks/aethetic
leds have a different wavelength and spectrum and generally a different quality of light to them. they are generally lower in spectrum coverage as most of these 'cool white' leds are just blue leds with some nasty chemical filters over them to make them appear whiter. i say nasty because the ways they make these are more noxious and toxic even than incandescents, which require tons of mining and toxic manufacturing themselves. a lot of people don't like the yellowish white of an incandescent because it gives a calmer, more 'fire-like' dim feeling, even if it's not dimmer.

the thing is... the car is designed for a particular type of bulb. putting in LEDs to an incandescent system can work quite well but it can also be a HUGE problem with spotty/uneven gauges and intense light that is generally counter-productive to night vision and being able to see well outside of the car.


longevity: incandescent lights are such low power, they're going to last ten years or more. they will be cheap to replace. you can replace them one at a time. you aren't going to have to worry about their quality because they're oem. LED's can fail at any time just from getting too hot. maybe you leave your heater on and just because of how the air is blowing inside the cabin, it fries your leds. or maybe not. but this isn't a reason to do a conversion, especially less than five years off the lot.

power usage - not going to help. the alternator's draw isn't going to be affected, there are no noticeable energy savings.

looks - i think it looks dumb. at worst, you will have lights that fail without warning and you won't be able to adjust brightness the way you can with incandescents. at best, you have blue lights. gross.

So why do people like this? because you want to have a high end bmw? so stupid. I did an LED conversion on my impreza, it's the worst thing i've done and i'm very unhappy with it. gauges are all sorts of unevenly lit, and one led went out near the HVAC.
:barf:


also, for LED fog lights i'd be concerned about color rendering indexes, even those CREE XM-L will have a very hard time cutting through fog and it will be harder to see by them through fog conditions.
unless, you only like fog lights for looks and you run them in clear conditions. in which case, see above. stupid.

Originally Posted by cc700 (Post 108559)

yeah and they work well because they're DESIGNED that way. leds emit light totally different from incandescents. it's not LED i'm hating on, it's conversions.

Originally Posted by cc700 (Post 108559)

Why?

in fact, to every person that likes led i'd ask the same thing:


WHY?

halogen lamps are a subset of incandescent. most if not all interior lamps are not halogen, they are incandescent and low power.

if you think blue light looks nice, that's fine... but you should realize that there are only a handful of reasons why LEDs are 'better' and none of those apply to a car that was designed for incandescents in the first ten years of use.

1. longevity
led's last a long time when they are high quality and shielded from the elements properly. when they're not, they do fail and generally the super cheap ones are cheap for a reason- high quality costs more.

2. power usage
led's are very efficient, and don't have as much thermal output so more of the input gets converted to light. however, the power usage has to be specifically designed into the eletrical system. if you just place an LED into a system that is used to pulling the type of power a small, efficient incandescent bulb pulls, it will likely not use any less power, especially with a resistor, the resistor will eat up the rest of the power. that's its job.

3. looks/aethetic
leds have a different wavelength and spectrum and generally a different quality of light to them. they are generally lower in spectrum coverage as most of these 'cool white' leds are just blue leds with some nasty chemical filters over them to make them appear whiter. i say nasty because the ways they make these are more noxious and toxic even than incandescents, which require tons of mining and toxic manufacturing themselves. a lot of people don't like the yellowish white of an incandescent because it gives a calmer, more 'fire-like' dim feeling, even if it's not dimmer.

the thing is... the car is designed for a particular type of bulb. putting in LEDs to an incandescent system can work quite well but it can also be a HUGE problem with spotty/uneven gauges and intense light that is generally counter-productive to night vision and being able to see well outside of the car.


longevity: incandescent lights are such low power, they're going to last ten years or more. they will be cheap to replace. you can replace them one at a time. you aren't going to have to worry about their quality because they're oem. LED's can fail at any time just from getting too hot. maybe you leave your heater on and just because of how the air is blowing inside the cabin, it fries your leds. or maybe not. but this isn't a reason to do a conversion, especially less than five years off the lot.

power usage - not going to help. the alternator's draw isn't going to be affected, there are no noticeable energy savings.

looks - i think it looks dumb. at worst, you will have lights that fail without warning and you won't be able to adjust brightness the way you can with incandescents. at best, you have blue lights. gross.

So why do people like this? because you want to have a high end bmw? so stupid. I did an LED conversion on my impreza, it's the worst thing i've done and i'm very unhappy with it. gauges are all sorts of unevenly lit, and one led went out near the HVAC.
:barf:


also, for LED fog lights i'd be concerned about color rendering indexes, even those CREE XM-L will have a very hard time cutting through fog and it will be harder to see by them through fog conditions.
unless, you only like fog lights for looks and you run them in clear conditions. in which case, see above. stupid.

Originally Posted by cc700 (Post 108559)

Why?

in fact, to every person that likes led i'd ask the same thing:


WHY?

halogen lamps are a subset of incandescent. most if not all interior lamps are not halogen, they are incandescent and low power.

if you think blue light looks nice, that's fine... but you should realize that there are only a handful of reasons why LEDs are 'better' and none of those apply to a car that was designed for incandescents in the first ten years of use.

1. longevity
led's last a long time when they are high quality and shielded from the elements properly. when they're not, they do fail and generally the super cheap ones are cheap for a reason- high quality costs more.

2. power usage
led's are very efficient, and don't have as much thermal output so more of the input gets converted to light. however, the power usage has to be specifically designed into the eletrical system. if you just place an LED into a system that is used to pulling the type of power a small, efficient incandescent bulb pulls, it will likely not use any less power, especially with a resistor, the resistor will eat up the rest of the power. that's its job.

3. looks/aethetic
leds have a different wavelength and spectrum and generally a different quality of light to them. they are generally lower in spectrum coverage as most of these 'cool white' leds are just blue leds with some nasty chemical filters over them to make them appear whiter. i say nasty because the ways they make these are more noxious and toxic even than incandescents, which require tons of mining and toxic manufacturing themselves. a lot of people don't like the yellowish white of an incandescent because it gives a calmer, more 'fire-like' dim feeling, even if it's not dimmer.

the thing is... the car is designed for a particular type of bulb. putting in LEDs to an incandescent system can work quite well but it can also be a HUGE problem with spotty/uneven gauges and intense light that is generally counter-productive to night vision and being able to see well outside of the car.


longevity: incandescent lights are such low power, they're going to last ten years or more. they will be cheap to replace. you can replace them one at a time. you aren't going to have to worry about their quality because they're oem. LED's can fail at any time just from getting too hot. maybe you leave your heater on and just because of how the air is blowing inside the cabin, it fries your leds. or maybe not. but this isn't a reason to do a conversion, especially less than five years off the lot.

power usage - not going to help. the alternator's draw isn't going to be affected, there are no noticeable energy savings.

looks - i think it looks dumb. at worst, you will have lights that fail without warning and you won't be able to adjust brightness the way you can with incandescents. at best, you have blue lights. gross.

So why do people like this? because you want to have a high end bmw? so stupid. I did an LED conversion on my impreza, it's the worst thing i've done and i'm very unhappy with it. gauges are all sorts of unevenly lit, and one led went out near the HVAC.
:barf:


also, for LED fog lights i'd be concerned about color rendering indexes, even those CREE XM-L will have a very hard time cutting through fog and it will be harder to see by them through fog conditions.
unless, you only like fog lights for looks and you run them in clear conditions. in which case, see above. stupid.

Originally Posted by cc700 (Post 108649)

i did it myself. if i had simply done a subpar job and others were able to make it evenly lit, i would feel differently. every one i've seen is worse than OEM... and paying someone else to do it is ridiculous, how much money do you want to waste on having LED lighting?


but that wasn't my point. my point was why do it besides 'it looks cool'?

Originally Posted by [M] (Post 108854)

I think it is free of any harmful chemicals.

Originally Posted by Slide (Post 108836)

Shut the fuck up...

Originally Posted by [M] (Post 108854)

Sorry you had a bad experience with the Impreza, I, like yourself, did a half-ass job of doing a conversion in my first car. So I could see how you could think it was bad when you had spotty gauging and a bad one near the HVAC. But after using quality LEDs from reputable distributors, I haven't had any problems that you've discussed. Regarding you comment about shielding from the elements, most of the leds I would plan to change are either in the cabin or in some enclosure. Personally, like I mentioned before, I just like them. Even as you described it as a fire-like incandescent, I prefer something crisp and clean. Currently, the cool white I have now is not so blue as you would think. It's more white than anything, and no I think it is free of any harmful chemicals.

Originally Posted by Longhorn248 (Post 108937)

There are people that can make them evenly lit. Like you said you did a bad job and were too cheap to pay someone to do it. "It looks cool" and "It goes faster" are pretty much the two reasons people do any modifications to a car...

Originally Posted by cc700 (Post 108964)

:clap:

:happy0180: good for you then. maybe LED's have gotten better since i did mine. fwiw, i switched back to red 'bulb covers' on incandescents. white i think would bother my eyes' night vision too much, but everyone reacts differently to light so if you think you can see well i'll let you decide what you prefer on the inside of your car, as long as you aren't compensating with hid conversions or using your high beams or anything else that bugs me on your forward lighting. (all of which would make it worse off than just keeping everything stock, or doing a retrofit but not having bright interior lighting)

doing a good job with the 03 impreza cluster is hard work and you risk having to reset the needles or breaking them... it just wasn't worth it to me to waste more time on it. it's also not worth it to me to pay someone else to do it. call me cheap but i give more freely of my time and money to things far better and more important than cars to listen to this.


i was looking for discussion about what makes LEDs better in a car that isn't designed with them. evidently, no one wants to discuss that, they just want to talk up an inferior product(even the highest quality led conversion bulbs are an inferior product to using what the car was designed for) just because it looks cool. 'it goes faster' does not apply here. 'it increases road-feel' does not apply here. 'it's safer' does not apply here. 'it's more practical' does not apply here. 'it increases the car's utility' does not apply here. 'it makes the car more efficient' does not apply here.

just as long as you're willing to agree to that, i'm willing to say that i did a bad job trying to convert my car's interior illumination and that i'm too cheap to spend money on getting it redone when it's all just for looks anyway.



more to the point, if i get a BRZ/FR-S i will be keeping the bulbs stock. odds are if i wanted to resell it, a potential buyer would take my opinion on this over yours, and i'm happier not spending money trying to look cool.

Originally Posted by cc700 (Post 108964)

i was looking for discussion about what makes LEDs better in a car that isn't designed with them. evidently, no one wants to discuss that, they just want to talk up an inferior product(even the highest quality led conversion bulbs are an inferior product to using what the car was designed for) just because it looks cool.

Originally Posted by cc700 (Post 108964)

:clap:

Originally Posted by encity5 (Post 246515)

What are the sizes of the dome lights and various other interior lights of this car? (trunk)

And does anyone have any links to stores where they got their LEDs that fit in this car?