So after 18+ months of people constantly badgering me to switch to clear sidemarkers, I finally pulled the trigger. However, I went with a more unconventional, unknown option...
Valenti Clears:
Unknown in that there are like.. maybe two posts tops mentioning them on the forums, and from what I could tell mostly only Japanese/Australian owners have them.
Most people around here I mentioned them to didn't even know Valenti make pieces other than headlights/taillights.
But, I felt like being unique and going with the riskier option (had been considering JDM OEM clears as most use).
These definitely winded up being risky. After receiving them, I found one side (passenger side) to actually be somewhat 'defective'. I was able to get it to work, but clearly the cutouts in the plastic weren't quite correct and somehow passed QA anyway (Japan I thought you're supposed to churn out all the reliable products!).
Pics of issue:
So this photo is of my OEM passenger light housing juxtaposed with the Valenti passenger side housings. You can clearly see that the "inner diameter" (as @
tehShirt informed me) is smaller in the Valenti cutout than the OEM. The jutting edges/teeth are longer and perhaps a bit wider than OEM. Needless to say this did not go on easily. I had so much trouble trying to insert the bulb insert plug that I was considering returning these to Amazon Japan. Fortunately I have a rather persistent coworker who was able to make it work with some wiggling here and there for a couple minutes.
Since I bought a new camera this weekend, I decided I'd try it out and see if I could get any interesting photos of the new sidemarkers on my car:
As for brightness, these are definitely brighter in darkness than the OEMs, so that'll help me feel maybe a bit safer at night.
We shall see how they go.