highlandsun
Enlightened
Generally I see folks here all over these LED mods because the LED version of a light is more efficient, provides better light longer, etc... I.e., there are many tangible benefits to doing a conversion. When I contemplate replacing my car's front turn signals with amber Luxeon stars, I don't see a ton of compelling benefits, and I do see a huge expense. Would you consider spending this kind of money yourself?
I actually started down this path because 3 of the 4 bulbs in my original front corner lamps had burned out within a couple weeks of each other. (two 194s, one 1157 burned out.) These were the original bulbs, on my '97 Probe GTS. On this car, unless you have very long/thin hands and arms and can reach through the wheelwell, you have to remove the front bumper cover to get at these bulbs. That is quite a lot of hassle to replace a couple lousy bulbs, and certainly not something I'd want to do more than once.
At this point, the idea of a long-life LED starts to sound really good. But still, incandescent signal bulbs are like 20 cents each, and getting the equivalent light output from LEDs will cost well over $100. It's hard to justify this mod on a dollar-value criteria.
Anyway, not being one to shy away from spending money on my car, I ordered Ford's Euro-Spec corner lamps, which have two external mounting screws which let you get access to change the bulbs without having to remove the entire bumper cover. How clever; I wonder why Ford didn't do the same thing for their US lamps. Anyway, that was $120 each already spent. These Euro-Spec lamps also have clear lenses, which is kinda cool, if not overly trendy...
At this point I could say my original problem is now solved - the bulbs are easily replacable, end of story.
But no... The Euro-Spec lamp doesn't use the same bulbs as the US-spec, nor are they mounted in exactly the same configuration. The US lamp uses an 1157 in front and a 194 on the side. The Euro lamp uses a 194 farther in front and an 1156, also in front, with a blank reflector on the side. This leaves me with very little side-illumination, something that you generally would like to have, particularly for a *turn signal*.
Aside from that, things just look ugly with a clear 194 mounted there next to an amber 1157 bulb. (Fortunately the lamps use the same harness connectors, so I can use my US harness and keep the 1157 marker/flasher functionality. The 1156 bulb has a different mounting ring but if you twist & push a while you can make the 1157 fit.) The 194 has that weak, sickly yellowish coloring, which is all the more obvious next to my (very white) HID headlamps, amber 1157, and dichroic yellow fog lights.
I quickly decided to ditch the incandescents and try those drop-in LED bulb replacements. So, now I have a uniform amber color in the 194 and 1157 locations, but their light output is a joke. I'm amazed that selling these things is legal. A 194 puts out 25 lumens, this 4-LED 194 replacement probably puts out 4 lumens, tops. The high beam on an amber 1157 puts out 300 lumens, the little 1157 LED bulb probably puts out 15 lumens at best. (They're just clusters of 5mm LEDs and I seldom see any individual LED with anywhere near 1 lumen output.)
So, I've started designing with some 1W amber Luxeons... At the moment I'm planning on 4 in series; they will be extremely underdriven in the normal marker/parking light role. The corner light only needs to put out 50 lumens; by using 4 1W Luxeons I can space them evenly in the corner lamp and light up the dead spot that is currently just a flat reflector. For flashing they'll be slightly overdriven. The total output from 4 ambers at normal spec (350mA) should only be 144 lumens, still far short of the 300 from the incandescent. But at the moment I'm not willing to buy the extra Luxeons that would only be used for a fraction of their existence...
Considering that I've already spent over $1000 on HID headlamps (2 different kits) and a couple hundred on the corner lamps thus far, I guess it's not such a huge leap to spend another couple hundred to make this happen. But sometimes I wonder if it's really worth the effort and the cost, especially looking at the cheap price of incandescent bulbs. And while LED life is certainly a consideration, electrical efficiency really isn't; in fact it's somewhat of a drawback since the ultra-low current consumption makes my turn-signal flasher think there's a bulb missing...
So - in a similar situation, would you do this mod, or would you just buy some decent incandescent bulbs and call it a day?
I actually started down this path because 3 of the 4 bulbs in my original front corner lamps had burned out within a couple weeks of each other. (two 194s, one 1157 burned out.) These were the original bulbs, on my '97 Probe GTS. On this car, unless you have very long/thin hands and arms and can reach through the wheelwell, you have to remove the front bumper cover to get at these bulbs. That is quite a lot of hassle to replace a couple lousy bulbs, and certainly not something I'd want to do more than once.
At this point, the idea of a long-life LED starts to sound really good. But still, incandescent signal bulbs are like 20 cents each, and getting the equivalent light output from LEDs will cost well over $100. It's hard to justify this mod on a dollar-value criteria.
Anyway, not being one to shy away from spending money on my car, I ordered Ford's Euro-Spec corner lamps, which have two external mounting screws which let you get access to change the bulbs without having to remove the entire bumper cover. How clever; I wonder why Ford didn't do the same thing for their US lamps. Anyway, that was $120 each already spent. These Euro-Spec lamps also have clear lenses, which is kinda cool, if not overly trendy...
At this point I could say my original problem is now solved - the bulbs are easily replacable, end of story.
But no... The Euro-Spec lamp doesn't use the same bulbs as the US-spec, nor are they mounted in exactly the same configuration. The US lamp uses an 1157 in front and a 194 on the side. The Euro lamp uses a 194 farther in front and an 1156, also in front, with a blank reflector on the side. This leaves me with very little side-illumination, something that you generally would like to have, particularly for a *turn signal*.
Aside from that, things just look ugly with a clear 194 mounted there next to an amber 1157 bulb. (Fortunately the lamps use the same harness connectors, so I can use my US harness and keep the 1157 marker/flasher functionality. The 1156 bulb has a different mounting ring but if you twist & push a while you can make the 1157 fit.) The 194 has that weak, sickly yellowish coloring, which is all the more obvious next to my (very white) HID headlamps, amber 1157, and dichroic yellow fog lights.
I quickly decided to ditch the incandescents and try those drop-in LED bulb replacements. So, now I have a uniform amber color in the 194 and 1157 locations, but their light output is a joke. I'm amazed that selling these things is legal. A 194 puts out 25 lumens, this 4-LED 194 replacement probably puts out 4 lumens, tops. The high beam on an amber 1157 puts out 300 lumens, the little 1157 LED bulb probably puts out 15 lumens at best. (They're just clusters of 5mm LEDs and I seldom see any individual LED with anywhere near 1 lumen output.)
So, I've started designing with some 1W amber Luxeons... At the moment I'm planning on 4 in series; they will be extremely underdriven in the normal marker/parking light role. The corner light only needs to put out 50 lumens; by using 4 1W Luxeons I can space them evenly in the corner lamp and light up the dead spot that is currently just a flat reflector. For flashing they'll be slightly overdriven. The total output from 4 ambers at normal spec (350mA) should only be 144 lumens, still far short of the 300 from the incandescent. But at the moment I'm not willing to buy the extra Luxeons that would only be used for a fraction of their existence...
Considering that I've already spent over $1000 on HID headlamps (2 different kits) and a couple hundred on the corner lamps thus far, I guess it's not such a huge leap to spend another couple hundred to make this happen. But sometimes I wonder if it's really worth the effort and the cost, especially looking at the cheap price of incandescent bulbs. And while LED life is certainly a consideration, electrical efficiency really isn't; in fact it's somewhat of a drawback since the ultra-low current consumption makes my turn-signal flasher think there's a bulb missing...
So - in a similar situation, would you do this mod, or would you just buy some decent incandescent bulbs and call it a day?
