Flyer92

Drei, I ordered the same Cree bulbs as the ones you're running for the License plate. Regarding the install, any insights or additional info I need to know when it comes time to install. I know you mentioned there was an issue with a plastic clip not clipping-in. Did you end up securing it somehow or it was not a problem as is. Any info will help so this goes smoothly.

Drei

iTrader: (2)

Sure




So once you remove the trunk liner and have access to the license plate housings, make sure when you plug in the CREE LED that it is facing downwards and not upright in the housing.

Also, make sure the housing (part #15 in the diagram) is somewhat secured onto the lens (part #17 in the diagram). Once you found the sweet spot (and you will), do a few trunk closings and if it stays put, you've successfully installed it.

Turn on your exterior lights and make sure they turn on, if they don't, take em out and flip them. Be careful though, they will get hot after a while of them being on!

If you have access to a garage, drive the car inside and check for that even, crisp, sharp line on the ground like guitarplayer16's picture I uploaded! If it's there, you're done

EddieOnAZ

You can also test them before clipping them back in the housing. Just let them hang with the wire/socket and test. If they don't light up, switch them around and they should be good.

EddieOnAZ

Hey do any of you guys know what's the maximum length our license plate bulbs can be? Just curious because the bulbs I put in are so tiny, even though they work I'm sure I could find bigger ones to utilize the space better and get a better output :P

guitarplayer16

iTrader: (8)

Only way is to measure.

Measure the length of your bulb, put it in the socket, then measure how much space you have left, then add to initial length of the bulb.

Old school method.

EddieOnAZ

Haha yeah, I just went ahead and bought some bulbs that are 1.10 inches long, I figure if the other guy on page 1's bulbs are 1.25 inches and they barely prevent the grey clips from clipping 1.10 should be ok
And if it's not then I just wasted 2$

vietxquangstah

iTrader: (7)

Yup i'm one picky mother fucker when it comes to LED lights. I try to go for the natural white look because the bluish white isn't my taste. Some people prefer to bluish white look while some don't even see a difference.

Well I got my 20pc amazon bulbs in today and I was right about the color output. They are not 5k white at all.

Right side (passenger) is the new amazon 5 LED bulb.
Left side (drivers) is my V-LEDs 1 LED bulb





Side by side you can clearly see the difference. When I tried taking a picture of the Amazon bulb by itself it looked white with no other color. When I turned the true 5k white LED on my camera was able to instantly pickup the color difference between the two.

My VLED 1 LED bulb is brighter and closer to actual white.

Here are interior pictures. Kind of hard to tell but the drivers side is with the VLED bulb and passenger side is the amazon bulb. If you look closely you can see the passenger side isn't as bright and has a tinge of bluish/purple. Not enough to bother most, but enough to bother me.





Side by side bulb comparison.




From the pictures you provided and what you said Eddie, I can tell you're very happy with your purchase and that's good however it appears that you aren't as OCD as I am about color output. Your license plate and door lights look very 6k-8k color temp compared to the reverse lights.

Your headlights in the first picture clearly light up the snow in front of your car and the snow appears ice white like it should. Your license plate lights and door lights also light up the snow but it shows up as a different color. Very bluish/purplish. I find it hard to believe it's the camera playing tricks because if that was the case than your headlights would have made the snow appear the same color but it doesn't..

Honestly for the price you paid ($0.50 per bulb) I am not surprised they output that color because that color is very common among cheap LEDs.

vietxquangstah

iTrader: (7)

EddieOnAZ

Interesting. I think you're right, my lights look like your amazon ones I think. I personally prefer a little higher than 5000k though. In my opinion, completely getting rid of any orange/yellow hue is priority #1. With that in mind, 6000k might be better for me.

The brightness indeed looks very good on your v-leds, I've seen that bulb design before with the aluminum heat dispersing body, looks like quality.

By the way, your leather looks top notch in those pics, I'm jelly :P

EddieOnAZ

Ohh and don't you think you could've fit slightly bigger bulbs in there? I have 10smds in there right now and I'm waiting on a couple 12 and 15 5050 panels. I'm just trying stuff out really. For the price it doesn't bother me. Experimenting with 10 different types of bulbs/LED arrangement isn't even gonna cost 40$ and then I'll know what I like

I just love trying shit out xD

vietxquangstah

iTrader: (7)

I've had quite a few types of leds in there. I had 15 LED boards for awhile but they were too bright to the point that they would temporarily blind you if you turned them on at night.

I switched them out to 12 led boards thinking it was going to be less bright. I was wrong. Still too bright.

Went to 9 led boards. Still wasn't satisfied

Than I bought vleds hi powered 6 led bulbs. Still too bright.

Finally decided to try out the single hi powered led and it was perfect.

I've gone through even more leds in the past that I didn't even mention above.

I've gone through many high quality leds. The only eBay leds I used are panel board style leds that were 5k white and very bright.

In the beginning I used to think the brightest leds for the interior was the best, but over time you begin to realize it's pointless. You can only have do much usable light and anything more is just blinding. Why do you need the interior to be bright enough to perform surgery under?

They were so bright that my girlfriend ( never really says much about my car mods) was even bothered with them at night. It was already bothering me, but when I realized I wasn't the only one it was time to do something about it.

EddieOnAZ

Well apparently I'm going down the same path. If the panels are too bright I'll use them for the doors and the trunk and get v-leds stuff for the domes, I'd rather not though, so pricy.

vietxquangstah

iTrader: (7)

Did you already buy them? If not I highly recommend this seller.



http://www.ebay.com/itm/12-5050-SMD-LED-Dome-Light-Bulb-T10-BA9S-Festoon-White-/111111515444?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item19dec32d34

A few azine members recommended him to me and at one point I even had a thread with pictures but I think the pictures have been removed due to imageshack

vietxquangstah

iTrader: (7)

Nevermind some pictures still work.

Here's the thread with my comparison of those exact led boards sold by that exact seller

https://acurazine.com/forums/third-g...-board-878361/

By the way, those LED strips in my back seats were listed and sold as "WHITE" but with my led panel boards on you can obviously make out the color difference and see which one is truly white.

Since than I have replaced it with 5k white strips for both front and back seats

guitarplayer16

iTrader: (8)

I think I was the one that introduced snb331 to the forum.

https://acurazine.com/forums/photogr...terior-853228/

Which is why I was about to ask what you didn't like about them, they've lasted me since April 2012.
Then I read your posts.

Link me up with your pure white footwell LED strips, mine are too blue for my taste and they don't match the dome lights.

EddieonAZ, you saw my interior lights when we met up?

EddieOnAZ

Yeah your interior lighting was pretty much spot on if I remember correctly. My panels are already ordered though, both 15 and 12 5050 smd..we'll see

g4lif326

Do those plate lights require any modifications to make them work or can you just plug and play with the exception of the gray clips?

Flyer92

Nicely detailed. Thanks for the help Drei.

g4lif326

When you get them installed can you please post back. I'm debating between VLEDs and those.

If a lot of modification is needed to fit the ebay ones then i'll just go with the VLEDs.

Flyer92

Will do. They should be in by Wed, so I'll get them installed and post my thoughts and pictures by the end of the week.

g4lif326

Alright thanks, i'll be looking forward to it, good luck

HighTL

I installed these revere lights today and they are awesome!!

314_04TL

Damn those are bright

vietxquangstah

iTrader: (7)

link to reverse lights?

314_04TL

I second that

HighTL

haha yea now that I look at the pictures I posted it seems the right reverse light is more yellow than the left? I'll have to check it again tonight to make sure there is no color differences.

The link was previously posted here, I got them off EBAY, dt-autotech.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/331025694195?rmvSB=true

FamilyGuy

Vleds has worked great for me. A bit pricey, but they fit without any trouble or modifications, plenty bright, and after a year not a single one has burned out or over heated.

I have them on the doors, trunk, glove box, middle console, license plate and reverse lights.

Had them inside the cabin too but they were too bright (5k) and actually bothered passengers, plus we felt exposed whenever my girl used the mirror at night. I went back to the softer OEM bulbs for the inside.

I also have one of their DRL bulb options (from a year ago) but haven't gotten around to install them yet.

guitarplayer16

iTrader: (8)

damn, those are cheap.

I might just pick it up and compare to my VLEDs.

vietxquangstah

iTrader: (7)

Here's a co workers truck I installed these on. They are pretty bright compared to his OEM incandescent bulbs.






I bought 20 bulbs and already sold 12 of them to co workers. They all like the bulbs a lot.

This is my very first experience with purchasing Amazon LED bulbs and I would give these 5 out of 5 stars. Prior to this I was a anti amazon/ebay bulb person but after trying these out I would prefer using these for the interior, doors & trunk rather than buying those expensive & excessively bright 194 bulbs from VLEDs

314_04TL

Those do look nice. Im still waiting on mine

314_04TL

HighTL where did you get these lights?

HighTL

I mentioned in an earlier post buddy, ebay , seller is dt-autotech

2X 1200 Lumens High Power Chip LED White Backup Reverse Light Bulbs Projector | eBay

314_04TL

Damn your right just didn't look hard enough. Would have bit me in the ass. I just bought a few pairs

vietxquangstah

iTrader: (7)

So I just purchased those reverse lights from ebay seller DT-AUTOTECH.

I actually ordered 2 different ones on accident. My brother got a QX56 and wanted me to order some LED reverse lights for him so I did a quick search for "921 white LED" and these came up from DT-AUTOTECH

http://www.ebay.com/itm/231292258958?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT#
I purchased those and about 2 hours after I bought it I came back to this thread and realized I might have purchased the wrong ones.

The one someone recommended in this thread does not say "921" in the ebay title and that's why they never came up when I did a search for "921 white led". I went ahead and also ordered the ones someone recommended in this thread that can be seen here

http://www.ebay.com/itm/191325573984?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT#
Both ebay pictures look very identical but they aren't. One is listed as "2538" LED and the other is "2323" LED.

The ones with "2323" LED chips are 'advertised' at 1200 lumens
The ones with "2538" LED chips are 'advertised' at 900 lumens

Now I am very aware these lumen ratings are very inflated and no where near accurate, however I find it interesting that the seller lists the "2323" style chip as the more brighter out of two even though they look damn near the same. I don't know much about LED chips so maybe someone can enlighten me.

Anyways I received the bulbs today (haven't installed them) and I was surprised to see the small difference between the two. Here are the pictures.






I am going to guess the one on the left is the "2323" style LED chip because it's very squared shape whereas the one on the right is "almost" a perfect square so I think that one is the "2538" chip.

Like I said, I don't know which one is brighter out of the two yet.

The seller lists the "2323" style as the superior and brighter one with higher lumen ratings and also a previous Acurazine member recommended and showed pictures of the "2323" style specifically.

I'm going to install 1 of each style in the reverse lights and see how they compare.

I am currently using VLED reverse lights

http://www.vleds.com/shop-bulb-numbe...79-1-pair.html

If both are brighter than the VLED one than I am just going to use one of the sets and just put my VLED reverse lights in my moms Accord or dads EX35

EddieOnAZ

The vleds you already have look pretty good though. Why did you buy those other ones?

And concerning the brightness, I don't know much about the theory behind it but (from what I gathered) the size of the LEDs is already a better indicator of brightness than how many of them the seller threw on the bulb. Last ones I ordered were 12LED panels and 15LED panels. The 12 LED panels are actually brighter than the 15 ones, go figure..

Waldo

vietxquangstah, let us know which out of the 3 is the better one in your opionion, as i am in the hunt for some reverse lights myself, only thing is i have a back up camera, and that may be affected by the led, so may not be a good option for me.

vietxquangstah

iTrader: (7)

The reason why I bought those is because my brother wanted some for his QX56. After purchasing the first set I realized I ordered the wrong ones and ordered another set soon after. I told myself that if they are brighter than my current VLED one I was going to replace it.



I had CREE style LED reverse lights 3-4 years ago and they sucked. However years ago the CREE reverse lights only consisted of a LED (or 2) behind a glass/plastic projector lens. Output sucked because it shined light straight forward and not at the ground. When reversing at night you want to see what's on the ground near the car, not the color of the house across the street. On my backup camera it showed up as a giant white hotspot in the center of the display. It was useless, you couldn't make anything out.





These new style reverse lights incorporate a projector style lens as well as LEDs shining light 360 degrees around the bulb.

I don't know much about LED chips however I know for sure that you can't judge brightness solely on "the size of the LED" on the bulb. There are other factors that determine the brightness output of the LED chip.

A smaller LED chip can outshine a bigger LED chip even if the power source is the same between the two.

"5050 SMD" chips were known for being very bright (they are pretty big like you mentioned) however I have come across many smaller single LED chips that have the brightness equivalent to 3 or 5 "5050 SMD" chips together.

I have a 08 with a standard backup camera. The reason why I first purchased LED reverse lights (back in 2011) in the first place was to improve images in the back-up camera at night.

My brothers QX56 also has a standard back-up camera and he's getting LED reverse lights for the exact same reason.

cacheflowe

damn! lot of good info on this thread. will be ordering soon as well. Do these come in a 5k flavor?

on a side note, whats the best % off coupon you guys seen for VLEDs? need them drls converted over stat!

vietxquangstah

iTrader: (7)

Unfortunately you can't choose them in 5k. Only on Vleds can you choose 5k or 6k

Can't help you out with the coupon code.

cacheflowe

ah i see.. yeah im with you on the 5k train. 6k is too blue for me and I dont like the idea of having mismatched colors. let us know how those bulbs work out for ya. I'll prolly end up pulling the trigger on the vleds