maecrispy

A while back, someone (forget who) PM'd me about the look of 245/45R17's. IMHO, stock 235/45R17 EL-42's look too thin. Replaced with gForce KDWS 245/45R17. Did 45's to add a bit more tire to look 'beefier'. Goin' down to 40's would have given me the same look as stock, just wider.

Anyway, for anyone interested in the look, here are pics I promised long time ago (but just now got around to shooting):

http://homepage.mac.com/maecrispy/PhotoAlbum7.html

Everything else is stock except for light mods and mud guards (which I happen to like the look of on SSM and are pretty much necessary here in MI.)

Vffr1

Looks nice! Thanks for sharing.

Mike Smeezy,
TA President

groper

where do we get the dome leds?

maecrispy

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...gi?product=CAR

Last I checked though, the pop-up menu for WLED-6's only showed red and blue (even though white should be an option.)

PetesTL

Any change in ride/handling from stocks? What about steering feel?

maecrispy

maecrispy

Big change. Handling is up big time. I assume, mostly due to upgrade to gForce KDWS which is a *lot* grippier than the EL-42's. I'm sure wider contact patch improves handling as well. gForce's *love* corners.

Ride is a bit smoother than EL-42's but not enough to upgrade to if that were the only factor. I had 0804's and didn't really see any vibration issues with stock.

Road noise is pretty low although in my experience, P Zero Nero's were quieter. gForce's are *defintely* quieter than the Michelin Pilot A/S I tried.

Steering doesn't feel quite as 'light' as when EL-42's were on but that's to be expected. Acceleration is down just a tiny bit as well but again, to be expected since there's more rubber and probably weighs a bit more.

Handling is what makes it worth it for me. Haven't been able to make these slip yet.

boltjames

maecrisp- I really like the white LED's in the domes, but tell us.....is there a noticible difference in brightness that's actually useful or is it just for a nice "look"? It would make sense that the yellowish hue of the stock domes is sort of mellow and gentle whereas the white LED's would be very stark and bright. Is that the case? Have you put white LED's in the door's or only blue?

maecrispy

sup boltjames

There is a noticeable change in overall cabin brightness (and for the record, I changed all 4 domes (driver, passenger, left and right rear.) Overall brightness is down.

The bad: overall brightness is down. This is because LED's throw all of their light forward. Very little light radiates to the sides so you don't get as much reflected light from the dome casings. Also, the light is more 'focused'. Brighter spot where LED points but light tapers off after that. Stock bulbs are incandescent so they radiate light more and you get more even lighting.

The good: since LED's radiate light to the sides less and light is more focused, I find it very easy to drive even when the front passenger dome is on. Can't say that for stock bulbs. Also, at least with the WLED-6's (6 led's in one bulb), LED is still bright enough for passenger to ready by

Best part: with ebony, the look is just tech. Cabin color is cooler and black leather looks dark and deep. It also complements the blue highlighting in the cabin.

boltjames

Thanks maecrisp. Related question that you may be able to answer.....on my 1995 Legend GS there was an option to keep the floor lighting *on* while you were driving. Had a variable adjuster so that you could have a bright cabin or just a mood light. I found this very useful and was wondering if you might know a way to get those blue LED's in the doors to glow when the doors are closed? I like the blue hue on the shifter at night....would be great to put that same blue hue at the feet of all four occupants.

Donte99TL

Are the WLED-6's the ones that go in the door? Which ones do I use for the cabin lights?

maecrispy

Interesting. As far as all 4 passengers, it would only work for front driver/passenger. I don't believe the rear has courtesy lights. Have to checka gain after work.

As far as having them on while driving, there's no way to do it as is. I'm sure you could redo some wiring to do what you want but I'm not the guy to turn to for that sort of thing.

I'd suggest PM'ing nd4spd as he's done some excellent re-wiring with his TL (I believe he's the one that changed his side running lights to co-ordinate with his blinkers.)

maecrispy

Both the T13's and the WLED's will fit in the door. The T13 bulbs are larger and will extend right up to the cover. The WLED's are shorter and will not extend as far.

The difference in lighting is that the T13's will create a bright blue spot on the cover and the light will be more intense. The WLED's will create a less of a spot on the cover and overall lighting will be down as compared to the T13's.

I used T13-B6's in the doors.

For cabin lights, I used WLED-W6's. I wasn't sure if the T13's (with their bigger size) would fit. Also, I did want to decrease the overall lighting in the cabin a bit while still preserving readability. WLED-W6's worked out very well. WLED-W4's would have been too dim, IMHO.

maecrispy

BTW, the WLED-W6's are hard to find on the superbrights web site. Looks like they're out of stock but are on order and should arrive around 4/30.

TLJohn looked this up and found this pag:

http://www.superbrightleds.com/nostock&newleds.htm

Zeuser

Hmmmm.... 245/45-17 ? That's not exactly an accurate "plus size". how off is your speedo now?

You do know how to test speedo accuracy with the Navi right?

maecrispy

Yah, I know. It's off by an acceptable amount to me though. It's off by 1.4%. So at 60 mph, I'm really going 60.8 mph.

Before purchasing, I used this to calc tire size:

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

Don't know about using Navi to test speedo. Instructions please? :o

rynpamn21

great pics thanks