¿GotJazz?

This is soooooooooo cool! :smokin:

OK, so I had an idea last night because I was having so much trouble removing the dome lights.

This worked so well, you can now easily remove the bulbs safely in under about a minute each.

(1) Get some 5/8" diameter shrink tubing (should be available at Radio Shack or other electronics parts stores). A 3" length is more than enough to remove 2 bulbs - You can flip one piece over to reuse it.

(2) Get in the car and remove the covers for the dome lights.

(3) Let the dome lights fade out. Wait another minute or so for the bulb to cool down.

(4) Once the bulb is cool to the touch, put the shrink wrap tube around the bulb, up to the base of the bulb.

(5) Turn on the light with the switch. Make sure that part of the shrink wrap touches the bulb.

(6) The heat from the bulb will shrink the shrink-wrap in about 30 seconds or so. You should see the shrink wrap getting smaller in the bulb area. Don't overheat and don't twist the shrink wrap around!

(7) Turn off the light when it looks like the shrink wrap has shrunk around the entire bulb. Let it become just warm to the touch (about a minute or two).

(8) Pull the bulb straight out - You'll be amazed how easy it comes out now!

(9) While the wrap is still warm, you can peel off the wrap from the bulb and save the bulb for later.

That's it!

Pretty simple, hmmm?

¿McGyverJazz?

Novice

Pictures, please.

¿GotJazz?

Of what?

Lore

Are you using the shrinkwrap as a larger grabbing area? Otherwise I'm not really sure why it helps (I haven't opened up the dome light covers yet so I haven't seen the size of the bulbs)

rynpamn21

great TIP...i will most likely do this when i have time to do that mod...i'm still waiting for my bulbs to come....leds i mean

dcarlinf1

Mine all came out ok except for one in the rear. My wife has a rubber grip pad thingy she uses to open jars and such. Using that and needle nose pliers that final stubborn light came right out. My index fingers are still sore from trying to get those damn things out!! It's been almost a week now.

bollywood21

Great idea!!!

My dome light installation was a disaster. I worked on trying to get those dam dome light out for a while for approximately 10 minuteS. Finally, I actually broke the bulb. The result was some small pieces of glass were stuck in the fixture that I tried to remove with a very small screw driver another 15 minutes elapses. Finally, I ended up blowing the fuse. This caused the interior lights to turn OFF as well as the KEY FOB stops working!!!!

I went to the dealer and was very polite. They hooked me up!!
They removed the small fragments of glass from the one dome light, replaced the fuse, and switched out the remaining 3 three dome lights.

Embarassed to tell the story, but it is true. JUST BE CAREFUL.

¿GotJazz?

You get two advantages:

When the shrink wrap has "shrunk", you have solid contact on almost the entire surface area of the bulb. Think of it like the old "Chinese Handcuffs" party favor. When you pull, you're pulling the whole bulb, not just two small points of contact.

The extra couple of inches of shrink wrap that extends beyond the bulb gives you a "handle" to pull with. The "handle" part of the shrink wrap is located conveniently outside of the extremely confined dome light area, making it easy to grasp and pull.

The only thing I was worried about was if the dome bulb's heat was enough to shrink the tubing. It worked perfectly, so you don't have to drag a heat gun or lighter with you to get the shrink wrap to shrink.

Also, since the shrinkwrap applies force uniformly around the bulb when it shrinks, it is a lot less likely to cause the bulb to break.

I love elegant solutions!

Tajam

OMG JAZZ THANKS MAN!!!!!!

My thumb kills, and I was going to quit on putting the leds in.



jazz you're awesome

car_lost

you guys are wasting your money replacing the door and mapl ights with LED's. they will burn out quicker than a regular bulb by being in the open air element.

¿GotJazz?

Excuse me? What are you smoking?

MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) on LEDs generally approaches 100,000 hours.

car_lost

i understand that, but they wont last long as dome lights and door lights. they are open to the air and natural elements. they wont last very long.

Tajam

when I take out the bulbs and insert the LEDs, is it just as hard to take out the LED as in the bulbs or easier now..?

NathanSilver

Great tip GotJazz.

What about the index finger:
a drop of superglue, apply pressure to the bulb, wait 30 seconds, and pull finger down?
Viola!
9 more digits available after that--I could do the domelights on 2 cars, (until the skin grows back)??????

The shrink tubing is a great idea.
How many beers did it take?

jdl75

I'm not sure where your impression of LED's comes from - generally, LED's are sealed when you buy them. "Exposing" them to the elements isn't going to shorten their life span any. You're only exposing the outer casing, and it's more durable than a light bulb.

¿GotJazz?

AcuraTLS03 - I'm curious where you are getting your information from. LEDs last so much longer than light bulbs that you'll probably never replace them in your car. In fact, you can probably move them into the next couple of cars that you own. Lots of standard light bulbs only last a couple of thousand hours compared to the estimated 100,000 of an LED. (Note: I don't know if the lifetime of the car light bulb is longer than a standard 120VAC bulb - it's a much lower wattage than a standard bulb, so it generates a lot less heat, so it could last a bit longer)

The LEDs are sealed in a plastic casing. They won't be exposed to the elements. Also, there really isn't anything to "burn out" in an LED - not like a light bulb that has a hot filiment. Also, LEDs take less power to produce light because they aren't heating a sliver of metal until it is hot enough to glow. Instead, they are exciting electrons in a semiconductor material which eventually results in photons being transmitted at a specific frequency when the electrons return to their original orbital state (if I remember my Semiconductor Physics class correctly). There's almost no wasted energy - just generated light. There is almost no heat involved, so there's a lot less wear 'n tear on an LED. Heat is one of the most common reasons that causes many things to fail.

Talk about nasty environments ... Look at the recommended LED replacement for standard bulbs being done HERE. Oh, and be sure to note the light bulb times listed in this article. I put my estimated light bulb/LED lifetime numbers in this message before I found that site, but the ad supports my numbers.

Tajam - I'll let you know tomorrow when my WLED-W6s arrive.

¿GotJazz?

None before. It may actually be my first sober idea.

I'll let you know tomorrow how many celebratory beers I had afterward, though!

¿GotJazz?

BTW, The 5/8 inch diameter tubing is measured across the tube when the tube is squashed flat, not when it's circular.

car_lost

edglang (a member here) once replaced all his bulbs with LED's... didnt take long for them to burnout.

i replaced my two maplight bulbs with LED from www.ledtronics.com (194/168 type) which is a very reputable comapny... they stopped working after 4 or 5 months.

i also replaced one of my parking light bulbs with the same exact bulbs at the same time as the map lights and to this day they still work.

¿GotJazz?

I guess we'll see (There's a lot of folks putting them in).

However, if you're seeing the LED "bulb death", it's not because the LEDs died. It's because the engineers that designed the LED bulbs didn't do a good job. There's more inside the LED bulbs than just the LEDs.

For example, there needs to be a diode bridge to make sure that the LED bulbs aren't "polarized" (light only one direction). Also, there needs to be some noise rejection circuitry to prevent spikes from reaching the actual LEDs in the circuitry.

If the hardware design engineers did a poor job, you may see early LED bulb death - but not due to the LEDs themselves.

Tajam

Dont forget the Two blue lights next to the Homelink, are leds

narmeen

So whats the FINAL word on these lights?

Should I get the WLED or the TLED ones and also what are you'll suggestions about the Blue (wled b6) VS. White (wled w6) FRONT dome lights?

¿GotJazz?

Use WLEDS only, don't use the T-13s.

For the front dome lights, I've tried both the WLED-W4, WLED-W6, and the WLED-B6.

The results:

WLED-W6: Brighter than the stock bulbs, but not overly so. Provides "whiter" light than the WLED-W4. These are the "keepers".

WLED-W4: More "blue" than the WLED-W6 (obviously), and adequate for reading. Light output is probably more comparable to the stock bulbs. If you want to get subtle blue effects to go with the TL's interior lighting, you may want to consider these. However, I'm not sure if www.superbrightleds.com is reformulating the WLED series - my newer WLED-W6 bulbs were a smaller form factor than the WLED-W4 bulbs I got a few weeks earlier. Newer WLED-W4s may also have a "whiter" light similar to the WLED-W6.

WLED-B6: Way too blue in my opinion. Had a decent amount of light output, but made reading a lot more of an eye strain. I tried reading a road map with the WLED-B6 (even though I have the Navi, not everybody does), and there were some odd color artifacts and it was challenging reading. I wouldn't recommend them at all, but to each their own ...

9600Gator

¿GotJazz?,
Thanks for the great tip. Removing the stock dome (front and rear) bulbs was a breeze (no more than 30 seconds each) with the shrink tube. I didn't even need to heat the tube; I used it only for grip.

¿GotJazz?

9600Gator -

I thought that it was extremely cool that the lamp's own heat would shrink the tubing to help in it's removal. Glad it worked well for you even without the need to shrink the tubing!

senorcalligilli

Nice idea but I didn't have heat shrink tubing or the time to run out and buy so I wrapped the end of a pair of needle nose pliers with several layers electrical tape. Did the trick!

CLtotheTL32

iTrader: (3)

Wow I believe this wins for being the oldest bump ever in the 3G section.

SenorCalligilli thanks for actually searching for a topic unlike some members around here.

The Big Dog!

I used a small screwdriver and got all the bulbs out, no problem! Just used a bit on care and patience!

I used LED's but liked the stock lighting look so I got a hold of 10 watt bulbs instead. I believe the stock bulbs were 5 watts. Brighter stock look with no heat or melting issues. I have them in the puddle lights in the doors too. Got the 10 watt bulbs from 1000 bulbs.com.........

I would have preferred to use a lower wattage/cooler bulbs like LED's but found I could see better with the warmer stock look.

dwb993

iTrader: (13)

6 year bump? Wow.
Scotch tape does this same trick and is cheaper/easier.

YeuEmMaiMai

u are full of crap man

dome and door lights are NOT open to the elements, they are covered with lenses just like every other light except for the trunk light and possibly the glove box light.

LEDs are encased in plastic and are not affected by exposure to the "elements"