SHADY280

so ive been tired of a huge amp draw on my car from all the lights. so went and did an inventory of all the bulbs on it, and ordered a crap load of them from ebay. they all came and i installed them all (everything except headlights of course) it made a massive difference in the amp draw of the car. now if you ever have disconnected your alternator power and listened to the cars idle go faster, youll know how much power you could potentially gain by reducing alternator draw. im figuring ive gained about 20 amps of power just by this upgrade!! what that turnes into in hp, is beyond me, but it was a great upgrade. total including shipping from an american supplier (not from hong kong) was 130 bux. plus i had to buy an electronic flasher unit from my parts place to make the blinkers go the correct speed. im happy, and now my dash is blue backlit. my interior dome and kick panel lights are bright white as well as my reverse lights. other than that you cant even tell they are led. plus they activate very quick unlike regular bulbs. your message center will display that the bulbs are burnt out, you could install a relay, but i havent yet. for those who wish to upgrade your gonna need the following bulbs

tail 1157 red x4
rear turn 1156 amber x2
reverse 1156 white x2
licience plate #67 white x2
dome 31mm festoon
kick&dash 194 white (turn signals/warning lights) x10
backlight 194 blue x10
front turn 1157 amber x2
electronic flasher unit

entropy31

sounds neat! any pics?

snwbrderphat540

total rice. lol jk, LED's are great

njgheewala

sounds really nice...can you get some pictures posted like entropy31 said?

280zx2by2

BALLIN!!!!!! light emiting diodes ftw!!!!

Bleach

Excellent! Now convert your car to electric.

lww

Since the tail lights, turn signals, side markers and gauge lights are already behind colored lenses, you'll get better brightness and light penetration if you go with white LED's.

I definitely like the idea of using alternative colors for the dash back lighting. That blue would be nice with white gauge faces.

Here's the list I used from http://www.superbrightleds.com

Qty Product Total
4 BA15 19-LED bulb Wide White 1157-W19 3.00 $ 39.96
2 BA15 19-LED bulb Wide Amber 1157-A19 $ 13.98
4 BA15 19-LED bulb Wide White 1156-W19 3.00 $ 39.96
20 WLED-W-x 120 Degree White 0.60 $ 27.80
1 3022-W9 LED White Festoon bulb $ 4.95
2 RL-650 Tail Light Load Resistor kit $ 9.90 (fixes warning light)
1 CF13JL-02 LED bulb Flasher Unit $ 12.95 (fixes flasher speed)

Total was $149.50 + $5 s/h = $154.50

The 19 LED 1156/1157 bulbs have a 120 degree wide angle coverage so it fills the lens.

Good luck,
LWW

Niku-Sama

thats alot for LEDs i am sure same angle and mcd can be had for less.

i wanna see some pics.
any plans on headlights at all?

SHADY280

i used the colors that matched the lens color for an ultimate deep color look. they really dont look any different than stock when turned on, its becasue of the lens that you cant really see. the only thing that ppl would notice is how fast the activate, there is no fade on fade off. the blue backlight is sweet, totally transformed the dash. i had white face guage stick onz, but thet let no light thru them, so it ends up being near impossible to see at night, so kept the stock look, but the blue shows thru. although ive yet to install them in the main cluster due to time constraints.

Niku-Sama

wait i am just going over your list again, the dash lights are just 194's with color condoms on them?

lww

Yes, that's correct. Obviously, the condoms don't fit over the LED's.

Z Car Barbie

What bulbs are you using for the headlights? I see that you have smoked lenses, like me - distorts the visibility range with stockers ... and sucks.

snwbrderphat540

holy crap!!!! my zdriver gf lol.... i misssseeeedddd you!!!!

SHADY280

i used some ebay diamond cut lights for headlights, then apc ricer bulbs. i can see quite well at night with them. yes the dash lights are just colored leds, no condom covers, you can get almost any popular normal color. for snwy he can get purple.

snwbrderphat540

poypul! im more of a rosey color

duowing

now we just figure out where we can get an LED headlight conversion. I believe Audi is using them on the V10 R8. I think Cadillac offers LED headlights as an upgrade for one of their cars.

snwbrderphat540

LED daylights are the new audi, as far as actual HEADLIGHTS i dont think they do.

duowing

Maybe I read wrong, but I swear I thought I read that they were going to start using actual LED headlights

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/30/a...led-headlamps/

snwbrderphat540

oh yeah R8, haha, idk why but i was thinking like an RS model. that makes sense. yeah thats cool, ridiculously expensive though.

Bleach

HID uses fewer amps than halogen bulbs so wouldn't that be the alternative?

snwbrderphat540

yes it would, the ballast render it more efficient.

duowing

I still want to do the HID conversion. I remember I was linked to a website once that actually sold the HID conversion lenses for our style headlamp, but they were ridiculously expensive. I did buy a pair of those cheapo ebay lights a good while back, and ended up breaking them trying to get them apart. I may try it again eventually...

Niku-Sama

pics!

hughdogz

Sounds like a great mod! How much was the electronic flasher relay? I've seen them go for $20-60. And how many did you need to buy?

Sweet!

[Edit: Doh! WW already said "1 CF13JL-02 LED bulb Flasher Unit $ 12.95 (fixes flasher speed)" ]

hughdogz

Hi Shady, did you get that 20A figure from adding up the wattages of the stock bulbs? (minus the LED's draw)

Say that it is 20A, then on a 12V system, (power= voltage * current) that is 240 Watts.

1 HP = 746.7 Watts. So 240 watts is 0.32 HP. If the alternator is 50% efficient, It is still less than one horsepower, but every bit counts, right?