jreiter

iTrader: (6)

I personally find the stock dome light to be too bright. Do you think the 3-led 39mm bulb would be a bit dimmer than the stock setup? I definitely don't want a system that's brighter, so it sounds like the 9-led unit might be too much for me.

Acree

iTrader: (29)

jreiter, the 3 LED would definately be dimmer than the stock lighter. for like 10 bucks for 2 bulbs, it can't hurt anything to try them out. i would personally think that 3LED would be too dim, but then again that is all personal taste. my set up is, i would say about 98% as bright as the stock bulbs. hope that helped.

jreiter

iTrader: (6)

Really? So the 9-led units actually end up a tiny bit dimmer than stock (but basically the same)? Now I'm wondering if I could get the 9-led units, but maybe rotate them so they are facing up or to the side. That might dim them a little, eh? Can you verify that? Do the LEDs point in one direction, requiring your to rotate the bulb so that the leds are facing down in order to get the most brightness? If that's the case, rotating them upwards or sideways might do the trick.

Acree

iTrader: (29)

actually that's a really good idea. now that i think of that, get the 9 LED so u can aim it to the desired brightness urself. that's a good idea.

jreiter

iTrader: (6)

That's what I was hoping you could verify for me. Those led bulbs are indeed directional, then? So rotating them should result in at least some dimming?

Acree

iTrader: (29)

that is completely correct. i actually tried it tonight when i came in, and it works perfectly. u'll be able to dial in how much or little light you want.

Faluzure

Hey 350ZTwinTurbo, thanks again for pointing out this thread. A few more questions. You said the 39mm 9-LED festoon bulb will fit in the 350Z. Is there anything I need to know about before putting it in? Do I have to somewhat jam it in?

As for your parking lights, you said you get the Ares Luxeons. I'm assuming Ares made them right? I went to his website, but everything seems to be broken (broken images/links).

Acree

iTrader: (29)

No, you do not need to jam it.
My lights weren't made by Ares. i got them from the same website as the festoon bulbs. bulb size - 168, 5 LED matrix. it has one high flux on top and then 4 radially mounted 5mm

silverstoneTT

iTrader: (1)

Im not sure about the price about the parking lights from the other site but with 5 LEDs I'd imagine they might look a bit cooler than Ares but definitely no brighter despite having 4 more LEDs.

In any case, thanks for this thread. I just ordered my 9 LED dome lights which I had been wanting forever and never knew where to get.

Faluzure

Agreed SilverstoneTT. I didn't know where to get 9 LED festoons until 350ZTwinTurbo pointed me to this thread. The ones I saw were a max of 4 LED.

I placed an order today on 2 9 LED festoons (for map light), 2 7440 matrix clusters (for reverse light), and 3 168 5-LED matrix bulbs (for trunk & license plate lights). Now that I realize that 350ZTwinTurbo used the same 5-LED matrix in his front housing, I wish I would've ordered 2 more.

Thanks again 350ZTwinT. You've helped me a whole lot and I can't tell enough how much of a headache converting to LEDs were.

To both of you: As for getting the 168s in for your parking lights, was dismantling the headlight unit difficult? Its not like the yellow turning signal light which can be easily accessed.

I read the following on doing this: "remove all the screws that hold the plastic inner fender lining on. then pull the lining off. then you have full access to the back of the headlight. might take a bit of time your 1st time but its not that bad.....best of luck!.

I heard you can do this by removing the wheel or turning your steering wheel, giving you access to the inner fender lining. Could you provide more steps? If I remove the inner fender, I have full access to the back of the headlight unit? That sounds kind of... cheap? I thought the housings were supposed to be airtight.

Acree

iTrader: (29)

actually man, i found it plenty easy just to jack the car up so the wheel is in air, then undo the wheel well. and actually, the parking bulbs are EASIER to get to than the sidemarkers.

jreiter

iTrader: (6)

Wait, reverse lights? Would the LED kit for the Z's reverse lights be any brighter than the oem reverse lights? One thing I would've liked in every car I've owned is brighter reverse lights. You can never see anything back then when it's really dark out.

silverstoneTT

iTrader: (1)

Putting the parking lights in like 350ZTwinTurbo said is really very simple. Just jack the car up and undo enough of the wheel well lining to get to the bulb.



Also, how difficult is it to replace the reverse lights? If its easy I'll order new lights for those two.

Also, finally lol, I can't recommend it enough to get white leds for the license plate lights in the back. They are the same bulbs as the front parking lights. They make the car look expensive from behind at night.

Has anyone replaced the brake lights with LED bulbs? Any luck with regards to this swap?

Faluzure

jreiter: Well, I don't know if they would be brighter per se, but I just don't like the colors of regular filament bulbs. I think the LED superwhite glow is just an attractive color (why else are we replacing all sorts of lights in our cars with LEDs?) I think that they would be fairly more noticeable, just like using white LEDs for your license plate lights. There is one guy on this forum that has them installed. I forget his name at the moment. He seems to like them as his reverse lights.

The 15LED cluster I got almost all point outward. I'll let you guys know how it looks (if they work). I'm pretty sure they should seem brighter. If any of you have LED flashlights, you can probably agree with me. I have a Mag light 4D flashlight and a 28-LED Superwhite flashlight. Although the Mag Light is better for long distance illumination, I prefer the 28-LED flashlight because it's intense in really short distances. The only problem I can forsee is if I get faulty LEDs. I'm crossing my fingers.

350ZTwinTurbo: Thanks for that suggestion. I think that will be a lot easier for me. That's the easiest I've seen thus far.


SilverstoneTT: From what I can tell, the way it describes in the service manual states that you have to remove the fender. However, some forum members said that if you just remove the tail lights, there will be a small enough space where you can reach down and grab the bulb. Not good for guys who have big arms I suppose.

Faluzure

To anyone who ordered from superlumination.com. How long did it take you to receive your order? Does he send any sort of shipment notification? I opted for default shipping.

Acree

iTrader: (29)

the wait is killer i know, but u will get it in the regular mail in probably 3-8 business days.

silverstoneTT

iTrader: (1)

I ordered them Wednesday and expectem them to go out today but apparently they ship all orders out the same day so the wait begins tomorrow for me.

Really looking forward to this change

jreiter

iTrader: (6)

So the trunk and license plate use a type 168 bulb. On Superlumination's site, this means I'd want a type 194 unit as a replacement? There are a ton of choices. From 1 led to 6. I don't know which to get!

Faluzure, you are going to use a 5-led #194 bulb for those purposes? Do you guys think 5-led bulbs would be too bright for the license plate? A bright trunk light is good, though.

silverstoneTT

iTrader: (1)

The 5 LED one looks as bright as mine and mine isnt too bright....

The brighter and whiter the better. Go for 6.

Someone should manufacture an LED solution for the trunk thats really bright. Id buy that in an instant. The stock light is way to dim at night to be helpful. Ares....

Faluzure

jreiter: Well, from what I heard/read, a Type 168 is the same as a Type 194. I used a 5 LED matrix 194 light for my license plate/trunk. I would've gotten the 6 LED version, but there's a reason why I didn't go with these. If you notice the 6 LED are all pointed in the same direction and superlumination sells the 6 LED as a focus lense unit. The reason I got the 5 LED is because it is a matrix bulb. The matrix bulbs have LEDs facing outward as well as pointing out the sides. So instead of getting light mainly focused out the tip of the unit, you get light in nearly all directions.

Here's what is on the webpage:
"Focused Lenses Emit Light out the nose of the bulb, like a flashlight beam."

"The matrix bulb has leds arranged in both the horizontal and vertical directions."

I haven't actually checked the actual trunk/license plate lights, but I figured with the matrix bulb, I'd be getting light in a wider "cone". I also heard that the trunk light isn't pointed towards the trunk (as in the tip doesn't point into your trunk.) It lays sideways, thus i figured the side mounted LEDs from the matrix bulb would help add more light by pointing directly into the trunk. I thought about making a makeshift reflective "shield" with polished metal or something to reflect more light into the trunkspace, but I haven't looked into that yet.

As with what Silverstone said, I think that replacing the trunk stock light with an LED won't make it as bright (just change the color). If you read the beginnings of this thread, it takes 9 LEDs to equal the brightness of a regular stock festoon bulb. If you could somehow hack the fitment of the 6 LED unit to point directly into the trunk (rather than sideways), it may be brighter. But I have no doubt that the 6 LED would emit more brightness in 1 direction compared to the 5 LED matrix unit.

Someone here used Ares Luxeon LED for their license plate light. Ares' Luxeon LED is a single LED unit, but the quality of a luxeon LED is much greater. It is supposed to be tons brighter than standard LEDs (found on superlumination.com). They posted pictures and it looks really bright, really illuminates the license plate well. I walked out to my car today to check the stock lights, it's not very bright. Without a doubt, I'm sure the 5 LED (or even 6) would light our license plates a lot better, but not as good as Ares' Luxeon LED.