LED City Lights

[MightyMouseTech]

So.....I have finally had enough of burning out headlight bulbs...although, replacements are free.

(helpfull tip, the high output Sylvania bulbs from Crappy Tire are actually repackaged Osram high output bulbs, and have a 1 year warranty...burn out in less than a year (of course) and go in and get a free set, my Mazda3 uses the same bulb for the headlights, so I am pretty much gauranteed to go through several during the course of a year)

So I am going to deactivate the DRL's and replace the city light bulbs (194's) with a higher power LED version.

Many people have mentioned autolumination.com, but which bulb did you use and do you think it is bright enough?

http://autolumination.com/194.htm

I was thinking of getting the SMT Tower III bulbs, but is that going to be overkill, and do they look like ass in the headlight assembly when they are off?

[The Rog Man]

So.....I have finally had enough of burning out headlight bulbs...although, replacements are free. (helpfull tip, the high output Sylvania bulbs from Crappy Tire are actually repackaged Osram high output bulbs, and have a 1 year warranty...burn out in less than a year (of course) and go in and get a free set, my Mazda3 uses the same bulb for the headlights, so I am pretty much gauranteed to go through several during the course of a year)So I am going to deactivate the DRL's and replace the city light bulbs (194's) with a higher power LED version.Many people have mentioned autolumination.com, but which bulb did you use and do you think it is bright enough?http://autolumination.com/194.htmI was thinking of getting the SMT Tower III bulbs, but is that going to be overkill, and do they look like ass in the headlight assembly when they are off?

I used the led with the aluminum band heatsink on it and mine are plenty bright for DRL use as Dan modified my lighting so that the city lights are now my DRL'sThey fit in the city light position without any modifications required.I will have too look and see what part number they were.

[Dang]

Gang....

If I remember right, the LED's in Rogman's set up are the Super Nova.

Super Nova...

Go not quite half way down the page and you'll see them. Bright little suckers...

Cheers!

Dang

[bilgladstone]

I had some LED city lights but when I had a low-speed front ender, the LED part popped right off the lamp base! Back to standard city lights now...B

[MightyMouseTech]

So, I just ordered a couple sets (they are not that expensive anyways) and we will see which ones I prefer. I ordered:-Matrix-SMT Tower II-SMT Tower IIIAll in super white.Will let you know..

Edited June 25, 2008 by MightyMouseTech

[MightyMouseTech]

Oh, and I will have two sets of LED city light bulbs for sale very soon...

[MightyMouseTech]

Well, of the bulbs that I bought, only the SMT Tower II will actually fit in the headlight, so I guess I will go with those.... Really not that bright, during the day, it is actually kinda hard to tell if they are even on. Time to get some factory foglights......(and I burned out ANOTHER headlight last night, off to CT for another refund...I think they only stock the bulbs for me....)Looks like I will order up a pair of the Super Nova's as well....

Edited July 3, 2008 by MightyMouseTech

[booneylander]

Don't know if you've looked into this yet but:

http://clubsmartcar.com/index.php?showtopic=13781&

http://clubsmartcar.com/index.php?showtopic=13781&

I've got over 15 000 kms on my HID kit so far without any troubles whatsoever.

[MightyMouseTech]

Unfortunately, I am not a fan of installing HID's into vehicles that were not designed for them......

[Francesco]

You meant, "Fortunately," I'm pretty sure...

[Speedie]

We had that for the 450 - it faded into post heaven - I will see if we can start some pinning and maybe a static forum - all stuff to go on the list - the BOD has a bunch of other stuff to do too so no assurance on time frame.What was really cool is you could get a kit from smart in Europe with all the necessary bulbs - now that would be a heck of a deal for a parts provider - hint hint - provided they kept the cost reasonable.Cheers,Cameron

[MightyMouseTech]

IHad fun taking the front body off. Twice.The Toronto Eglinton dealer could NOT determine which bulb I needed.They insisted I bring in the burnt one.The term 'parking light' seems to be meaningless these days ?!

Because it is not the parking light, it is the city light.

Yes I tried 1 NOVA and 1 TOWER side-by ... no contest

So, no contest, but which did you prefer? I have the Tower bulb and I am not impressed by them, and still looking for something better. Was going to order the Nova. Edited July 11, 2008 by MightyMouseTech

[spinner]

Freitag (most of you won't know or remember him) replaced his city lights with decorative blue LED gumdrop-size lights. They give the headlight assemblies a shot of blue that reflects off a dozen points, which is cool and serves no practical purpose.

[leejor]

This site has a vast selection of LED auto bulbs. I've ordered some LED parking type bulbs (still have to pick them up at a friends in the US). Their prices are very good and they carry a lot of versions that i haven't seen elsewhere

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/sto...674&next=50

Edited August 21, 2008 by leejor

[darren]

LEDs are very heat-sensitive. The city lights in the headlight clusters are not only exposed to their own heat, but also the heat generated by the headlamps when they're on. The heat sinks on the 194 LED replacements is meant to manage the heat generated by the high-output LEDs when in "always on" applications, but the ambient heat will still likely wear out the LEDs quite quickly.You may want to consider doing the Euro turn signal modification and using the lights in the grille as DRLs. I'm using super white SMT Tower 30s in that position, and they're not bad, but they do tend to wash out in daylight.

[leejor]

I've been using a 4 LED amber cluster in the parking light spot as DLR's for almost 3 years. Haven't had one go yet. I moved the turn signals back to their "proper" positions and put after market fog lights in the "correct" holes. I just wanted a white rather than amber DLR. I figure that if the white ones are not to my liking I'll re-fit (ie. make an adapter) them into the dome light or licence plate lights. I may go for amber LED front turn signal bulbs (with a new electronic flasher) to eliminate the fried egg look at the front, it's much cheaper and longer lasting that the "silvered" turn signal bulbs that I have at the rear. Instrument cluster LED's may be on the next order too. Third brake light gets converted in a week or so.

[booneylander]

Hey guys.Have been fiddling with my little guy this past week in an effort to get some decent LED-based driving lights going on. Here's what I did:-Moved the turn signals back into the "euro" location within the leadlights.-Bought some bulk LEDs off of eBay.-Filled the "fog light" housings with the LEDs (20 of them).-Filled the housing with clear silicon to weatherproof/insulate all the connections etc.Here's the result after doing one housing:

[booneylander]

The LEDs have a Vf of about 3.6V, so by running 4 LEDs in series you can do away with any resistors. So I made bundles of 4 LEDS in series, put 5 bundles in the housing and then ran all the bundles in parallel. I'm planning to do a How-To with more pics when I build the second "fog light" but I wanted to post this up just for a taste. This fog was pretty bright last night in the dark but this morning in the daylight it wasn't powerful enough to make a pattern on the floor/wall so we will see once they are installed if they are bright enough in the daytime to serve as DRLs. I was pretty disappointed in the LEDs I got. Like a lot of things on eBay the LEDs were falsely advertised. They said these should have been 140 000mcd and have a forward current of about 20mA each. When I tested the LEDs on the bench with the resistor they supplied it was more like 1mA and with the whole assembly of 20 LEDs it was still only pulling about 20mA. I also have some 5mm LEDs that I got a long time ago and are rated at 5000mcd, and these 10mm ones, while brighter, are only marginally so. I think if you really want a quantity of light that can compete with a traditional bulb the only way to go will be the high powered SMDs with heat sinks. Unfortunately the cost of these is way higher than the bulk LEDs like what I got.

[The Rog Man]

Looking forward to more detailed pics and what you did.I am in the thought process stage of converting all lighting on my smart to LED except headlamps of coarse.I wish the exceptionally bright leds weren't so darn expensive.

[booneylander]

I've been looking at my LED light setup and I am starting to think that it just won't be powerful enough to be a DRL. So, I've ordered some 1W "High Power" LEDs that are supposed to be about 70lm output, compared to a standard P21W bulb that puts out around 460lm (700mA forward current as compared to a claimed 20mA through the LEDs I'm using now).

I have been doing some poking around and it looks as though we can expect some much higher output LEDs to start coming through the pipeline sometime soon and should be reasonably affordable. Luxeon has started to make a powerful and small LED cluster which supposedly puts out around 435 lumens from a 3-diode star. One of these should have no trouble at all serving as a DRL. They are 18.50 each from here, which is not unreasonable if it puts out as much as it claims.

http://www.luxeonstar.com/endor-rebel-cool...700ma-p-179.php

They even have some higher output models (up to 540lm) but the cost really starts getting high at near 40$ each.

Edited September 15, 2008 by booneylander

[MightyMouseTech]

Bringing this topic back from the dead.

Finally got tired of the SMT Tower LED bulbs that I had installed in the city light position on my car. I ran across these bulbs, Polarg J60's:

http://www.eautoworks.com/product-Polarg-113910.htm

MUCH MUCH brighter than the cheaper bulbs, but they are kinda pricey. I would say they are at least 3X brighter than the SMT Tower bulb.

They have a colour temp of 4800k which is a little less blue than the SMT's as well. So I also picked up a set of PIAA Intense White bulbs for my OEM fog lights, these have a colour temp of 4100k, so they should look fairly similar to the city lights, and a hell of a lot better than the regular H3 bulbs I have in there now.

http://www.eautoworks.com/product-PIAA-106927.htm

I bought both direct from eautoworks, really good to deal with. Parts arrived really quick through the mail, shipping was included in the price and no duty or brokerage on the package when it arrived!

yes, my wife thinks I am WAAAAYYYYYYYYY too anal when it comes to the small details on the car.....

Will have pics up soon.

Edited April 20, 2009 by MightyMouseTech

[The Rog Man]

Bringing this topic back from the dead.

Finally got tired of the SMT Tower LED bulbs that I had installed in the city light position on my car. I ran across these bulbs, Polarg J60's:

http://www.eautoworks.com/product-Polarg-113910.htm

MUCH MUCH brighter than the cheaper bulbs, but they are kinda pricey. I would say they are at least 3X brighter than the SMT Tower bulb.

They have a colour temp of 4800k which is a little less blue than the SMT's as well. So I also picked up a set of PIAA Intense White bulbs for my OEM fog lights, these have a colour temp of 4100k, so they should look fairly similar to the city lights, and a hell of a lot better than the regular H3 bulbs I have in there now.

http://www.eautoworks.com/product-PIAA-106927.htm

I bought both direct from eautoworks, really good to deal with. Parts arrived really quick through the mail, shipping was included in the price and no duty or brokerage on the package when it arrived!

yes, my wife thinks I am WAAAAYYYYYYYYY too anal when it comes to the small details on the car.....

Will have pics up soon.

Nice find on the led's, Yup!!! a bit pricey but anxiously awaiting yer pics too see the diff?

Do you think you could do a one tower and one hid led pic for us???

Please please please !!!??????

Do you have any melting issues with the fog lights?

Are they the aftermarket ones or the factory things that came as signal lights on the car?

Edited April 20, 2009 by The Rog Man

[MightyMouseTech]

Nice find on the led's, Yup!!! a bit pricey but anxiously awaiting yer pics too see the diff?Do you think you could do a one tower and one hid led pic for us???Please please please !!!??????Do you have any melting issues with the fog lights?Are they the aftermarket ones or the factory things that came as signal lights on the car?

I plan on taking a picture with both old bulbs on one side, and both new bulbs on the other. So it will be easy to see the difference.I have the Euro smart OEM foglights which replaced the Canadian turn signals.Should not have any melting issue with the foglights as the bulbs are just the standard 55 watts. Edited April 20, 2009 by MightyMouseTech

[MikeT]

If you have OE smart foglights, they will melt with 55 W bulbs. Sorry to say.

[speycaster]

I do not know what bulbs fast Eddie put in the fog lamps when he changed every thing to euro spec but they seem quite bright in the daytime. I use them as DRL and they fill in quite nicely at night.