How to: Complete HID/LED Swap Thread

[marlboromike]

Just to qualify one thing on the back up light...if you have the opel light...you cannot use the 3157...it must be a W5.

[Tech_God]

Originally Posted by marlboromike

Just to qualify one thing on the back up light...if you have the opel light...you cannot use the 3157...it must be a W5.

Thanks for that, updating it now, along with a more effective use of resistors, only need two pairs total!
And sorry if ya grabbed the bulb number I said for the sky, didn't realize the Opel had different bulbs in the rear.

[mazzella]

Is it correct that the auxillary lights above the headlight and the interior mirror lights use the same bulb for the LED conversion?

Thanks a million for this post!

[TomatoSoup]

I just read what you said about the resistors for the rears... 3 ohms sounds WAY to low. That's going to be dropping about 50 watts (just in heat). Generally turn/brake filaments run less than 30 watts.

Are you sure that you need 3 ohm'ers for the rears?

[Tech_God]

Yep surprisingly the interior lights use the same as the front aux lights, i got 212 (tubes), opened up the housing, and was pissed haha, they actually use 912 bulbs. Glad to help!

And yes, one 3 ohm per side because you have two bulbs, therefore twice as much wattage needed to trick the car into thinking they're halogens. If you only put one 6 ohm per side back there it'll blink fast.
Yeah each bulb uses 27W but there are two per side so you need 54W of power basically. the LEDs use 10 or less each, 6 ohm resistors use 25, 3 ohm resistors use 50. You COULD use two 6 ohm resistors per side but one 3 ohm works just as well. And with the location they're at they get plenty of airflow too so they won't get way too hot and burn out.

[TomatoSoup]

Ahh - forgetting those pesky Sky's use 2 bulbs!

Still, I'm surprised you needed to go all that way to fool the BCM. When I first did my rear light conversion (on my Sol) I was running just under 8W of LEDs for the brake/turns and that was enough to stop hyper flash. At one point one LED in a string failed and so dropped the wattage to around 7W, and at THAT point they hyper-flashed - so I had been just on the border . Still, much less than the original single 27W filament.

Now, I'm running about 9W of LEDs per side but no resistor and no fastflash.

Let's say (with some leeway) the 'hyper point' is 9W per bulb. For you that would be 18W, which would equate to a 8 to 10 ohm resistor (depending on the voltage). So I'm surprised a single 6ohm didn't do it for ya. Oh well, moot at this point.

This was the ~8W point:

[|V3nom|]

you should show that taillight in action.

[TomatoSoup]

Originally Posted by |V3nom|

you should show that taillight in action.

I was just going to post a link to a video I had on Photobucket, but PB says the video has been removed (even though the page is still there). Bizzarre much?

Here's the link, in case it comes back (LEDs on left, original on right):

[A14]

out of sync from each other! The LED visibly turns on/off faster.

[TomatoSoup]

Originally Posted by A14

out of sync from each other! The LED visibly turns on/off faster.

Yeah... weird, isn't it?

Glad the vid came back

[A14]

Originally Posted by TomatoSoup

Yeah... weird, isn't it?

Glad the vid came back

Im thinking it will be fine with both LED or both halogen. Just mixed they have different on/of times.

[mazzella]

Thanks, TG. This was really helpful. Not done yet, but the headlight guide was perfect. Only thing I had to add was drilling the 1" hole in the light covers for the wiring to pass through. The interior LEDs are awesome, and the running light LEDs make a huge difference vs. that old yellowish look.
Thanks again!

[GypsySky]

Great write up TG.
I decided to upgrade based on the positive results and even though many parts are on backorder from the vendors, the parts I have swapped (interior lights, trunk light & reverse lights) there is an amazing difference in brightness, especially in the interior!
I am looking forward to finishing the swap once all the backordered parts are here.

[Tech_God]

No problem guys, I'm glad to help!

[GypsySky]

A comparison photo -
Left HL (drivers left) has HID 35w as described in the kit
Right HL is stock Halogen
Both AUX lights are LED.
After I installed, I brought up the level of the HL just a bit (as the car is lowered).