General: 70: DRL sidelight LED mod questions

[MikeS100]

Hi all,

I've been thinking about doing the DRL sidelight LED upgrade since I bought my C70, but I wanted to ask a couple of questions to those that have already done it first.

What is the light intensity like with the sidelights only running with LED bulbs compared to the factory set up of headlights and sidelights both on but with normal bulbs? I would imagine the LED set up is not as bright, but are they still effective as DRL's?

The other question is if I do this then when I am driving at night I will have the normal headlight bulb and the sidelight LED bulb both on which will presumably throw out quote a lot of light, is the indicator still visible ok at night with this set up or does it get masked? Can you get round this by fitting bright indicator LED bulbs as well?

And lastly, where do people buy the LED bulbs from? I would probably buy through here as they have a good reputation: http://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/501...=car&end=front, but does anyone have any experience of these bulbs or a recommendation? Colour temperature wise I'm thinking 5000K so it's white rather than having a yellow or blue tinge to it. They do not list indicator bulbs though so would that be an ebay job?

I'm not really into the whole modding to change the look of my car thing, the only reason I want to do this is because I think it is much safer to drive with lights on but I don't want to make my headlights go dim from having them on all the time, so what I would like to end up with is something that looks standard with just using the sidelight LED's. If I end up with extra light output at night but still with indicators that are highly visible then this would be a bonus but certainly not a necessity.

[MikeS100]

And something else I meant to ask but forgot! Am I right in thinking there is no bulb failure warning system that will come on when fitting LED bulbs?

[S70 B5254T]

Very easy on an 850 due to the separate corner lights and the fact they have the bayonet fitting, which enables a bigger more powerful LED unit.

I wouldn't worry about the indicators as your new LEDs are unlikely to outshine the existing 21w repeaters.

As long as you get a bulb with "canbus" in the title/description, they have a built-in resistor and you'll have no trouble with your bulb failure system.

I have LEDs all round, and my front ones are particularly effective due to them using "cree" LEDs, so look for those if you can - they're brighter than "smd" LEDs.

[S70 B5254T]

Something like this...

http://www.hids-direct.co.uk/501-w5w...d-bulbs-white/

[MikeS100]

That's great, thank you. So are they better than the 360 degree versions? I thought the 360 degree ones would be better as the light is emitted all around the bulb and is projected forward by the reflector in the light housing. Or is that simply not the case and the forward facing bulbs are better?

[Thanatos]

I use standard 501 20smb LEDs in mine before fitting the projectors and the flashing LEDs for indicators.

Sidelights won't set off the bulb warning

If you fit led indicators you will need a load resister / balancer to stop the fast flash and the bulb warning.

[MikeS100]

Thanks for the reply. Do you feel the indicator led conversion is necessary or would the normal bulbs that are in there still be bright enough to show up? I would rather leave the indicators as standard if I can, but I'm planning to fit Osram Night Breakers as well so I'm worried the indicators just wont show properly with the night breakers and led sidelights on. Or am I worrying for nothing?

[Thanatos]

Your worring for nothing how bad are the lights in dip beam as if the silver has come away then osram nightbreakers won't help.

[MikeS100]

Ok, cool. Thanks.

They're not bad, nothing wrong with the silver as far as I can tell. It's just at the moment there is a standard Osram bulb in one side and an uprated bulb in the other (may be a Night Breaker but I'm not sure) and the uprated bulb gives a crispy whiter light. My thinking is I want to upgrade the sidelights to LED and do the sidelight only mod to the DRL's, but if I have normal headlight bulbs in with the yellow tinge they will look a bit out of place so the night breakers with their whiter light will match the sidelights better, not to mention the better light output on the road. I live in the country and often drive down country lanes without street lighting so I thought I would splash out on a set

What I will do then is get the led upgrade sidelights and the Osram Night Breakers and see how it goes. Hopefully I will end up with effective DRL's from the sidelights, good light on the road from the Night Breakers and the indicators will still show up as good as ever

Thanks for your replies guys

[MikeS100]

Originally Posted by 854 1984cc 20v

Something like this...

http://www.hids-direct.co.uk/501-w5w...d-bulbs-white/

I've just noticed these are 30mm long, is there enough clearance in the housing for these?

I was reading a post earlier for an S40 where 27.5mm bulbs where touching the inside of the lens, are the 70 series housings bigger?