Switching to LED Map/Dome/Step Lights

[LegacyMUN2k6]

I'm going to jump on the band wagon, and switch to leds kinda sick of the old amber/yellowish glow. Want the clarity and luxury look of white lighting.

 

For the Map lights in the front I was thinking of one of these

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/_Car-Truck-Parts-Accessories__White-12-LED-SMD-SMT-Interior-Dome-Panel-Lights-DE3175_W0QQitemZ260329446101QQadiZ2865QQadnZCarQ20Q26Q20TruckQ20PartsQ20Q26Q20AccessoriesQQcmdZViewItemQQptZMotors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories?hash=item260329446101&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245&_trkparms=72%3A64%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318#ebayphotohosting

 

or this

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/_Car-Truck-Parts-Accessories__White-1-25-Festoon-Dome-Light-SMD-LED-Bulbs-DE3175-2_W0QQitemZ120361438859QQadiZ2865QQadnZCarQ20Q26Q20TruckQ20PartsQ20Q26Q20AccessoriesQQcmdZViewItemQQptZMotors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories?hash=item120361438859&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245&_trkparms=72%3A64%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

 

Well for the rear dome, I went ahead and order from dealextreme below.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15648

 

But for now I have these puppies installed in my step lights

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370139859623&ssPageName=MERC_VIC_RCRX_Pr12_PcY_BIN_Stores_IT&refitem=370127299489&itemcount=12&refwidgetloc=closed_view_item&usedrule1=CrossSell_LogicX&refwidgettype=cross_promot_widget&_trksid=p284.m183&_trkparms=algo%3DCRX%26its%3DS%252BI%252BSS%26itu%3DISS%252BUCI%252BSI%26otn%3D12

 

Just wondering what everyone has installed and there thoughts

[LGT Dave]

Did you consider the interior lights from FastWRX?

 

http://www.legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60259

 

I have the Map, Dome and Puddle lights from there and I like them a lot. They're nice and bright, use high quality LED's, and the map and dome lights have custom panels made to fit in the stock fixtures perfectly.

[LegacyMUN2k6]

I did until I saw the pricing, i'm a budget modder

[wagonmaster87]

I tried being a budget modder as well and it didn't work out well. Cheap LED's kept going out, got the ones from fastwrx.com and they are awesome quality, Way better and like anything you get what you pay for.

[RustyShackleford]

I made my map lights a LOT brighter by simply removing the lens/cover.

The hole below the bulb is quite small. I presume they did this in order to

avoid blinding the driver. Seems to me like an LED option like FastWRX

would defeat this since it puts the LEDs right AT the lens (if I understand

correctly). Obviously it looks crappy to have the lens removed, so I'm

thinking about somehow (if I can figure how to do it cleanly) enlarging the

holes in the opague layer in the lens/cover assembly.

[TSiWRX]

I replaced my dome and front puddles with LED arrays from V-LEDs.

 

The puddles are each 6-LED surface-mount ("SMT") arrays ( http://www.v-leds.com/Shop/Control/Product/fp/vpid/4481142/vpcsid/0/SFV/32481 ), and the dome is a 24-LED SMT array ( http://www.v-leds.com/Shop/Control/Product/fp/vpid/4481158/vpcsid/0/SFV/32481 ).

 

The red puddles are about as bright, physically, as the white incandescents that they're replacing.

 

The dome is actually brighter, despite being red, but the output is highly directional. I've got the light set up so that it's throwing more to the rear, and my hope is that on night rides with Anna, if she falls asleep back there in her car-seat, that this color of lighting won't be quite as bright and nasty as stark white, waking her un-necessarily.

 

As an aside, I've also got two of the red 6-LED SMT arrays set up in my JDM BL tails (one in each side, turn-signal and reverse-lamp, REF: http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31502&highlight=rear+fog look at post #39, on page 3, for how bright that setup is, face-on - note that, yes, I do use a traditional high-burn incandescent, to get the necessary wide-angle viewability necessary).

 

At $10 each for the 6-LED elements and $17 or so for the 25-LED, it's a bargain, and it's working very, very well.