canadiankid

i am looking to replace all of my bulbs (brake two lower and upper 3rd brake, turn signals front/rear, tail lights, license plate lights) i was just wondering if it is worth it to replace with led bulbs, will they be much more crisp? also should i buy colored bulbs or should i get them white since they are inside of a housing with a colored lense?



thanks,

Jay

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

nope not worth it. 95% of those pnp bulbs are made in china garbage. they will be very dim, nowhere near brake light brightness, and you will be lucky if they last a few months. the only led bulbs worth buying are from well known brands because they know how to make em and use quality leds.

www.elef-usa.com for 5w ELEF bulbs, but these are large and you need to modify most 7440 sockets by shaving the hole bigger and gluing in. i had good luck with these in my rear signals after some fooling around with em and adding different lenses. uses single osram diamond dragon smt led at 200 lumens.

www.customdynamics.com for genesis street magic 5mm led clusters (good for custom installs where you can fit a round cluster, like in tyc projectors).

only true pnp led bulbs i have come across worth getting are the 194 luxer1 wedge bulbs that have 3 nichia leds (6500k blue white, too ricey for me) or the new philips vision leds using a single Cree XP-G led at roughly 100 lumens from www.powerbulbs.com. i just ordered the philips 4000k leds for my map lights and will post pics when they arrive. they should be amazing with that kind of brightness, at least double the stock bulb output.

here is someone's comparo of philips led vs stock bulb.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/5727473...7625801545340/

canadiankid

so in your oponion it would not be worth it to buy led for my brake, reverse lights etc...?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

yeah not worth it and not safe or reliable. waste of money. i do recommend upgrading alot of the bulbs with brighter versions if youre interested. that does increase safety. i have leds for quite a bit of the lights, but i still have filaments for all the brake and reverse bulbs. you could grab some led bulbs for licence plate if you want, but go with name brand stuff. usually it ends up costing more but they last forever.

https://www.civicforums.com/forums/1...-lighting.html

canadiankid

while we are on the topic of lights, i was in the parts store today and i was talking to the guy who worked there and i said that i wanted to get white HID's but he told me that i might as well save my money and get the silverstar headlights becasue they burn at the same tempature? and will be just as bright. is this true?





thanks,


Jay

MindBomber

Don't listen to anything someone at an auto-parts store tells you.

Silverstars are bright, but not that bright and don't even compare to an HID bulb. If you decide to stick with halogen bulbs for legal reasons then get Phillips Extreme Power, you also add catz zeta halogen ballasts to increase the brightness further.

canadiankid

where can i buy the phillips bulbs?

MindBomber

I haven't seen them at any auto-parts stores or Canadian Tire, so you'll probably need to get them online.

canadiankid

thanks for the advice gearbox and mindbomber, sorry if i ask too many questions haha. i just want to be sure that i spend my money on the proper stuff.



cheers,


Jay

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

www.powerbulbs.com

canadiankid

thanks for the link gearbox.


cheers,


Jay

MindBomber

Ask as many questions as you'd like, it helps me procrastinate from doing home work. Once you learn more you'll be able to start answering questions too.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

some pics to get you excited lol

stock



philips xp

canadiankid

thanks gearbox, i asked my buddy whos dad is a manager a carquest and he said that they have the phillips xtreme headlight bulbs, i think i'll go get em tomorrow

DarkSouljur

Phillips don't last as long as HID's do they?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

well no, halogens last an average of 250-500 hrs. the philips xp has an average life like stock bulb. but hid is different. while halogen keeps 95% of its lumens when it finally pops, hids slowly lose lumens over time. i would say you can prolly get away with keeping hid bulb for 1500hrs before they get too dim to drive with. they start with 3400 lumens, but after 1000 hrs, that numbers drops to only 2400 lumens. thats alot of lost light. but the bulbs will still turn on, sometimes for 2500+hrs and never die. they will just get so dim, you wont be able to see the road anymore. ofcourse this only refers to oem hid bulbs by philips and osram. the cheap chinese hid bulbs have average life of 200-400 hrs.

canadiankid

i was thinking of getting the piaa xtreme white plus blubs but it is kind of a steep price at almost double what the phillips xtreme bulbs are, does anyone have any expirence with the piaas? or the phillips bulbs?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

some piaa are good, but the price is way too high for bulbs that dont last long to begin with. i would stick with philips xp. ive tried a ton of halogen bulbs and the philips are by far the winner.

canadiankid

thanks gearbox i think ill go get the phillips bulbs tomorrow and try to get them in asap, prob wont be till sunday though becasue we are expecting a snow storm. Ill be sure to get before and after pics up as soon as i change them.

unTuned

i am a huge fan of leds and i have them on my car for the most part as well. my interior, front turn signals, front parking lights and license plate lights are all led because to me, all those lights are 'cosmetic' and dont need to really help you see anything.

as for important things like brake light and reverse lights, you need filament bulbs.
my rear signal lights are still a filament bulb and my reverse lights are regular bright filament bulbs as well. ive tried led bulbs in the brake/reverse lights before and theyre absolutely garbage. there is no comparison to a filament bulb which lights everything up. leds are just concentrated lighting for a small area or markers to be seen from a distance. they wont ever really light up the road or anything more than a few feet away.

unTuned

btw, price doesnt mean everything on led bulbs either. i have had my license plate leds, front signal leds, parking leds and interior leds all for almost 4 years now and i paid a total of about $20 for everything in total. theres still not one single light out on any of the bulbs and theyre excellent quality. i still have the seller saved on ebay incase i ever need more. well worth the money.

kbook

Yesterday I just drove the civic on to the center divider : )

It was snowy + dark + I did not adjust the headlight properly. Thankfully, no bumper was harm during the climbing. I came back home adjust the headlight to proper height and I saw the street much better. I went to meijer yesterday but forgot to look at the Philips bulbs. It has variety of Philips headlight. I think I might change one soon.

DarkSouljur

I want these bulbs now lol

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJHtrdFleIs[/youtube]

HG-2003Civvy

For the rears, you should just upgrade to the 03-05 taillights. Much cleaner look and they are a cheap replacement. If you know a good junkyard you can get some good deals.

canadiankid

hey, so i got the phillips CrystalVision Ultra headlight bulbs today. I think i'm going to wait to put them in tomorrow because i need to get some before pics tonight so i can have the difference side by side to compare. when i get the new bulbs in ill post the pics up.

cheers,

Jay

canadiankid

oh yea i figured i would ad in my pic of my new blue map lights and how it looks from the outside. They're good just for looks when the car is parked, not really for function haha. but i am keeping the dome light white for when i actually need real white light.


what do ya think?


thanks,

Jay

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

nice i like it

canadiankid

thanks gearbox, i recently figured out how to play with the settings on my cd deck to make the lights on it red, so i think i will order new interior lights and get red this time.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

i have amber in mine its good for seeing stuff but not blinding at night.

Kennykid2002

iTrader: (1)

Lol, I shud start a new thread with all my lights
I have color changing LED map lights (just for the hell of it), Center LED map light
LED reverse lights, HIDs and everything.

To be honest, If you dont want to do retrofit, Sticking a 6k HID in stock housing is not bad, and our civics are so low, there isnt much glare.
I love my LED reverse lights, but brake lights I would definately stick with halogens.

Check out the reverse LEDs, looks alot cleaner than halogens
https://www.civicforums.com/forums/2...installed.html