jtC320

What people usually do is they use their OEM bumper lense and tuck it into their bumpers...so you have the lense and the bulb together inside your bumper. if you decide to leave the bulb inside your bumper, you might burn your bumper or impact strip when the bulb gets hot. better to just tuck it in.

white_w203

can the bulb actually burn anything tho???

MJ50

some ppl put "heat" tapes around the bulbs...

eunosracr

What is this heat tape? See I have the painted side markers but the light still shines through. Not too crazy about that. I dont want to just let the bulb hang because Im afriad it will burn the bumper. Any other suggestions? If I tie wrap it to the inside of the bumper light still shows a bit through. Any ideas?

CSportAnt

I wrapped my bulb with aluminum foil and then tucked it in. Had them on for more than a year and no problems yet.

MJ50

mine's just tied inside... it's facing inside so no burning problems... except my bulb died recently. :P

eunosracr

Aluminum foil sounds good. I think im going to go with that and hope it works.

wuzzaap123

i believe u can add a resistor to replace the bulb and the computer will think the bulb is there.

tommy

That's what I did - my passenger's side was fine for over two years. My driver's side would die every 6 months or so. I think my current removal time of a strip is 10 seconds. I ended up giving up and putting the stock strips on - I'm too lazy to deal with it.

I have heard that some have been able to tuck them into the engine bay, where there's very little moisture problem. I have no idea how you'd do it on the driver's side, with the wiring being so short, but that's an alternative to think about.

eunosracr

I am going to keep the painted side markers and just wrap the bulbs in foil to hide the light. What do you guys think?

white_w203

that's what I did. mine are color matched alabaster white where the light shines through at night. i wrapped a small piece of foil around bulb and that did the trick. looks perfectly fine now. i still have to change my driver side bulb because it went out recently.

eunosracr

Looks like i got me a project for this weekend ! Woot woot !

coin

Nice trick... I will give it a shot too if I have the time this weekend..

Mono

I wrapped the bulbs in foil and high temperature electrical tape. I think I paid $2.75 for the electrical tape from home depot, good up to 105C. I was going to just tuck it in but I ended up just taping it at the opening leaving enough space so it wouldn't touch the impact strip.

C230 Sport Coup

For a bunch of smart people, I'm surprised no one came up with a proper answer.
Those bulbs will burn out, get hot and then you'll have to deal with
replacing them or worse, melting things.
wuzzaap123 is the only one who came close.

Here's a little tutorial on Ohms law.
http://www.the12volt.com/ohm/ohmslaw.asp

So...we know its a 5 watt bulb (I think, yes?)
Actually, I beleive its a 193 bulb which is only
If not determine wattage, or current.
Voltages squared / watt= Ohms ie resistance.
and for those with limited math ability, calculators.
http://www.the12volt.com/ohm/page2.asp
28.8 ohm.

So, try getting a 30 ohm resisitor. That would have colored bands on it,
of Orange (3), Black(0), black (Zero trailing zero's). and then one more perhaps gold (5% tolerance) and get at least 2 watt...if not 5w.
http://www.elexp.com/t_resist.htm
http://xtronics.com/kits/rcode.htm


Check it to see if it gets hot.

Get one that has a little heat sink on it if neccessary.
Or a wirewound like this

5W033 5 W, 33 OHMS, 5% $0.48

As found here....
http://www.acradiosupply.com/cat/NTE...Resistors.html

You'll never have to mess with it again.
Try using a higher wattage resistor just for kicks..
It'll dissipate less heat, but may result in an error.
Depends on what resistance the computer is looking for
if all it cares about is short vs. conductivety, a 1000 ohm
one would be cool.

So thats the question. How much resistance is too much for the computer.
A 1M ohm 1/4 watt would disapate no heat, but likely thats too much R.

C230 Sport Coup

My boredom at your benefit.

BeaverMjr

I’m getting ready to plunk my $ down on a set of euro impact strips and still need a bit of info.

I’ve been emailing the Wanda in mbenzl land for info and have been told by Steve resisters are not worth the trouble. “Regarding the resisters... I discussed it with Steve, but he says it's much easier to put the bulbs back in the sidemarkers, wrap the sidemarkers up in tape so that they won't light up anymore, and tie wrap them behind the bumper. When you do it like this, there can't get any water in the lampsockets.”

My concern is like the others who posted in this thread, how do I avoid changing the bulb everytime one burns out? The answer is a resister so the computer thinks the bulb is still working and doesn’t throw an error message. What I can’t figure out is which resister I need. **Just reread C230 Sports Coupe’s post above** It’s a 5 W, 33 OHMS, 5%

Has anyone actually tried using a resister? I don’t want to guinea pig my car only to end up needing the infamous trip to the dealer to get things fixed.

I’m gonna go to Radio Shack and buy a set. Then I can swap out the socket for a resister and call this mod done. Before I cut any wires, I’d like to ask a question about testing resisters… let’s pretend that I already went to RS and got a set. Would the following work? I’m thinking that if I remove the bulb from the socket, I should be able to repalce it with a resister and see the bulb error message disappear. That way I’d know I had the right resister. Is that a good way to test the resister? Would it fit in the bulb socket? Could I possibly cause damage if I didn’t make a good connection? Would I even be able to make a connection long enough to get up and check the for the error message?

If I can’t figure it out, I’ll just take Steve’s advice and hide the bulb.

14cue

HONESTLY,

resistors are the way to go! of course i had someone with knowledge do it and explain it to me before i went and did it. anyway, i hate the orange side markers with a passion. at the very least i need them cleared. but after i saw the euro strips i had to have it! it adds such a clean look to your car.

anyway, this is what i did...
resistors do get hot, but what i ended up doing was having a long enough line that allows the resistor to extend from the bulb (where it is attached) to reach the engine bay. the bulb itself is off, and when you attach the resistor it to the car believes it is on, but b/c the wiring is long enough to extend to the engine bay it doesnt matter how hot it gets b/c it's stuck on a metal piece within the bay. the bulb will never die out b/c it's not even on and your bumper is fine b/c the resistor isnt even close to it.

the entire thing would have taken less than 15 mins if we didnt have such a struggle getting the euro strips in (i think they were too stiff).

good luck!

advans

I suggest painted side markers. they loook pretty ok

BeaverMjr

Can you verify that I have identified the right resister in my above post? Also, where did you attach the resistor? Did you remove the socket and wire the resistor where the socket was?

I so want to avoid having a bulb present with those impact strips. I feel that it's not worh doing if I don't go all the way and use resisters.

FrankW

It's all by choice. My side marker bulbs is tucked inside the bumper along with the old amber marker with tape all over it so it doesn't light up the inside of the bumper. You can certainly use a resister if you have the know how, but still you'll have to find a place to secure the connector so it doesn't melt the plastic inside the bumper because it does get very hot.

14cue

sorry, i would love to tell you teh answer but like i said i had someone do it for me. i dont know anything about resistors and what not.
but basically the resistor does replace the bulbs so they are no longer connected and if the resistor is working then you will not get an error.

IsaacRN

I was wondering if anyone had a rough cost of the Impact Strips. I was considering getting them, and how hard of an install is it?

MJ50

contact www.MBenzNL.com

14cue

install is pretty easy but you need a little elbow grease for sure. less than $200USD from MbenzNL.