King320

So first the story.
Tonight i stopped by Auto Zone to buy a replacement for my broken driving light because i was tired of driving around with one out. It was raining and cold so i didnt really think when i was taking the light out of the housing to take it into the store to look for one like it. I got the bulb out, took it in the store, bought one i *thought* would fit, and came back out to the car. Well, i had removed the working one because it was easier to get to, and i didnt know how to get the thing out so i tried to learn on the drivers side one before getting out the passenger side one (the one that was out). Long story short, i ended up breaking both of the bulb housings because i just grabbed the back with pliers and pulled straight back (this is how my Audi's lights came out). There is a fingernail-shaped piece of plastic missing from both housings and they wont snap back into place and now neither of the lights is working.

Now the questions
1) Do i need to buy a completely new wiring harness? If not, what part am i looking for? Any recommendations on where to get it?
2) I searched around the forum and found some conversation about different bulbs (LED, Blue Vision, Polarg M17). Did we ever come to a concensus about which was the best? I'd like a slightly bluish look and not too hugely bright but a bit brighter than stock. Im using H7 Silverstar Hi/Lo beams. I'm really liking the idea of LEDs, but id appreciate any opinions.
3) How SHOULD I have removed the driving light harness?

Thanks, guess i've learned my lesson about trying to rush small jobs

smalldog

The city lights twist out. I ordered some leds for mine a while back and never installed them. I didn't like the ideal of having the malfunction light on in the dash.(the voltage is different when you install LED bulbs which trips the MAL light) I just installed HIDs today and decided to try the LED bulbs. Everyone on the forum was crazy about them but I wasn't. I used the BA9s-W4 White LED bulbs from superbrightleds.com. I have 4, if you want 2 I will mail them to you. No charge..... Remember that you will have to remove one tab off any aftermarket bulb you decide to use because they wont line up like the OEM bulbs.

King320

PM Sent

smalldog

I will drop them in the mail Monday.

midget fidger

the LEDs are gonna be a lot more blue than your halogens...they're more blue than xenons even. if you need a different headlight assembly, let me know - i have both the driver and passenger side housings in orlando. the lens was starting to turn yellow so i bought other ones and put em in. i'm not sure if you can just take out the inner assembly and use it in your non-yellow housing tho

King320

Got them today, somehow i missed your post so they were a complete surprise when i came home today. Thanks alot bro! Ill let you know how they turn out

ThrillKill

Make sure they are ther "superwhite" bulbs, they match xenons almost perfectly.

King320

Ok, got the bulbs in. While installing i noticed that the rear cover for my headlight housing (lo beam) is missing, probably fell off while driving. Any ideas where to get a new one besides the stealer?

The bulbs themselves are quite a difference from stock. They are a bluish/purple color and seem to mainly concentrate light around the bulb itself during the day time (pushing it straight forward out the housing instead of reflecting it around inside the housing like the stock bulb. They have an interesting look to them, its starting to grow on me but i might change things around a bit (like make a small mirror to go in front of the bulb, etc.) before its all over. I will say it is great to have the citylights back HUGE props to smalldog for the LEDs. Let me know what you guys think.

Oh and sorry for the nasty car, its been raining here and i didnt have time to wash the car this week so it has road dirt on it. Also, in the first pic look at the purple reflection on the ground on the right near the reflection of the headlight. That is really close to what the actual color of the lights are, it was hard to capture it on film at night.

milllx

I think I like them - they look clean (like fresh, not like not dirty).

smalldog

Cool.....glad I could help. You don't care about your MLF light staying on?

King320

I havent driven it since i put them in since ive been out of town, so it hasnt gotten annoying yet. Ill probably just get two load equalizers to take care of that problem.

smalldog

Let me know how that works out. I still have one set and if the load eq works I'll install them.

midget fidger

the load equalizers work, you just gotta make sure you get the 15-25 ohm kind like on http://autolumination.com/equalizers.htm

if you get 6 or 3 ohm, it'll really screw things up (i tried it haha)

MMM430

Are these things as simple as they seem to install?

midget fidger

yea, they come with a clippy thing that splices right into your current wiring. you hook it up in parallel.

CurYousGee

so just by the super white ba9s "bayonet" style, then connect those load equalizer in parallel and im am all set? Which wire is positive and which is negative to hook these up right?

do those lights have 5 LEDs on them, from the close up it does, the ones from the other site superbrightled looks like they use 4 LEDs, anyone have a preference on which or if that 1 extra LED makes much of a difference?


How bout the dome lights? are those just plug and play or will it throw off some malfunction reading?

midget fidger

yea the super ****e ba9 and 15-25 ohm load equalizers will work without any worning message. you can hook up the load equalizer in any positive/negative orientation and it will still work. i'm not sure about the 5 LED vs 4 LED, but i do know that the ba9s still had a blue tint to them even though they were "super white" bulbs. also know that you'll have to file down one of the prongs to get it to fit properly in the socket.

what dome lights? inside the car? dunno about those

CurYousGee

So i have to shave down 1 of the 2 metal prongs on the LED? then connect the load equalizer and I am all set?

Motivation

This seems like such a badass idea, Def my next mod

rubberninja

King320:
Do you remember the name/type of thoose bulbs so i can go get a pair? I have blue angel eyes on my fogs and that color light would offset it perfectly The fogs look out of place with the yello light :

CurYousGee

how did the 3 or 6 ohm load equalizer messed things up? what happened? I want to do this mod too, but want to know what i am getting into


George

midget fidger

3 or 6 ohm = too much current passing through the wires = the wires can start smoking and burn up. it happened to me.

CurYousGee

can i get these load resistors at radio shack type stores? Tried looking on line and they didnt have it...

midget fidger

dunno, but the one you need is on this page for $4.99 - http://autolumination.com/equalizers.htm thats where i got mine

CurYousGee

thanks man, gonna do the city lights as well as the interior lights and license plate lights as well...thanks for all the info.

George