Some ideas - need your opinion

[shivik]

So I guess LED is the way.
And LED there be light...
Thanks for the complete explanations Draco.

In fact HID conversions are not illegal round here only the higher temp colors
like blue,violet,etc. are illegal. I could get a good set for $230 with instalation.

But I admit I didn't know that you can replace your main headlights with LED
based replacement.
I've already done LED conversion to my front secondary lights(1st pos of the switch) myself(I mean I made the replacements) so I'm goin for the whole car

By "the spark thingy" I meant THIS link sorry fot the confusion.

[skewbe]

Just FYI, on my 98 metro I replaced all the bulbs (except headlights) with LEDS. The front turn signals needed wide angle bulbs and some jury rigging, as did the brake light, but the rest were fairly directional and work well and all were relatively inexpensive (like $30 after shopping around).

But I did not do it for FE, per se, I did it so I could leave my lights on at long stops with the engine off with less impact on the battery. I figured it is saving 70-100 watts all told. I'm looking at LED's for the headlights or possibly some headlight surrogates/DRLs to save another 120 or so watts.

[rvanengen]

Originally Posted by shivik

I've been considering of converting my headlights to xenon lights.
They consume 35 watts compared to 55/60 on standart halo bulb
Some of you done that?Do you think it will be worth the money?

Second: check THIS out(the page is compatible only with Internet Explorer for some reason)?
It is made by Bulgarian engineer.
I have friends with it and some of them really say they get increase in response and smoother engine operation,but some say nothing changed after installation.So I hesitate.

What do y'all think? Thumbs up or...

Well...I will take a stab at the link... my personal feeling is that it will not do much more than any aftermarket ignition system will do for you...give you a hotter more effective spark. They claim:

The Plasma High Frequency Catalyst ?enhances? the spark in terms of durability and intensity, thus giving much better combustion: more mass is transformed into pure energy to drive the piston down, less mass (significantly smaller quantity of combustion process remainders) flies off from the exhaust-pipe. And the cleaner air is just part of the advantages - there come also: smoother engine, higher torque, more power, improved cold start, ?longer? gear shifts, etc.
(source: http://www.avtomatic.com/plasma/How_it_works.htm)

[DracoFelis]

Originally Posted by shivik

But I admit I didn't know that you can replace your main headlights with LED
based replacement.

I'm not sure if you can easily replace headlights with LEDs, and I never said you could do that. What I did say, was that you can replace your DRLs (which are universally dimmer than headlights) with LEDs. While DRLs might use the same "bulb" form factors as headlights, they are still designed to produce much less light. So, for example, while a LED HB4 DRL module might actually fit in a HB4 headlight socket, it wouldn't produce enough light to be useful as a headlight.

BTW:
In addition to the big/obvious secondary lights (for example, DRLs, or tail/brake lights), don't forget that there are often a number of smaller light bulbs that (together) can really add up. And the really small bulbs often are fairly cheap to convert to LEDs, so it makes sense to get them too (especially when it's a light that runs a lot of the time). For example, it cost me under $10 total, to convert both of my car's two license plate bulbs to LEDs, yet that saves me approximately 7 watts every time the license plate lights are on (i.e. whenever my headlights or my secondary lights are on).

NOTE:
LED headlights are now actually on the market in some higher end cars. However, that has just occurred, and I don't think the 3rd party parts market has yet caught up to the technology. I'll likely revisit that issue in a few years, when the (3rd party) market for LED headlights has matured a little more.

But for the time being, I'm just using (good quality) 55 watt halogen bulbs for my headlights, and just being in the habit of only running the headlights when I really need them. However, now that my secondary external lights (all the external lights EXCEPT the headlights themselves) have been converted to LEDs, I will often turn those secondary lights on if/when I just want (for safety) to be a little easier to been seen by other cars (for example, during heavily overcast days). Yes, even with the LEDs the secondary lights use some power, but it's now a fraction as much power as they used to use when the stock incandescent bulbs were in!

NOTE:
If you hunt carefully, there are "high quality" halogen bulbs on the market, for approximately twice the cost of normal halogen bulbs. For example, I picked up NAPA's "Xenon BrightLite" bulbs for my headlights, as my research showed that they were one bulb that produced slightly (around 10%-20%) more light per watt than a normal halogen bulb (due to the higher quality materials and workmanship that went into the bulb making process). This isn't huge, and it didn't save me any power over stock bulbs (as I still pay the 55 watts of power per bulb), but for a few extra $$$ it did give me slightly brighter bulbs (without using any additional power). And from my standpoint, that extra little light doesn't hurt (especially since it was "free", beyond the higher costs of the bulbs).

[shivik]

^
The only un-LED parts of my car are tailights and main headlights.
Even the dashboard is converted.
Found a good DIY LED dashboard conversion will post it in the DIY section later.
I've not done the emergency lights switch bulb, 'cause it's little bastard to do,but will fight it later.

I've seen +30% and +50%(this is what it says on the box) like Phillips Bluevision and OSRAM Silverstar on the market so I'll probably give'em a shot.
I'll measure the consumtion of the bulbs,though.
There was a discussion somewhere that bulbs of the +XX% type are actually consuming more power,but I'm still to check that.

[shivik]

HERE is the DIY for the dashboard LED conversion.

[DracoFelis]

Originally Posted by shivik

The only un-LED parts of my car are tailights and main headlights.

I've already converted my tail/brake lights, and they work very well. If your car takes 1156, 1157, 3156, or 3157 modules, the RED Luxeon units from http://www.superbrightleds.com should work very well (I have the 1157 units in mine and my wife's cars, and they are actually brighter than stock tailight bulbs). Admittedly they aren't the cheapest (~ $25/module), but in my experience the light is excellent, and they also save a fair number of watts vs a stock bulb...

Originally Posted by shivik

Even the dashboard is converted.

Finally getting around to doing that myself. After getting a couple of different instrument panel LEDs to see how they worked, I finally decided that T1.5 LED modules from http://www.superbrightleds.com should work well in my instrument panel. So I just (today, before reading the latest posts in this thread) put in an order for more than enough of the things to backlight my entire instrument panel (I figure I don't have to worry about converting the many warning lights, as (unlike the panel backlight) those indicator lights are never lit for long).

Originally Posted by shivik

I've seen +30% and +50%(this is what it says on the box) like Phillips Bluevision and OSRAM Silverstar on the market so I'll probably give'em a shot.

A lot of the "brighter" bulbs on the market are higher wattage (i.e. more power to power them + the extra wattage can overheat the wiring). And (worse yet) some of the supposedly "easier to see" bulbs have a stupid blue (or even purple) tint on them, that actually lowers the total light output (i.e. if your headlight bulb isn't totally "clear" don't get it, as any tint will lower the light output of your bulbs).

However, all that said, there are some bulbs on the market that are maybe 20% brighter than stock, that do NOT use any more wattage than stock bulbs. You have to hunt around for them carefully, and pay a premium price for them, but they do exist. Unlike the bulbs you want to avoid, these latter bulbs get their extra light by higher quality construction + more expensive (and more efficient) halogen grasses. For example, Xenon gas (the same gas also used in HID bulbs) is noticeably more expensive than the gas used in cheaper halogen bulbs, but Xenon is also a few percentage points more efficient (at producing light in a halogen bulb) than those cheaper gasses. Furthermore, simply using precision manufacturing can make a bulb a few % more efficient than a (lower tolerance built bulb). So while there are limits as to how much difference different halogen bulbs make, it is true that you can get slightly better light (for the same power usage) by properly selecting a quality headlight bulb.

[shivik]

Amazing site you got there http://www.superbrightleds.com/
Everything is nicely done.Very convenient indeed.
We don't get these here so I have to DIY every LED on my car.
Direct replacements-saves you all the tinkering around

(I figure I don't have to worry about converting the many warning lights, as (unlike the panel backlight) those indicator lights are never lit for long).

same here.I left those stock aswell.

A lot of the "brighter" bulbs on the market are higher wattage (i.e. more power to power them + the extra wattage can overheat the wiring).

I've heard that also,but ignored it since I was thinking that when it says
55/60W on the box,then I assume I get say 30% for the wattage it says on the box.Apparently not true.
I saw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZUZ072euek this video.
It's about HID's advantages.
I guess it's not that much of a difference after all.

[DracoFelis]

Originally Posted by shivik

Amazing site you got there http://www.superbrightleds.com/
Everything is nicely done.Very convenient indeed.

Well it isn't really my site.

My only connection to them is that I find many of their products to be decent quality, easy to install, and semi-reasonably priced. As a result, I often check what they have, whenever I want to convert car bulbs to LEDs.

Originally Posted by shivik

We don't get these here so I have to DIY every LED on my car.

Can't you mail order them (like I do)?

Originally Posted by shivik

Direct replacements-saves you all the tinkering around

Yes, "direct replacement" takes a lot of the work out of LED conversions. And it also makes it trivial to revert to stock if you ever have the need (for example, you might want to "downgrade" the lights to stock, before you get rid of the vehicle).