OK all, I said I was going to do this mod and today was the day. The mod is actually pretty simple. The hard part of it all is not being able to get the plug undone for the headlight assembly which makes the soldering aspect a bit more difficult but not impossible. I haven't been able to figure out how the plug comes undone. You figure that bit out and this is straight forward.

First off, I removed the bumper cover just to make things easier, vice trying to reach in behind the headlight assembly and work there. Not to mention it makes it much easier to remove the running light bulb without damaging the headlight assembly.


this is what the bulb base looks like. Nothing fancy, but as you will see, the LED I used just happens to be the same size as the factory bulbs.


here is a picture of the LED (right side) next to the factory bulb. To make the LED fit into the factory bulb base, I took a set of need nose pliers and rolled the LED leds over on themselves to make them 3 leads thick. This just happens to be the same thickness as the factory bulb. So, at this point, all you have to do is plug the LED back into the base.


I cut the red wire (positive wire) and inserted a 220 ohm resistor. The pink sleeving that you see is shrink tubing. I pushed that up and over the resistor and shrunk it down to help seal up the cut and insulate everything. 1 warning though, if you do this mod, make sure to use a 1 watt resistor. The resistor is going to drop about 0.55 watts of heat, so, with the heat shrink tubing on the resistor, you need the higher rated resistor.


This is what the factory setup looks like.


This is what it looks like with the LED installed. The yellow dot that you see is the reflector in the LED itself.


This is what the factory running lights looked like with the HID headlights on. As you can see, the running lights look very yellow compared to the headlights.


This is what the lights look like with the LEDs installed. The picture is a little bit deceiving. The running lights are that white, but the picture makes them appear a bit brighter than the really are. But the look is very good.


Here is a head on shot of the LEDs installed. I think I may take another set of LEDs and flat top them to help spread the light out and make the running lights a bit brighter since the LEDs tend to push all the lights straight forward.

For those that are interested, these are white 280K MCD 10mm LEDs. If you are looking for a set of 2, let me know. I bought a package of 50 and have a few left over. I am also getting some more resistors sent my way. If you are interested, let me know.

 

Very nice, Thermo. Did you look into direct fit LED replacements (i.e., ones with the OEM style base and built-in resistors)? I'm just wondering if they're available in the required size/style.

 

Matt, I did look really quickly for these bulbs and most of them that I found where multi-LED ones and in this application, I think would have looked out of place as they are kinda square with LEDs on the sides. Besides, a lot of those run for $10 a bulb. For a little bit of work, you get a cleaner look and you only end up spending about $3. Sometimes a bit of work is better than ease.

 

Congrats , you did a good job , great stuff