SaabCentral Forums banner

Unhappy with LED's

3K views 40 replies 12 participants last post by  valbowski1980 
#1 ·
both of my City Lights / Parking lights died recently (about a week apart from each other) so I decided to replace them.

I had heard that it is annoying and difficult to swap them (unless you have leprechaun hands) so I decided to go with a bulb I wouldn't have to replace again soon.

I weighed the Sylvania long life bulbs, vs. LED cluster bulbs, and found that the cluster bulbs where not only much much longer life, but also where white (the old ones just looked terribly yellow next to the 6000k HID's)

Well, I installed them yesterday, and I am unhappy.

While the light is pretty white, they don't look white through the headlight cover. They get this bluish color, and it looks very silly. I am contemplating just yanking them out and shutting off the lights all together. :(


The obligatory pics. Difficult to see what they really look like when taking a picture at night. I'll have to take daytime pictures when I get my car back from the warranty work at the shop.

 
See less See more
2
#2 ·
I've been contemplating this for a while now...

Where did you buy the cluster bulbs from?
 
#3 ·
iDav said:
I've been contemplating this for a while now...

Where did you buy the cluster bulbs from?
I got them on ebay from this store.

The bulbs I bought were the white ones (though for some reason they look blue in in headlights, but white when fired up outside the headlights) He has several colors. I'll post pictures of them in daylight once I get my car back if you want to see them.

He also has bulbs that will fit our brake lights and turning signals, keep in mind - however - that any bulb that has a burnout sensor (like our taillights and brake lights) will constantly trip the sensor with LED's as they don't draw enough current. This can be mitigated by soldering in a resistor.

Also turning indicators will flash very very fast if replaced with leds, again cause they don't draw enough current. Resistors can help here too.
 
#4 ·
I think you'll find that even though you have 6000k lights, the colour temp of the LED's will be 7500k or even higher. they will look white by themselves, but by comparison, they will be blue.

BTW, the correct bulbs for the city lights were the W5W's, right?

If you felt inclined to do so, you could red mask the led's to bring the colour temp down. Colour the surface of the led with a red marker and see if it makes any difference.

If you were going to throw them away anyway, it might be worth a shot.
 
#5 ·
iDav said:
I think you'll find that even though you have 6000k lights, the colour temp of the LED's will be 7500k or even higher. they will look white by themselves, but by comparison, they will be blue.

BTW, the correct bulbs for the city lights were the W5W's, right?

If you felt inclined to do so, you could red mask the led's to bring the colour temp down. Colour the surface of the led with a red marker and see if it makes any difference.

If you were going to throw them away anyway, it might be worth a shot.
I'm going to leave them in for now and see if they grow on me. Right now they give me "honda civic with blue tinted halogens trying to look like HID" vibe.

If you do decide to order from the guy I linked you to, you should get your bulbs rather much faster than I, as he is in Hong Kong.
 
#8 ·
Wulf said:
How can you have your city lights on without your headlights? Is that something you had changed with Tech II? I just pulled the fuse but headlights are on in both switch positions.
I have not done any tech II changes (but I want to)

In order to just have the city lights on, I had to put the light selection switch to "parking lights" and turn the car off. I did this just to isolate them to show their color.

If a Tech II is is used to change to European light settings you can do the following (provided fuse 35 has been removed):

At least this is my interpretation from what I have read to date.


US Mode:
Off position
All lights off

Park position
Car On - Headlights, and city lights are on. Fog lights can not be switched on.
Car off - Headlights off, city lights and corner indicators on.

On position
Headlights and citylights are on. Either foglights or highbeams can be switched on, but not at the same time.


European Mode:
Off position
All lights off

Park position
City lights and corner indicators are on(in a car wired for the U.S. market, in Euro cars corner indicators are off). Fog lights can be activated without turning on headlights.

On position
Headlights and city lights are on. Both foglights and highbeams can be activated at the same time.

edit
I found this awesome list of tech II settings on saabnet
 
#11 ·
Wulf said:
Great info on the Tech II settings. I still want to get rid of the shifting light as well, that thing is sooo annoying. Too bad the closest Saab dealer with Tech II is 150 miles away. :(

That is too bad. I'm guessing there arent too many independant mechanics with them around there either.

I'm within 5 miles of 10 or more tech II's, but I guess thats the benefit of living in New England.
 
#12 ·
i had a set of those bulbs and had to throw them out. too blue for my taste. been through a few of those trying to find a set to match the xenons, but no luck. just decided to go with 4-led amber city lights. bright enough that i could disable the driving lights in the turn signal so the only time they light up is when the turn signal is blinking.

...and get the euro setting activated. :cool:
 
G
#13 ·
those lights are crap and almost always burn out right away. Many of my friends insist on using them. The claims of longer lifer are totally bogus. The only ones that would be significantly brigher are the PIAA bulbs which are expensive and again don't last as long.

My stock headlight bulbs lasted 8 years / 70,000 miles. Why bother with anything else?
 
#15 ·
Linear Thinker said:
Those lights do U.S cars have them. cause I don't seem to have a light that goes on when I go in park. I remember looking inside the socket.. didn't seem to see any bulbs either.
You probably do have them, but they are less visible in non-HID cars.

Have you owned the car since new? Could be that someone just pulled them cause they didn't like them.
 
#17 ·
SaabScott said:
I've just ordered 3 different types of the white LEDs.

Hopefully I'll have my e-codes in by the time these arrive ... it would be interesting to see how they look with new lenses.
Well, I'd show you what the color of mine look like in the car during daylight conditions, but the dealer still has it. :(
 
#18 ·
Mattlach said:
You probably do have them, but they are less visible in non-HID cars.

Have you owned the car since new? Could be that someone just pulled them cause they didn't like them.
I have HID's but I just don't see the bulb in it and I read the manual and apparently its an option so the owner might not have chosen it. I have a linear and not an Aero so it might not be standard.
 
#19 ·
Pictures as promised:









So whats the vote, does this look silly, or OK. I'm inclined to believe it looks dumb, but I may just be silly myself.
 
G
#21 ·
Doesn't really look that bad because they are so small but I wouldn't get them for my car. I actually would like to turn mine off because I think they are not much use here in the US where the side/blinker lights are on as well.
 
#22 ·
SaabScott said:
I don't think anyone would notice.

Do they appear to throw any more light at all?
The extra light output is only noticeable in the dark (no streetlights), without the headlights turned on. The HIDs are bright enough to drown anything else out.

Let me go outside and take a quick picture against the wood fence.

This is what it looks like from inside the car with everything else turned off. The light spot on the top right is a window with a chandelier on on the inside (for comparison)



The funny part is that you can sort of make out the six individual LEDs even through the lens.
 
#26 ·
So, I ordered (and received very quickly) 3 different sets of these bulbs.

Only 2 of them would fit ... the 12 LED one was too big for the hole.

Of the 2 that fit, the 6 LED threw light the best.
And both of them had a blue tint to them ...

However, it is much better and brighter than the standard W5W bulb. :cheesy:
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top