LED Sidelights, NumberPlate Lights and Boot light

[guest1272]

Thought I'd update my GE Jazz with better sidelights.




The problem is that the stock ones are definitely too dim to be useful imo, and whereas the sidelights in most cars used to be part of the light cluster (and thus, even though dim, would use the main reflector to light up the whole thing):
they're nowadays housed in their own discrete "housing" within the cluster. This means that they don't light up the whole thing at a low level, but instead glow very dimly as discrete spots of light.
I noticed that when a fellow Jazz was oncoming or following behind with sidelights on, they were a bit too inconspicuous for my liking.....so I changed 'em.

Here's the comparison shots between stock and LED:







...and here's a comparison with all lights on:






The LEDs are 25 LED lights for the fronts, but I also got single LEDs for the number plate to match the stock LED rear light clusters:






...and a double LED for the boot:




Overall, they came to about £4.39 each including delivery (I also bought a spare for the fronts too).
You can get them for cheaper on Ebay (down to half the price sometimes), but run the risk of getting cheaply made stuff that burns out after a few months, hopefully mine'll last a lot longer.


I wasn't intending to "match" the headlights by making them HID because I don't want to damage or interfere with the cabin light levelling mechanism, this was just to make the car more easily visible in overcast/rainy conditions when sidelights only are on.....the fact that they add a slight "blue tinge" to the headlights is a bonus .

[DV]

Nice one!

I had the similar conversion in my Jazz too, done the front and license plate lights, plus in the boot I`ve fitted an LED strip around the side lips and behind the seats under the roller boot cover with plug on it and all connected to the boot light. When the boot is open all turns on.

[guest1272]

Thanks.
I was thinking the boot light is not very much brighter (mainly different colour) so adding a single strip led somewhere in there (additionally on the right hand side for instance) might help. Alternatively, I may go for an even brighter one for the boot.
The boot alone is mainly pragmatic on my part in that when finishing work at night, I can't see a damn thing with the low level stock one...I just need more brightness in there (made all the more darker by having black upholstery in there).
Plus, the boot light won't need to be CAN-BUS protected (unlike the exterior lights) so most of the Ebay ones'll do 

[RichardA]

Very nice.

[guest2898]

Looks good!! 

[Rabiedmushroom]

Gaffer - that's a really good but simple upgrade 
Yes I agree, the normal sidelights do look a bit yellow, more noticeable nowadays with lots of new cars coming out with daytime LEDs on all the time.
Where did you buy yours from because it sounds like you got them for a decent price - have you got a link please?

[Garyman]

I  like it 

Any part number/ supplier you can share with the rest of us?

I did consider changing the dipped/ side bulb but that would also mean changing the main bulb as otherwise one will be white and the other "orangey"

[guest1112]

hi any chance you can send link/ info on updating lights eg. sidelights and headlights where obtained from
thanks

[guest1272]

Oh, sorry, forgot those details :

Sidelights: I specifically wanted a brighter version so I went for 25LED bulbs. However, I ordered 3 separate times (one for left as I thought I was buying a pair, then right when I realised it was only one and then one spare) and actually ordered 30LED bulbs but the company I got them from (ultraleds.co.uk) sent me the wrong ones THREE TIMES. Even after asking for a return, they insisted on a tracking number but then refused to refund anything more than standard shipping  : - meaning I would end up out of pocket despite it being their mistake. As a result, I would recommend their prices but be very cautious about them because returns or customer support may be troublesome, and in the same way that I kept ordering 30LED bulbs and they kept sending me 25LED bulbs there's no guarantee you'll get sent what you order  . In the end, it ended up being cheaper just sticking with the wrong ones UtraLEDS sent so that's what I ended up doing.

Number Plate lights: Simply out of pure luck I picked single LEDs which are pretty much the same luminosity as standard, just white in colour rather than sickly yellow. This was luckily exactly what I wanted

Boot Light: I need more visibility so may get even brighter ones at a later date - the advantage with these being that they do NOT need to be CAN-BUS versions and thus you have a wider selection available.

All the above lights are replacements for T10/W5W/501 10mm wedge bulbs 5W

All the interior lights (mentioned below) are 31mm festoon, 8w

Interior lights: I do not recommend changing these because interior lights tend to look too harsh when converted to LED imo and actually appear better as they are with the stock bulbs. Also, if your interior light "dims" on/off when unlocking/locking the car, that won't happen with LED replacements....they'll simply turn on/off at some point (I think the dimming looks quite good so have left them stock in my Jazz).

Now, on average they all panned out as £4.39 each inc. delivery, but the breakdown was about £5 for each sidelight, £1.50 for each number plate light and £2 for the bootlight....with delivery being £1.90 (so if you buy the whole lot together, you pay that delivery - I was dumb and bought everything over 3 shipments, so my total delivery was £5.70).



So everything was bought from UltraLEDS. In hindsight, for about the same price, I would instead probably try hids4u.co.uk as they might give better aftercare (although this is a guess from looking at their website as I haven't used Hids4U yet))





New Update: Xenon Dipped/HighBeam and FrontSpots

Final small change for the time being; I changed the main/dipped and front spots to Xenons (like you said Garyman, the main lights look too yellow if the sidelights are pure white). NOTE: these aren't Xenon HIDs, they're "standard" bulbs that are filled with Xenon & instead of the normal halogens have coloured glass to filter out yellow. I wrote same brightness on the picture but on driving around, the xenons appear to be ever so slightly brighter - more importantly, they are MUCH whiter than my poor camera skills could capture (the stock look VERY yellow in reality when comparing):



These were from eBay from xenons_uk and came as a set of (individually boxed) 2x H4 main/dipped 55/60W bulbs, 2x H11 55W front fog light bulbs and 2x Sidelight bulbs (not LEDS so I gave these two to my brother for his car). Total set came to £10.95 delivered.
Word of warning - I've heard reports of people who have "upgraded" to higher wattage 100W Xenon Bulbs and ended up melting the cluster housing due to heat - an expensive repair bill  , so I specifically went for 55/60W bulbs to match the stock ones.


EDIT: Added better piccie (manual camera settings for lower ISO, higher f-stop)

[Garyman]

Really liking that white look (as oppose to the yellowy).

Thanks for the info- might look into that and for a complete set of bulbs inc fogs for only £10.95 delivered, its worth a go!

[chrisc]

Why do I get these funny images when reading this post?

[attachment deleted by admin]

[guest1272]

Why do I get these funny images when reading this post?

Hmmm, you shouldn't - piccies appear fine for me...

[LionelChavez]

Thought I'd update my GE Jazz with better sidelights.




The problem is that the stock ones are definitely too dim to be useful imo, and whereas the sidelights in most cars used to be part of the light cluster (and thus, even though dim, would use the main reflector to light up the whole thing):
they're nowadays housed in their own discrete "housing" within the cluster. This means that they don't light up the whole thing at a low level, but instead glow very dimly as discrete spots of light.
I noticed that when a fellow Jazz was oncoming or following behind with sidelights on, they were a bit too inconspicuous for my liking.....so I changed 'em.

Here's the comparison shots between stock and LED:







...and here's a comparison with all lights on:






The LEDs are 25 LED lights for the fronts, but I also got single LEDs for the number plate to match the stock LED rear light clusters:






...and a double LED for the boot:




Overall, they came to about £4.39 each including delivery (I also bought a spare for the fronts too).
You can get them for cheaper on Ebay (down to half the price sometimes), but run the risk of getting cheaply made stuff that burns out after a few months, hopefully mine'll last a lot longer.


I wasn't intending to "match" the headlights by making them HID because I don't want to damage or interfere with the cabin light levelling mechanism, this was just to make the car more easily visible in overcast/rainy conditions when sidelights only are on.....the fact that they add a slight "blue tinge" to the headlights is a bonus .

Very very nice lights and so cheap.. Can you tell the online store from where you got these lights?

[guest3793]

Look much better although I think legally you can't replace the standard exterior bulbs for LED that are not a factory fit. I think they need to be "type approved".
Can't see the police or the MOT tester being that bothered though..

[bill ericay]

I know this is an old topic.
I just wondered, a year on, how the LED bulb upgrades have been behaving , have they been reliable ?
I'm thinking of replacing my sidelight bulbs with LEDs, so particularly interested in their performance.
Thanks in advance for any replies.