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Replacing interior lights

22K views 21 replies 15 participants last post by  Jim Ledd 
#1 ·
Since lots of people are replacing their interior lights with #168 LED's, maybe someone else has had the same problems as me: 1. On the pair of reading or map lights, the new LED bulb is not recessed as much as the original; this makes it impossible to depress the plastic cover and by doing so turn on the white button. And 2. Where on the dome light did you insert your pry tool to avoid cracking the plastic cap? Mine is really tight.

Thanks for any help you can offer.
 
#4 ·
#168 LED's

Thanks to both of you for replying. I'm puzzled because I'm pretty sure I bought exactly the bulbs you previously recommended, Einz. I'm puzzled that yours fit and mine did not! They turned on without trouble, but apparently their 1.1" length protruded too much.
 
#8 ·
Where on the dome light did you insert your pry tool to avoid cracking the plastic cap? Mine is really tight.
I just went through this. You need a fairly thin screwdriver or table knife, inserted between the outer light frame and the lens. Do NOT try to pry the entire light assembly loose by prying around the perimeter of the light, between it and the headliner.
 
#14 ·
White LED interior on a BUDGET

For anyone intersted in the LED interior premium look, I found these extremely cheap LED T10 bulbs on Amazon and they look GREAT.

https://amzn.to/2LRsaur by Yorkim. For the cost of one at a big-box retailer ($12.99) you get a 10-pack that will cover all the lights and leaves 6 spares. You can't beat that. Installation is simple only requiring a plastic trim tool (or flat head screwdriver if you're brave enough; beware, the plastic is EXTREMELY soft and WILL give with gentle pressure from metal - I know because it happened to me).

This one is pretty good: https://amzn.to/2JawKSu Miayon car pry tool set for $4.

The arrows in the pictures below show where you would insert the tool and pry the lenses out. Note the arrow pointing to the bulb for the front lights.. it touches the lenses so the dynamic of the switch changes. I had to shave some of the plastic on the inside of the left one to prevent it from doing more damage. Enjoy.



 
#15 · (Edited)
Did this mod severalmonths ago with the same kit from Amazon. It really brightens the interior with very little effort. I think more than one forum member did that same swap out. It was easy and inexpensive. I used an ordinary small bladed screw driver to pry off the lenses. Not complicated, and I did not have to alter the bulbs for the press switch. I can’t find the thread, but this modification has been discussed here previously. There was a link to a YouTube how-to video to help.
 
#16 ·
After having many cheap Amazon bulbs die, I bought the college hills Honda kit and have been very happy.

Yes I overpaid, but 2 years in not a single bulb has died.

Sent from my SM-G900R4 using Tapatalk
 
#17 ·
Early on, thinking that I was smarter than the average person, I bought several of the T10 bayonet packs of 10 off eBay for cheap money… After a couple of years of cheap stuff going out, you realize there's something to the more expensive bulbs like college Hills… Did a few cars with them, never a problem…

Superbrightleds.com also has some good offerings.......
 
#20 · (Edited)
I tried the Yorkim bulbs from Amazon with limited success. Like OP, I couldn't turn on the map lights without pressing hard enough to bend the lens cover so the switch gets depressed enough to click on. The problem is that an incandescent 194 bulb is just about 19mm long and hemispherical at the top, whereas the Yorkim bulbs are 22mm long and flat on the top. Those 3mm make the difference between being able to click the lights on or not.

I was also not impressed with the light output. Sure, it was whiter, but not necessarily brighter. The problem there was that neither the dome light or the cargo light have reflectors, so you're basically only using the light from one of the LED chips on the bulb (the one that faces straight down when the bulb is installed). Also, the dome light has metal fork-looking clips that protrude around the center portion of the bulb, and the Yorkim bulb contacted those clips, which I didn't like. I don't think it'd cause a problem, but those clips are part of the electrical contacts, so it's just asking for a short. Incandescent 194 bulbs have about 1mm of clearance around the center of the bulb.

So the solution would be to get undersized bulbs for the map lights, and oversized bulbs for the dome and cargo area lights, with LEDs that only face one direction. The undersized bulbs would be short enough to allow enough vertical distance between the end of the bulb and the map light lens cover to let the switch turn on. The oversized bulbs in the dome and cargo lights would give more light output, since more than one LED would face straight down.

The dome light needs to have a bulb with a wedge-base that is long enough to clear the metal fork clips, but not too long that it doesn't fit in the recess that the bulb mounts in. If memory serves, the dome light space has 40mm in overall length and 26mm in overall width. The cargo light has even more space, so whatever fits in the dome light should also fit in the cargo light.

I chose part number 194-CW3HP from SuperBrightLEDs for the map lights since they are actually shorter than an incandescent 194 bulb at 16.76mm long, and part number 921-CWHP9-DAC from SuperBrightLEDs for the dome and cargo lights. They do make a 12-LED version, but the dimensional drawings showed that it wouldn't fit in the dome light.

The pictures speak for themselves. The map lights are pretty much the same brightness as the Yorkims and the incandescent 194s, just the light is whiter, and I can turn the lights on easily. A 194 incandescent bulb has a light output of around 25 lumens, while the LED bulbs I chose for the map lights have a total output of about 45 lumens for each bulb, so not much of a discernible difference. I have an LX, so the map lights only turn on when I press them. I simply changed the map light bulbs since they're $3 each and match the dome light.

The dome light and cargo light are significantly brighter, which was what I was after. The LED bulbs I chose for the dome light have the same type-2835 LEDs as the map lights, and have a total output of about 135 lumens, compared to the incandescent 25 lumens, which is definitely noticeable.
 

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