Searching didn't help me at all so here's the deal. I wanna convert brake lights/tail lights, turn signals front and back, and reverse lights to LEDs. I wanna do this as easily as possible. That means plug and play. I'll get a LED turn signal relay if I have to but I'd rather not.

What are the bulb numbers I need to be looking for to replace each type of bulb?

(As this relates to my project thread, what I'm gonna be doing is swapping all the exterior lights over to LEDs to make it look a little more modern, then swapping in an Integra map light and putting LEDs in those for enhanced inside lights too. Black interior = bad time for dome light at night.)

 

you can find out your bulb sized on here
http://www.sylvania.com/ConsumerProd...lacementGuide/

and you can get LED bulbs on here http://www.superbrightleds.com

 

your gunna need a new kind of relay if you just replace the rears then they will blink fast if you replace all of them they won't blink at all

 

Okay.

If this thread becomes a DIY of sorts, here's the quick list for people who want to explore this option.

Exterior bulbs:
Parking lights/front turn signals - 2x 1157A (dual filament, "A" for Amber color)
Rear turn signal - 2x 7440 (single filament for inner tail sections, 7440A for me because my tails are red/clear)
Tail light/"stop" light - 4x 7443 (???_
3rd brake light - 1x 7440 (unnecessary if you have an OEM spoiler, already LED)
License plate - 2x 168
Reverse lights - 2x 7440

Interior bulbs:
Dome - DE3022, DE3175 (both listed. Dunno why)
Trunk/cargo - DE3021
Integra Map Light - DE3022 (for those who did this pimpin mod)

Civic flasher unit:
LED bulb Flasher Unit CF13JL-02
Here is the part that's unclear to me. Civics have 4 light bulbs for the red half of the 4 lenses. Only two of them light up as brake lights, but all 4 are on as tail lights. Why would they take the same bulb? It's a dual filament bulb, isn't it? Or is it made brighter by sending more power to it?

[edit] and GEEEEEZ, the initial estimate on bulbs for me comes to like $114.58 shipped.

 

I would assume the brake lights just get more voltage sent to them when they light up, but that's just an assumption.

For the turn signals, you'll either need a relay designed for LED signals, or you can just add a few resistors (please don't ask me the specs, I have no clue what you'd be looking at lol) to make them flash at the proper speed.

 

superbrightleds sells relays but it looks like RonJ is gonna have to visit here to tell me what will fit and what won't.

I wish more people on HCF had done this. I need comparisons on bulbs. How many LEDS per bulb is bright enough? 15? 25? more?

I've been visiting hidplanet.com. They have a LED subforum there. Unfortunately, everyone there goes for the DIY method which involved blank circuit boards, ordering LEDs in bulk from Hong Kong, spending hours soldering each one to a board in a pattern that mimics luxury cars, having to do all 4 sections... Some of these guys take a month to finish.

I have experience with LEDs. (This will reveal my inner geek. Great.) I bought a 1:350 scale model of the NX-01 and built it up, then lit it up with LEDs. That kind of project takes countless hours of work, plus you have to pay attention when lining up the anodes and cathodes, plus you get burned a lot, plus you have to do resistance calculations for the number of LEDS at a voltage range to find out how much resistance you're gonna run, then you have to find out if you're gonna run them series, parallel, or some combination of the two, and you have to calculate what that'll do to the resistance load. Ugh, it's a lot of math.

Now don't get me wrong, it's great to build it all custom and be able to show off the new look but I don't have that kind of time anymore. I just wanna drop some coin, plug it in, and have it work.

 

Well, thanks to some ninja research by Stu, the price/component list up there is updated. Costly. Nifty. Is it worth it?

 

worth it all depends on your preferences to me yes it is worth it and it is also amasing and is that the right flasher for sure^? i also just read that you were planning on a 3rd brake light replacement be carefull when geting a bulb for it the led's will need to face sideways not straight out like the normal bulbs

 

Did you figure out the flasher relay problem we were talking about?

 

Flasher relay, yes. Bulbs? no.

Stu keeps telling me that there's a rear sidemarker that's a 168 bulb. I keep telling him it's a 7443. Here's what's odd. When you run a 1999 through the Sylvania lamp replacement guide, it comes up with 168. When you run a 2000 through the guide, it gives 7443.

I thought the 99-00 tails were identical. So wtf? Anyone have some insight?