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View Full Version : Side Marker Blinker LED's



Shep
09-09-2014, 05:17 PM
I know this is kind of an old subject, i.e. how to get LED's to be compatible with the blinker mod, but I haven't seen any currently-available solutions posted yet (if I'm wrong, links to threads discussing this would be most appreciated). With the BA9 LED bulbs, there's usually two inherent in-built problems:

1) only works plugged in one way, making the "blinker mod" incompatible with this; and

2) points directly out, and has minimal (if any) light that hits the reflectors. i.e. coverage of the housing isn't so great.

This product solves both in one go, using bulbs from SuperBrightLEDs, the much-raved about source for various LED's on here. I've had these since mid-to-late May, and they've been running like a champ ever since:
https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/bayonet-bulbs/ba9s-led-bulb-6-led-360-degree/8/

Here's a picture of what it looks like:
https://d114hh0cykhyb0.cloudfront.net/timthumb.php?h=230&q=90&src=https://d114hh0cykhyb0.cloudfront.net/images/uploads/BA9s-xHP6-led-car-bulb-store.jpg&w=300&zc=2

Each of those white/yellow egg-yolk-looking things is an SMD LED. There's circuitry in there that makes it "bipolar", i.e. it effectively removes the "diode" function of an LED. And thanks to the fact that the plug is NOT permanently mounted to the side marker housing, it's fairly simple to twist the bulb once installed to align it perfectly. I actually aligned it so the board was vertical, which gives two SMD LED's pointing towards each reflector, one pointing to the top of the housing, and one pointing to the bottom of the housing.

All I have to say is "Wow", what a HUGE difference! These things are brighter, look better, and run cooler than stock. Keep in mind that once you replace one housing with the blinker mod, you need to replace the remainder with LED's before you'll see it work. I made this mistake and wondered why it wouldn't work, and my laziness to remove and inspect it paid off -- once I got them all installed, it worked beautifully!

If anyone's interested, I can take pictures tonight and post them, with a side-by-side comparison of Tomcio's door LED lights. Let me know.

Lightning
09-11-2014, 12:37 PM
A daytime and nighttime picture would be nice to get an idea of how bright. One issue i've always had with LED is that it always appears "pin point" which actually drives me nuts. I want a large chunk of the area to light up, not a handful of dots.

Josh
09-11-2014, 12:48 PM
Id be interested in this as well. I may order a set, but it would be great to see pictures of them in action first.

Mike A
09-11-2014, 07:26 PM
Did you replace all of your lights with LED's? After reviewing several threads on the subject and doing a full conversion myself, I found a flasher relay from Superbright LED's that works.
Hope this helps.
Have to thank Ozzie for all on the leg work on the subject. I just basically followed his list.

Shep
09-11-2014, 07:52 PM
Did you replace all of your lights with LED's? After reviewing several threads on the subject and doing a full conversion myself, I found a flasher relay from Superbright LED's that works.
Hope this helps.
Have to thank Ozzie for all on the leg work on the subject. I just basically followed his list.To be honest, I just bought an LED flasher from AutoZone long ago when I replaced the rear bulbs with LED's. Good call on the flasher relay though -- if you don't already have an LED-compatible one, you'll need one of those! Keep in mind: the connector is notorious for disintgrating in your hands, so have a spare socket and/or H4 socket handy (which is basically the same thing, and it's what I've been running for the past year and a half with no issues).

On to the pictures as requested!

First a few outdoor shots I took a few months ago:
3072530724

Then a shot of the rear-right corner with the hazards on:
30726

Front-right corner with the hazards on (forgive the orientation issue):
30727

Front-right corner with the parking lights on:
30728


So it does work on both circuits without any issues.

And in case anyone's wondering what the odd setup is going on, it's amber angel eyes rigged up to the blinker circuit, and "switchback" DRL units I got off eBay, which are ridiculously bright at night, but the turn signal LED's is crap (hence the angel eye conversion).