DIY: Interior / Trunk Light bulb change/upgrade

CosmicTouring said:

You can use the reverse lights for your side markers but not sure how a white light would look with yellow lens....light yellow? Would look nice with clear sidemarkers though.

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ChrisR16 said:

waiting on the seller on eBay to make the clear markers available then I'll buy all my parts from him. I'll have to try the LEDs in them then. I didn't pay them much attention but they seemed to be 194s

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ChrisR16 said:

waiting on the seller on eBay to make the clear markers available then I'll buy all my parts from him. I'll have to try the LEDs in them then. I didn't pay them much attention but they seemed to be 194s

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CivicMichael said:

I just installed my exLED kit (just the interior and trunk lights so far). Holy smokes, these things are bright! I took some photos with my SLR on manual settings with a tripod to have an accurate comparison of colour and brightness of the exLED kit vs the stock bulbs and the generic eBay T10 bulbs (I'll post a full review in a new thread soon). I did have the issue mentioned above with the connector not fitting in the dome light as well as the trunk light. For the dome light, I was able to hold one side of the metal "bulb grabber" prongs with my finger then wiggle and wedge the black exLED connector into place but for the trunk light, I had to bend the metal prongs almost 90 degrees with some needle-nose pliers in order to get the exLED connector into place. Also, I was kind of surprised that the map lights didn't fit more snugly - I kept pushing on them, expecting them to snap into place but they kind of loosely hang there. I think the connector should be a bit thicker to make the map lights more secure. Also, the dome light just dangles off it's cable - I guess I was hoping it would somehow fasten itself to the fixture or have a more rigid connector that held the light panel into place. It seems fine once you put the diffuser back on which holds the light panel in place, but I'm wondering if it will rattle around in there and make noise when the car is in motion. I also confirmed that the trunk light does in fact have different coloured LEDs as seen in CosmicTouring's sample images. There are some cool blue and warmer LEDs mixed together so the colour is a bit inconsistent - not that I really care that much about the light colour in the trunk - it kind of looks cool anyway - but most importantly it's a HUGE improvement in brightness over the stock bulb and the generic T10 eBay LED.

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UncleDomino said:

So I'm pretty sure I managed to blow a fuse. The dome light has these metal clips that prevent the exLED plug from fitting. I used pliers to open it a bit and now no lights will turn on.

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CivicMichael said:

@CosmicTouring Did you take any side-by-side shots of the Philips reverse lights vs the stock bulbs?

I just installed one of my exLED reverse lights and I was pretty disappointed. I expected it to be super bright but it looked dimmer than the stock bulb. It looked prettier with the nice neutral white colour (which should match the headlights) and had a more even spread but I decided to remove it since my main reason for buying them was for the greater brightness. Not only that, but the bulb was too big and just BARELY fit through the opening into the light enclosure (I had to turn it an extra half turn so that the defects in the bulb casing fit through the little cutouts in the opening). The bulb was also pretty loose in the socket so if you try pulling the light back out of the hole after it's installed, you could lose your bulb inside the light assembly (if it doesn't fall out on its own over time). I also scratched the heck out of my bumper by letting the big light assembly rest on it - I should have put a towel between the loose assembly and the bumper when I was installing the bulb. Another issue I had was getting those two plastic pins to pop out. It required a lot of force and I was afraid I was going to crack the assembly. Same goes for putting it back on - needed a lot of force to get those pins back in.

Another note for those less mechanically-inclined like me: To remove the existing light socket, you need to depress the little tab on the grey part then turn it counter-clockwise (at least for the light on the right side) about half a turn to remove it.

I may have to try the Philips ones if they are in fact noticeably brighter than the stock bulbs but this replacement process is a little scary compared to the interior bulbs so it would have to be a big improvement to go through that process again. Maybe I can find someone local who wants to buy my exLED reverse lights off me (if they're more concerned about colour than brightness).

Here's a quick snap showing the side-by-side difference:

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CosmicTouring said:

Sorry. I didn't get to take a side by side pic with Philips and stock bulb. Someone here got the Philips too. Maybe they have taken a pic.

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CivicMichael said:

Thanks for your reply. That's too bad. I was going by this review I saw on the DriveAccord forum: http://www.driveaccord.net/forums/8...30-exled-reverse-fog-led-lighting-review.html which makes the exLED reverse lights look brighter than OEM. Maybe the OEM lights on the Accord are dimmer than the Civic? It certainly looks brighter in those pics than in mine.

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