Ok, as some of you know, I tried the #921 bulbs, they ended up melting the lenses just a bit. Good call to those of you that warned me.

Well, this peaked my curiosity though, as many of you know, that's a dangerous thing. I couldn't accept that we don't have any good LED alternatives for our sidemarkers, that's just a load of crap, so I decided to get creative.

Please note, the LED's are just sitting in there they're not arranged, aimed or secured at this point, I need to order more and some red ones for the rear so I can do them all, I'll update at that point, possibly with a DIY if you guys want it.







The diffuser in the center is causing a bit of an issue with the overall effect, it looks much better in person than in the pictures. I will be tinkering with it still to get it looking better of course.

-Matt

 

Pictures uploading....

 

Ok, installed one:

Cutout to allow strip to go in without over bending it and thusly... breaking it (yeah I broke one of them)




Wired, siliconed:



Distance shots, turned out poorly:





Close ups installed:






I was worried it may look tacky once on the car, think It looks good, the diffuser doesn't have as much of an effect because I repositioned, and the reflector works to direct the light very well at all angles. Now I really, really need to do the side marker signal mod, and I'll be doing it to the rear too

 

Looks awesome bud can't wait to see it in person

 

Very nice! Looks clean.

 

Looks good!! your like the LED Jedi master ! lol

 

It's a shame the other bulbs were too hot, The light was so clean and smooth coming out, looked great.

This is a good alternative, Lots more work involved, but the reward is awesome.

 

Nice mod.

But what can you tell me about the LED bulbs for the #194 aplication? I found them in amber and red color and they look just like they got a diffuser in the top part of the bulb. anyone that have been trying this bulbs?

BTW
I found that led stripe here too.

 

I would absolutely love a write-up when you do the others. I'm not all too savvy with electronics and wiring but I would love to do this to my car. If you could do a pic write-up I would (and I'm sure a great many of us) greatly appreciate it!

Looks great by the way! Keep it up!

 

Planning to do this as well Tuner. Why dont you make like a little board of amber leds tuner and toss it in. You could use the like square lumileds or something for it to be extra bright. Just tossing the idea out there. Soon as I figure out some voltage regulator stuff I'll be doing something similar.

 

Sure looks like the project would be easier if the lens came apart. There's no way that was going to happen, Tuner?

I can't tell how you mounted this strip... are you simply relying on the adhesive that came with the strip, or did you glue it? For that matter, I don't see how you mount it at all, considering how you hacked the backplate for access.

Wish I could have seen these last week. Nice to see you've found another lighting project to play with.

 

I have a feeling that with some patience and an exacto knife you could cut away at the join and eventually remove all the glue that holds the lens on, then get it to pop off

 

I haven't found any 'Drop in' bulbs that I feel are any good in the side markers. On top of that, nothing I've tried is brighter. This seems to be the consensus with most of the .ORG's tests, unless I've missed something.

In short, the stock #194 incandecent works well, better than most drop in LED's available.

When the strips get here I'll do one. I am planning on trying it differently on the others.

I would need to disassemble the lense to do that properly. I did contemplate making a custom SMD 'bulb' for this, but it's way too time consuming. I'm quite sure it would turn out very very nice, but not worth the time.

For this one, I did try and get the lens apart, it is very brittle, and the mounting is rock solid. I ended up cutting it so that I could bend the strip in without breaking the strip.

As well on this one I just used hot glue to mount the strip, as well one half of the strip does utilize the 3M adhesive backing, I snuck in there with a bent pick to stick it down.

I am tempted to try this. John has another set of lenses just in case I bust one Hopefully that offer is still on the table
My concern would be cutting the plastic with the knife, the curved edge wouldn't allow you to cut directly at the glue, you'd be cutting the plastic. I suspect it won't work, but worth a shot.

In either case, on the next one I plan on drilling holes along the projected strip line from the back side, that way I can inject an adhesive from the backside to ensure a good hold.

The current setup seems quite secure. I'll give it a month (about how long the new strips will take to get here), and see if it moves at all.

-Matt

 

You know what? OEM amber lenses are on ebay, $12 shipped for the pair.

In other words, it's not too hard to find parts to play with at a minimal expense.

 

Are they really OEM though? In either case, I'll be able to tell pretty quick if it's going to separate easily or not. If it won't, then that may be a good route to go.

If I can put them in this way, have them secure and looking good, why bother though.

 

I got the smoked sidemarkers...THANKS to ROC for the suggestion....and I think its a #194 bulb or something...LED. Works fine for me...here are the pics. Here are some pics:






Here are pics with the LED bulb at night:



I love them!!

 

Not the right colour, which is not only very illegal, but looks very cheap and is extremely distracting to other drivers on the road.

Please get the right colour LEDs, or go back to stock reflectors.

 

I appreciate your concern for the safety of other drivers and your opinion on the "colour" of my lights. I think its great that people have different personalities and are able to put their personalities and unique flavor in their cars....it's shows creativity and diversity. It's OK that you don't like them and that's fine but I think if everyone's Maxima looked the same it would be a boring world.

 

Dude I like them. Let me know how to get these, they look great.

 

I agree. This is why I try to do things differently, I actually go to very great lengths to do things differently.

I've seen guys with cleared side markers and bright white lights in them on the road, it's blinding, much more unsafe than HID's in halogen housings, that shyt is just dangerous, I'm asking you to take them out soley because I don't want someone getting hurt. You don't want that on your concience. There are plenty of safe ways to be "unique"

 

I think the picture makes them look brighter than they really are...my 8k xenons in the the front headlight are brighter than the side markers at night. They are not "white" per say they are more like an icey type blue...I had the white ones in and you are right...they are way too bright...and I think the smoked lens dampens the light a bit anyway. They really are the same brightness as the stock red and yellow side lights, matter of fact the custom string of LED lights that the original poster put in would be brighter than my one light in my sidemarker...so it's not that bad trust me. Honestly, I've had lots of compliments on them.

 

I am the OP. And I can assure you that white/blue light is more distracting than amber.

Back OT please, do what you want with your lights man.

 

I think its the other drivers responsibility to not get distracted. That would be blaming others for your stupid mistakes. If you gots to blame something, blame your weak *** ADD/ADHD pills.

 

I'm glad I don't live up in Ontario because I would feel guilty that he smashed his Maxima into a wall staring at my sidemarker lights.

 

You're totally right. They should keep their eyes on the road when I'm setting off my side marker strobes and underbody kit. yo.

Like this, why can't you just stay focused??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV2Gj...layer_embedded

RIP Bishnu*

 

i have white leds in cleared sidemarkers but at very most they glow. omitting very little light. It depends on what bulbs you use in them. Where i live people are more concerned with >8K civics than a spot of white on the side of my car. Less distracting than DVD players on the back of headrests.

 

Well now that this thread has been completely derailed, I may as well pitch in and hopefully Manny can edit this crap out once I post back with the full modded pics and info.

My stance on it is this, anything that is, or could be a distraction to other drivers on the road should not be allowed. Most of these things are illegal for precisely that reason, including the distracting DVD players as of this year I think in some regions.

White lights that face anywhere but the front of the vehicle are extremely distracting, regardless of the brightness, obviously, the brighter they are the more distracting they are.

The goofballs that said it's up to the driver to pay attention are right, but if you are driving down the highway and see some guy with a ricer wing, tons of lights, spinners, etc like Greg posted, you are going to look, even if it's just a glance. If you try to tell me you won't look, or be distracted, then you're just lying, no ADD or ADHD bull comments.
I'm not putting your clear sidemarkers with white lights in the same category of course, but that doesn't mean they don't distract drivers, which is dangerous, period. And it's easily in the same danger level as the idiots in civics, etc that put glared out HID kits in their cars and blind everyone.

 

You know what Tuner...it wasn't my intent to derail your post...I apologize, but when you dissed my lights as "cheap" that wasn't cool, dissin a man's car is like dissin the man himself, you have to understand where I'm from people get stomped out for saying stuff like that......you know how it is....so it wasn't the distraction comment, it was that "cheap" comment. You noticed on my original post I made no negative or derogatory statements about how your lights looked, I kept my opinion to myself. You gave some good information about how to put legal LED lights in the sidemarkers and how they look. That's a great idea for people who want to stay legal and have some nice looking LED lights as well.

 

Question to OP, do you have the signal/side marker mod? Will this effect it since it's led and not regular bulb?

 

Dissin a man's ar is like dissin the man himself? Really? I think perhaps you take your car too seriously then. I would tell you all the same information/opinions in person. I'm opinionated, that's just me, most guys on here know I will just type what I think. If it offends you, sorry, feel free to rebut, as you have.

I stand by my statements, and I appeciate yours, they're well constructed and thoughtful, so take my opinions for whatever you feel they're worth, and as I said, do what you want with your lights then. I was simply bringing the safety/distraction factor to your attention.

No I haven't done it yet, once I complete my front and side LED projects I'll be doing it though, I'll also be doing it to the rear markers.

And TBH, I'm not sure if you need an LED flasher for that application, I would't think so as long as your front signal is still incandecent. Either way, I've got an LED flasher anyways (running LED's in the signals already)

 

After reading this thread, all I can do is

 

I like this ..may be on my to do list at some point in time .. Although Ive had smoked sidemarkers with white LEDs in both my 5th Gen and now on my 5.5 .. It gets boring looking at the same thing all The time .. where did you buy the led strips from and approximately how much were they if u don't mind me asking ?

 

Excellent looking mod you have there sir

 

IIRC they were about $10 for a pair, 30cm long.

I couldn't find the place I bought them from unfortunately. I also decided to cancel my order on the ones I was gong to buy, I want to get higher quality ones, and for the front, want the strip colour to be white or clear, you can faintly see the black strip in the daylight with the light off, I don't like that.

I have put an inquiry into my LED strip supplier, I may be able to get some more from them if anyone is interested PM me.

 

alright then ill let you know because ill need ones that you wont be able to see because i have the smoked sidemarkers not the factory ones.

 

just wow!! thats some good stuff. on the real Tuner, you should see what the market might be for 5/5.5 members on some of the stuff you are doing, like seriously

 

Ok an update on this one. After some time with the LED strip in there, I've decided I don't like it. It doesn't flow properly due to the teardrop design of the sidemarker.

I may try to scatter LED's like Lexus thought about doing, not sure. Either way wanted to let you guys know I've abandoned this one.