I am planning on using LED bulbs to replace the 194 type wedge bulbs in the following locations:
parking lights (located in front bumper)
side markers front & rear (located on side of front and rear bumper)

I'm considering one of those bulbs that has 5 LEDs on it. Has anyone tried this to confirm if it will fit or not? I'm worried that the physical size of the bulb is too big for the locations I want to put them in.

 

the 5 led bulbs will NOT fit....I was definetly not happy about this....use one of the "wide angle" ones or something to that effect

 

Thanks Tuls. Good to know. The wide angle one was my next choice.

 

3LED ones work, 5/9 ones do not.

 

why are you replacing them with LED's?

 

I tried LEDs and they were much less bright and just didnt light up the lamp housing like the old bulbs did....i wasnt happy

 

well, a local company makes a 4 led 194 replacement for sale at our local autozones, i havent seen them anywhere else before.

they fit perfectly in all the slots and look great, day or night. they also make my 12 LED tail light bulbs.

they are about 16 a pair and glow amber.

the brake bulbs are about 20 a pair and glow bright red.

 

I want my parking lights to match the Xenons. The regular "super white" 194 bulbs look very blue when the lamp is off.

 

How about for the interior lights? Will the 5 LED wedge (194) bulb fit? This is for the 2 footwells, as well as for the 2 courtesy lights (bottom of door). I think these are the only interior locations for the 194 type bulb. Is that right?

 

same here!!

 

I have tried both the single LED and five LEDs (current one). The single LED, as other mentioned, is not that bright because the light angle is small, so if you installed on the turn signal, there may be a chance people on the side behind you not able to see the light, and for the parking ones, the light cannot be reflected by the reflective housing, so less bright.

I am using the 5-LEDs for my turn signals and the front parking light. It fits without problem for the turn signals. For the front parking, due to the hold that the bulb needs to be inserted thru is small, I file down the top of the four LEDs at the bottom, so the circumference is small enough to put the bulb in. Light can still pass thru the top, so the brightness did not lower the whole lot.

That's how I did mine.

 

I feel stupid for asking (yes I searched), but, how do you remove the parking indicator bulbs? I was able to get to the turn signals easily, but I can't figure out how to remove the parking bulbs. Thanks!

 

Well there are a couple of threads on this one, but lets see if I can summarize (Tuls correct me if I'm wrong):

The parking lights in the front bumper twist out just like the turn signal lights. They are just harder to get out. Remember righty-tighty, lefty-loosy. I recommend removing the turn indicator mounts first to give your hand more room to get in and turn the parking light mounts.

194's fit: Step lights (under the doors), footwell lights, dome lights (as well as a 39mm festoon), Map lights (these are a realy b!tch to get in and out) courtesy light in the boot, side turn indicators, and the wheel well lights. You can use the 5 LED matrix bulbs for all of these

39mm Festoons fit: liscense plate-rear x2 and the center dome light.

For the front turn indicators, most people use the silver coated regular halogen bulbs as the usual 1156 LED bulbs have the fit pins located at 180 degree orientation, but the halogens are offset. Though I noticed autoluminations lists an offset LED bulb that I may order to try out.

As far as tail lights go, the 1156 matrix 24 LED bulbs work well for reverse lights, but not for brake lights as they are VERY hard to see in the daylight.

Well, hope that helps out.

Joel

 

You just have to turn it very hard, grab very tight and turn. It took me some time to remove and put back on, since the space there is not that big. I have already not a big hand, for people with big hands, may even harder to reach. Good luck.

 

Joel & FS - Thanks for the info. I was able to pull that parking indicator out.

Did you have to disassemble the map light in order to replace those 194 type bulbs?

 

Well what I did is as follows:

The 194 map lights wedge into the socket runnning from side-to-side in the car (if you understand what I mean). I stuck a small blade screwdriver up next to the bulb and wedged it out towards that side of the cars door( i.e. driv'ers side bulb, wedge the screwdriver on the passenger side and lever so the bulb moves toward the driver's side door) this forces the bulb down and out at the correct angle to get out the offset holes. Be care full not to break the bulb in your eyes!

Then to get the new bulb in there are 2 steps. First for LED's you have to get the polarity oriented right. So I held the tip of the bulb gently in a needle nose pliers, and pushed it up to make contact with the outlet with the switch on. If the bulb illuminates then you have it in right and you can move to step 2. If not, try turing the bulb 180 degrees and re-inserting, it should light up this way. If it doesn't work either way, you may need to bend the contact leads on the LED to get them to stay more towards the edges of the plug portion. For step 2 you have to push the bulb up and in at a similar angle as you used to pull out the regular halogen bulb,

To be honest it took me about 20 minutes and multiple tries per side to get them in right. It was really frustrating, and my wife actually took over to finish the second one 'cause I was swearing up a storm. The effect is cool, and worth it but these are probably the toughest bulbs to change on the entire car.

Joel

 

So I tried this approach and got nothing but two dead 5-way LEDs. I was careful and filed just a tiny bit at a time, but by the time it would fit through the hole, I had filed enough to break the LED circuit. So I put the inverted cone LEDs in for the time being. Not very bright.

I ALMOST gave up and ordered Angel Eyes - but thought that was a lot of money for something I can't see while I'm driving... then when I was looking at what it would take to install Angel Eyes (removal and replacement of the turn signal housing) I had an idea.

So I pulled out my remaining spare pair of 5-way LEDs. I figured out how to get the bumper cover loose on one end and removed the turn signal housing. I had a set of needle files from Northern Tool lying around. I found a file that was about the same size as the two existing slots for the wedge bulb holder. I filed another pair of slots in there to match, so now instead of two slots at 9 and 3 o'clock I have 4 slots at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock. And with a little gentle wiggling the 5 way bulb fits!!!

Reinstall it, reaffix bumper cover, lather, rinse and repeat on the other side. About an hour total time and I have wonderfully functional and pretty bright LED parking lamps that match my xenons and my xenon-match highbeams and fogs. With my silver turn signal bulbs, everything on the front looks nice and white - on or off. Yee Haw!

 

I have these for my front fender repeaters and for my side marker reflectors. They are as bright as stock and have a nice crispy amber color, the only problem is Autozone ONLY sells the amber ones and cant get any other colors. The company that makes them is called JamStrait http://www.jamstrait.com/ and you can only get the other colors through different online vendors. They fit great and you can bend the LEDs outward a bit to give it more of a broad light pattern. There great. but have availablity limited to online stores.

 

I've been running with my plain ole' 5-way white LEDs in the front parking lamps for a couple of months now. I just recently got one of these "high flux" 5 way LEDs from AutoLumination for my cabrio interior dome light - and it was SUPER BRIGHT!



So I ordered two more to try in my front parking lights - they fit with no problems (not too wide like the old 5-ways were) and are REALLY BRIGHT - seem just as bright as the old incandescent bulbs - you can see them fine in the daytime! They're going to be like searchlights at night compared to the old LEDs. Very, Very Happy.

This is a great 3-minute mod for anyone who has gone with xenon-match fogs and high beams...

Update: After about 5 weeks, these bulbs were TOAST in my parking lamps - 4 of the 5 elements had failed and the last was flashing.

I just replaced them with these:


which supposedly have better current regulation and heat tolerance - we'll see...

 

hey BlimeyCabrio. was just wondering how the ones you replaced with are doing for ya. and also if they're still up and running without any problems.
(i know i know..5 months old)
but if they're still lasting..(hopefully) do they match well with the hid's?
im dropping some money on lights. (the 194 bulbs, h11's and h7's)

thanks in advance.

 

i have 5 bulb led lights in my arch lights, fender turn signal, and front park lights. so thats 8 bulbs, all fit just fine. do you have a picture of the actual bulb your looking at? I love mine, especially the white ones. theyre super bright. the reds are pretty good, and the ambers are okay. personally i like the inverted wedge leds better than anything. because of their design, they scatter the light a lot better than normal leds which typically shine in one direction.

 

Here's my experience with the 5-way high flux SMT:

At the beginning of the year, I purchased 3 of them -- 1 for my cabrio dome light and 2 for map lights. I hardly ever turn on the map lights. The dome light has only been lasting 2-3 months before one or more of the 5 elements starts to go out or flicker. When that happened, I swapped the dome bulb with one of the map lights, and I have had to do it twice already (thus in 6 months I am already on the third bulb in the dome). My dome light only turns on when getting in and out of the car. Total "on" time in 2 months cannot be much more than several hours, and it already starts to burn out? I love the brightness of this bulb -- far brighter than any other 194 I have tried (and I have tried quite a few); however with such short life it is difficult to recommend.

Ultraleds in the UK sells the same bulb but offers a one-year warranty at about the same price (including overseas shipping) as Autolumination. I may try them if I don't find another 194 bulb with similar brightness.

 

i actually meant the 4-star smt led bulbs. the 5-way high flux smt ones you (rkw) are talking about sure seem bright and nice. but i was wondering if the 4-star smt ones are almost as bright. or even bright at all and if they last a long while.
and i was also wondering about this bulb.
http://hoen-usa.com/city2.htm


i was thinking about buyin foglight and high beam bulbs from them so should i might as well go with those 194 bulbs or just buy led bulbs?

 

Warning: I have spent a small fortune the past couple years constantly replacing my LEDs. Make sure and save yourself a future hassle and order several extra of each bulb for when they go out (it might be a week, might be a year, you never know) you won't have to spend money on shipping.

Sure they look sweet, but I'm tired of having to take off my front bumper every month and change a bulb out; I am really thinking about going back to mostly stock bulbs.

 

Taking your bumper off? you shouldnt have to do that for any bulbs except maybe the fogs but even then you can go through the fender trim.