If I do this, will I be a chav? [LED Lights]

[Graebob]

I did my regular 110 mile trip to Bristol yesterday, and used the sat nav with the "Avoid Motorways" option emphatically clicked. Lovely time, but obviously the weather was ste.

I was running with sidelights on for most of the way to make myself more visible, popping the barn doors up when it was actually raining. However an alarming amount of people seemed to "creep" from sideroads in front of me, then halt once they'd clocked me.

I've never experienced this in any other vehicle, but I've never driven anything as small as the '5 before.

So I started considering the V Spec front fogs, and while ebaying about a bit for them I noticed how cheap the chavvy fake DRL things are.

Now, I'm not a chav, and I hate the proliferation of these rather pointless always on superbright Audi pisstake DRL things. However, I would like to be seen when conditions are dull and there is spray/low mist, but not enough to merit the full pop-up headlight experience. I can see the appeal of having 2 little LED strips in the radiator opening operated by a switch on the dash. They'd be small enough to not restrict airflow to the rad (I'm sure this isn't an issue as V Spec Eunos's have fogs I believe) and subtle enough to not be noticed unless switched on.

Am I being an idiot?

[skinny]

an alternative is to use bigger sidelights. the 921 bulb has the same fitting as the standard 501 but it's 21W instead of 5W. you may need to drill the hole out tho as the actual bulb part is bigger

http://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/921-21W-car-bulbs

[neon_fox]

Graebob said:

Am I being an idiot?

No, safety is a serious thing.

I first noticed this phenomenon when I bought a british racing green elise. Tiny and dark green is not a good combination, even in dry weather in the middle of the day, in any other conditions I might as well have been invisible.

Anything that you can (legally) do to improve visibility, particularly on small dark-coloured cars, is not idiotic.

[MX-5 Lazza]

When I had a Mk1 I never drove it with just sidelights. My thoughts are that if visibility is bad enough to need sidelights then it's bad enough to need headlights.

[hornetrider]

MX-5 Lazza said:

When I had a Mk1 I never drove it with just sidelights. My thoughts are that if visibility is bad enough to need sidelights then it's bad enough to need headlights.

^^ This. Get some decent headlights if you don't have them already and get those barn doors up.

[Raffles]

With my Mk1 I swapped over the sidelights and indicators, so that the sidelights took up the larger part of the light-unit. As well as putting very bright bulbs in there, I put the light unit in the oven to soften the glue, took them apart (you would have to do this anyway to take out the orange reflectors in the unit) and slotted in a strip of LEDs which I wired into the sidelights. I didn't think it looked chavvy. I decided to do this over adding lights anywhere else as I didn't want to change the lines of the car.

[Digby]

Raffles said:

.... I put the light unit in the oven to soften the glue, took them apart (you would have to do this anyway to take out the orange reflectors in the unit)..

I put a guide up the other day which avoids all of that! You can break up and remove the orange part via the bulb hole

I recently purchased some TSI things to replace my indicators/sidelight unit and have had a go today at putting some LED sidelights in.They are brighter than the headlamps now

I sprayed the once red TSI's black, purchased some cheap mesh, added that to the back end, got some cheap ebay LED's, took those apart and drilled the rear for some bolts and used some old meccano to make up a simple bracket to hold it firmly in place.

Lamps fitted but are off in this shot, you can just see them behind the mesh..



The bracket and a few self tap screws...



Powered up to test..





Just have to hope it's all legal now.

Edited by Digby on Saturday 11th June 23:35

[Graebob]

Oooh very nice Food for thought!

[SimonV8ster]

You could simply buy some LED sidelights as a straight swap.

[Graebob]

I had looked at LED replacements, I just didn't think they'd be that bright. Could be worth a shot though, they don't look very expensive.

I like the idea of swapping the indicators and sidelights around and running bright bulbs in there.