ronarndt

For those who want oncoming traffic to see them, but do not want the pop up headlights popped up, try the LED light strips that are in every car parts store. Pick a place and use as many as you need to make yourself seen. Wire into a circuit that is hot when the ignition is on.

04G35S

iTrader: (10)

Sorry, I am not a fan at all. I see people stick these lights all over everything and it makes the car look cheap. But if you like them that is all that matters!

To be seen I just turn on my running lights!

Neo

iTrader: (4)

Yes, I do find these things tacky. The FD by default came with daytime running lights in Canada. The turn signal lights act as it's daylight runners.

I've seen some posts regarding LED tail lights. Some of the design and concepts are nice. I can't remember which thread it is, but if something similar could be applied to the front parking light/turn signal cluster, that would be fantastic.

otherwise, leave the standard daytime runners alone.

SA3R

Lots of cars here in Australia have those awful tacky LED strips stuck all over them. They're easy to wire up and they stick on with double sided tape, so anyone can basically just peel & stick... And they do. And most are not square, or even, and they leave the yellow halogen bulbs in right next to them, and it looks terrible.

They don't suit any car IMHO. I'm very against them. I think they almost qualify as light pollution.
The strips only look "OK" in factory-equipped cars- Mercedes, Audi, etc where they are built into the light housing and are a much higher quality.

The FD is a classic 1990's design. The factory running lights are part of that design, and suit it. Those strips belong on spaceships and angular Mercedes.

But, as long as you're happy with them, by all means go for it.

nemix

I'm going for a more stock look that fits with the 99 spec lights. Not a huge fan of the generic bars. The angel eyes looked a lot better than I thought they would because they fit the round holes so well. The light bar itself.... I'm working on something that looks similar to below but will literally be the same stuff used in audi lights.

MK3Brent

iTrader: (6)

Was hoping for a nice tail light LED array. I was disappointed. Not a fan personally.

nemix

Big post about those over in the development forums

ronarndt

sorry for all that find the LED tacky, but getting creamed by some driver that "didn't see you" is worse. The US cars do not have driving lights like the Canadian version and I tried wiring the fog lights every possible way with the existing wiring harness and could not get them to come on without the pop up motor on the headlights putting the lights in the up position. Nemix- if you get your lights worked out, that will be a good replacement.

nemix

If you have some basic electronic knowledge (or good Internet skills to look it up) hookup a relay straight to the battery and an accessory wire. When the car starts it will automatically turn on the fog lights. That is if you want those on instead of the bars. To each their own.

ronarndt

Nemax- thanks for the suggestion, but it is not as simple as that. The feedback between the main headlight switch, the hi-low dimmer switch, the foglight switch and the headlight pop up motor prevents direct wiring to the fog lights. When they are powered, the headlights pop up. Disconnecting the wiring from anywhere topside still makes the headlights pop up. Getting to the wiring right at the foglights to direct wire and ground them is next to impossible without taking off some of the front facia. I would have preferred using the fog lights, but found it more difficult than expected.

turboIIrotary

iTrader: (9)

Overthinking it. The fogs are connected by a plug just unplug it and run with a relay and a switch or just wire it directly to an acc wire so when the car is on the fogs are on.

nemix

Yup, idk if I'd run it directly from the accessory wire though. It's usually not meant to handle very high amperage thus the accesory/battery/relay layout I recommended.

If you aren't comfotorable with it most auto shops should be able to wire it up for you.

Tom93R1

iTrader: (2)

I put cheap stick on LED strip on my car the other day. It was to replace my busted up license plate lights that only sometimes functioned, works well for that.

ronarndt

Thanks for all the suggestions...... but see if your arm has the needed four elbow joints required to get at the foglight plugs without taking off the front bumper fascia, which is a PIA. Obviously I would prefer to use the foglights but the easily-accessable wiring points top-side do not work. Even fishing the wire down to the LEDs took a while, since the various parts of the 5 mph bumper, foam and other stuff is in the way.

I have to replace a broken lens on one of the fog lights and have had the replacement part sitting on my bench for months, since this part of the FD is not fun to work on. When I finally do that repair and have the front ripped off, I can re-wire the lights as running lights. BTW, for those wondering about my mechanical skills, I did my first valve job on a 287 cu in Pontiac engine in 1962. Lost count of the complete engine overhauls and trans rebuilds on American, British and Jap cars..... and I do this for a hobby. Just saying.

turboIIrotary

iTrader: (9)

I can take off a stock front bumper in 10 min you are definitely making it harder than it seems. I actually don't think I took my front bumper off to access the fog light connector either.

Neo

iTrader: (4)

I posted my thoughts in the development thread someone mentioned earlier, but here's my thoughts on the whole LED lighting situation:

I'm interested in this, but only if it can be done reasonably well.

Airjordan's little project is very intriguing. I wouldn't want the middle part of the car to be lighted like his is. I would still just wan the center brake light to occupy that section.

Here's my little breakdown.

I really like the uniform constant glow the recent Audi's have in the rear. On our cars it would look really nice if we could get something like this to light up the housing.



That's just the constant-on light when you're driving around at night.

When the brake lights apply, I would look for something similar to the Mercedes LED's like this



They would occupy the same location the present brake lights occupy. Very uniform in lighting.
I would expect the turn signal to remain amber as well. Again uniform in light and occupying the same location the present indicator is located in.

To really complete the package, we would have to get rid of the front running/parking light housing as well. Keep in mind I'm still using the original bumper. I know it might be easier to do on the 99 spec bumpers.

Thinking of going for a uniform LED simliar to this:



Again around the housing. This will become the new daytime runner (presently it's regulated to our turn signals)
Keep the inner area the little parking light but using only 1 or 2 of these (as indicated with circle):



And again, making the turn signal light as uniform as possible but still occupying the same amount of room as the present turn signal light.

That's all I'm asking...

MattGold

iTrader: (108)

Those look surprisingly good. You install a set yet?

-M

nemix

I still have the standard 93-95 bumper at the moment. I'm hoping to have the car painted and body kit put on in April so I can get some different setups on and see how they look. Will def post some pics when it's all together.

maverick_0111

iTrader: (14)

That's not Airjordan's project, he was referencing my picture.


What you described is exactly how my tail lights work, minus using LEDs. What you see in the picture are just my running lights and they're on all the time. The brake lights and turn signals still use the stock bulbs and housings.