it's a very small turn to get it to lock in. I thought the same thing when I first changed mine.

what a pain in the !!! I installed the super white 194's in this afternoon, I wanted to do leds but I didn't wanna have to go through this process again in 3 months. Looks much better that the factory lights.

Thanks for the DIY!

Polarg B1 Hybrid M4's
 

Installed mine this Saturday, at 10pm in the street, no less. You guys weren't joking about how hard it is to install the bulbs.. I did mine without removing the ECU cover or wires for the passenger side (I didn't even have a wrench to use, ha!).. The flashlight helped a ton. It was probably 30 minutes of agony (my fingers were still hurting a day after)... but well worth it!!

I did Polarg B1 Hybrid hyper whites (M4).. these aren't the LED type as I didn't want the too-blue look those gave off and I've used them before in my previous car.. great bulbs that really last. Polarg is Koito's aftermarket brand, BTW.. so it's made by the same company as the OEM wedge bulbs (didn't know orig. bulbs were Koito 'til I pulled them out). I ordered these from: http://www.automotivelightingusa.com...oducts_id=1030 .. got them in 3 days.. would definitely buy from them again. I will also put one in the rear license plate but didn't get around that yet b/c I didn't have a flat-tipped screwdriver at the moment.

Dang it! I just my 6leds in from vled and installed the driver's side. Was having trouble with the passenger's side so I came back here and saw your post.

Those look so much better than leds! You can't see the individual lights. I might have to order those

Would these work/fit in the parking lights of our 8? ...

SUPERBRITES.COM
WLED-WHP LED Wedge Base Bulbs
High Power - Pure White 194/168 wedge base bulb
This bulb has 1 High Power LED which is about as bright as the 6-LED bulb seen above
At 4500K, the Color Temperature is between Warm White and Cool White

bump...just added some Amber ones to mine.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...4/PICT0007.jpg
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...4/PICT0128.jpg
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...4/PICT0127.jpg
(don't know why the image link isn't working)

this DIY was ok it helped me to find were the lights were but thats it. there was nothing about needing to have little jap hands to fit in there. also the ecu cove was way to hard to get off. in the end it could have been done better. i would have done it but its way to cold for all that right now

I'm thinking of replacing the stock lights with RED ones. Anyone know if they are legal? I'm in Indiana.

I doubt they are because here they are illegal because of the colors being used in Emergency Vehicles.

pretty much everywhere blue and red lights are illegal as are strobes if on in motion. you can even be ticketed while just parked with blue and red lights flashing, even though it is unlikely.

They won't be flashing. They'll just be turned on, as positioning/daylight running lights.

ive had white on my side markers and the cops seem to leave me alone. and yes i do know that its illegal.

white side marks are not illegal, at least not here in GA.

They don't have to be flashing. Red or blue lights are illegal period, flashing or not. Certain light colors are designated for only emergency vehicles.

if the lights are on and the car is in motion it is illegal and you can be ticketed. If you are stationary it depends on whether or not the Officer wants to be a dick about it.

in il it is

scraped off a thick layer of skin installing the passenger side led.. ouch!

how did you do THAT???

Just thought I would share my lights after reading the DIY (great write up by the way!) Honestly only took me 10 minutes to do both sides. The passenger side was not too hard to get to at all :) They are not as blue as they are in these pictures im too lazy to fix my camera up to make them look right.

Not fucking worth it
 

This mod is not fucking worth it. I spent a half hour trying to get the damn ecu box off and when I finally got the passenger socket back in the fucking bulb fell out into the headlight housing FUCK

coat hanger and some tape will get that blub out

Well got it out but now that i finally got everything all back together I realized half the leds are out on it.

lol epic fail

i had no problems at all

Now autoillumination is telling me I have to waste my time and go drive to a post office and pay for shipping to send back their faulty product before they'll send me a new one.

the leds will fit two ways and only work one.. did you try them plugged in both ways?

You think those Polarg bulbs would match my 6000K headlights I just installed today? I did the conversion kit from therpmstore and went to test my lights and my driver side clear corner led went out. I planned on changing out my parking lights, and figured i might as well get the side markers replaced too.

just did this install... thanks for the helpful tips.

I installed LED's into both parking lights and LED's into the Clear Corners. Took a little less than an hour for everything...

just place a order :) hopefully it will b easy for me

thanks for the DIY

damm the passenger side was a pain in the a$$ but its done and looks soo much better now thanks for the DIY

i did mine in red and damn it was a pain in the ass bad day...but worth it. looks sick now.

i changed my and it was pain the driver side which is the states passenger side!

I have had a problem with bulbs burning out every year (VLEDS are good bulbs but they don't seem to last me more than a year). I don't mind swapping corner lights, but I hate having to deal with the passenger side parking light in the headlight. I have now decided that I will remove bulbs from these parking lights and leave them dark.

I didn't like how the LEDs didn't color match the HID Color anyway.

Anyone else running without parking lights in the headlight casing? Any comments?

I posted this over in the RX8Strakes forum too on account of that's where I got my LEDs...

----------------------

Having done a lot of LED conversion work over the past couple months I thought it'd be pretty easy to cutover my parking lights so I picked up a set from RX8Strakes.

I started out doing the passenger side because by all accounts it's the harder of the two. It went fairly easy... I tight fit, but after a couple minutes I was able to do the twist and sealed nicely.

I did not have the same luck on the drivers side. No matter what I try I cannot get the LED and housing to seal. I've tried everything, even trimming back the bottom tab from the LED and cutting back the tabs on the side of the housing where the bulb slips in. If I take the LED out, the socket fits right in and secures without issue.

I've tried everything at this point and I'm not sure how to proceed. I'm at the point where if I pry and push any harder I'm afraid I'm going to break the housing or worse yet the socket on the headlight itself.

Any one else run into this?

Thanks,
Shell

i had my parking lights taken out for a while and it looked fine..

Ok, no offense intended to RX8Strakes but I think they should reconsider the LEDs they're selling for the parking lights.

I just picked up a set of these and fingers crossed I'll have better fitment. I bet if I were to be able to see inside the housing the 9 clustered LEDs are off by a mere millimeter or something silly like that...

I'm rationalizing now in the absence of any feedback. I'm guessing from a machining perspective, the housing, LED, or some combination has me a smidge out out of tolerance.

I hope these v-leds ones fit better... they are a bit shorter:

http://www.shellware.com/images/5768269.jpg

Basic follow-up. the RX8Strakes LEDs are actually 9 LED clusters and there's no way under the sun they would ever fit on my car's parking light housing and I have pictures to back it up.

The above linked v-leds worked perfectly although I am a little concerned over longevity. These have the regulator IC built into them so we'll see.

I've also got a set of the POLARG nissei hybrids referenced on page 3 if I run into issues with the v-leds.

At this point, I'm glad this one is over. It was a major pain in the a$$. I can only hope my v-leds last 12 months because I'm in no hurry to go back in. Hell, I even had to remove my bumper at one point over this cr@p.

Shell

Man! It's impossible to install these, I tried for almost an hour. On the driver side I managed to get the light into the house, but I can't lock it. Wow it's tight in there.
On the passanger side, I didn't even manage to remove the ECU cover, I took of the 3 screws on the cover, but still it didn't get of.

I was thinking of replace the turn signals as well, but after this there's no way i'm gonna spend 3 hours to replace them, those lights are even deeper in.

i have the rx8strakes led parking bulbs and they fit fine. they also havent gone out or anything like that.

Ya might wanna check the RX8Strakes forum, and the "Problem with Parking Lights" thread RR. This is a bit bigger than an isolated issue.

Perhaps you can post in their thread what year and model 8 you have. Also knowing which cluster pod you got would be beneficial, ie 6 vs 8 vs 9.

i have an 8 cluster led setup and an 04 rx8

Did this yesterday, took about 15 minutes! Driver side is pretty simple,...you can take the cover off if you need even more room. Passenger side was TOUGH! I didn't take the ECU cover off.

I just put on some mechanics gloves, slid my hand in tight, spun it counter clockwise and got some thin pliers to help get the housing out.

Getting it back in is even tougher, but do yourself a favor, turn the led light ON, use your right hand and guide it in as you look at the car from the front...it helps you easily guide it back in. I struggled at first then was like, 'duh' it'll be easier if i can have the light on. after i did that was done in 2 minutes.

A tip to everyone... don't by the autoillumination ones. They are of poor quality. Mine didn't fit tight in the socket and they were two different shades of blue. The v-leds high power are just a few bucks more and are about 5x brighter and seem to be better made.

Agreed - Autolumination bulbs seem to burn out real real fast. Sure they replace them - if you're willing to pay for the postage to send them back to get more bulbs that will burn out quickly.

On the red/blue debate - Local cop said blue lights were LEGAL as long as they were not flashing.
Buttttttt - when LEDs burn out, they tend to flicker+flash = not good.

Later, I was pulled over by a state trooper (i have good luck) and he said no blue lights anywhere on the car. I have a blue rear license plate light and he didn't care for that... told me to change it or cut the wire...

Amber or Hyper white seem to be the same colors. I guess green or violet if you're into that.

Lastly - I wouldn't recommend autolumination.

I guess I'm a lucky one but I've had nothing but good results from Autolumination. The lights come super fast, and I have multiple LEDS from them (interior, map, door, rear plate, corner markers) and all have lasted a long long time-none have burnt out...... Are those with trouble ordering the ones with the heat sink? That prevents burnout and are intended for long usage.

That could be the problem - I did not order heat sink.

Mine didn't burn out, they were just crappy quality. Like I said they did not fit snug in the socket at all for some reason and fell inside my headlight twice! That and one was brighter than the other and they were two different shades of blues. It looked like crap.

So I ordered some v-leds and polarg b1's to try them out. I like the polargs the best actually, they are very white and match my HID's nicely.

i've gone through about 3 sets of v-leds for my parking and corner lights.. they replace them every time though.

Do those polargs actually have that blue paint or whatever it is on them? Because if they were turned off during the day they would be blue up close... That is something I definitely don't like...

No they don't look blue during the day... you can't tell there's a different bulb in there. Just when they are on they are pretty much the same color as the HIDs. Maybe not as bright as LEDs though.

How long have you had them in. The only reason I would get them over LED's is longevity.

Had them in since September maybe? If you are looking for longevity LEDs will never compare to incandescent bulbs. These could probably last 5 years+