DIY: Installing Parking Lights
02-25-2009, 04:03 PM
#102
The Bawss
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I just did mine today. the passenger side in a PITA. Driver's side is super easy. I also ordered JDM clear markers with the 6LED bulbs The parking lights match my 8000 k hids perfect!
02-27-2009, 11:35 PM
#103
So I bought those polargs, the color is good, but damn they are very weak in intensity.
I don't have HID bulbs, and from what I've read it isn't really a good idea to do conversions. So i want some really good white halogens or LED's or something (pref Halogens b/c of lifetime) that are nice and white, and as bright if not brighter than the stock headlights. (these are for the main headlights if you did not realize). Anyone have any suggestions?
I don't have HID bulbs, and from what I've read it isn't really a good idea to do conversions. So i want some really good white halogens or LED's or something (pref Halogens b/c of lifetime) that are nice and white, and as bright if not brighter than the stock headlights. (these are for the main headlights if you did not realize). Anyone have any suggestions?
02-27-2009, 11:50 PM
#104
Super Moderator
Yeah, put in the OEM's....
The same info relates to any globes you replace...
I received an interesting reply from an email I sent to a Globe Seller, his Honesty is refreshing and STRONGLY believes we are wasting our money changing OEM Globes to try and find a "Whiter" stronger beam.
Basically he says ALL those so called White or Bright Globes just have a colored lens to make the lamp look whiter where in fact you are actually diminishing the strength and performance when compared to OEM Halogen Globes.
He says the OEM H9 used in the RX-8's HIGH Beam is the best and strongest lamp available today.
He calls all the "sellers" of Super Whites and Diamond style lamps as Scam Artists..., in all cases the reliability and longevity of their globes are inferior to the OEM ones...
Here is his reply...
Xenon and halogen headlamps are two completely different technologies.
They look different because they're supposed to look different. Trying to
match the color of a Xenon headlamp with a halogen bulb is pointless and
counterproductive. It'll never look the way you want it to, and in the
meantime all you're doing is wasting money, reducing your seeing ability,
and creating glare.
Unfortunately, the "whiter light" and "high kelvin" verbiage that's being
used to sell lighting is essentially a marketeering scam. There is no
light that is "whiter" than that from a properly-powered halogen bulb with
colorless clear glass. All of the so-called "extra white" bulbs, including
the ones we have, use blue or purple glass to tint the light. This does
not make the light "whiter", but it does make it significantly less
intense; the colored glass steals a great deal of light that would
otherwise reach the road. There is no seeing advantage to so-called
"whiter" light from bulbs with colored glass; in fact such bulbs put you
at a distinct seeing disadvantage because of the reduced intensity. In
addition, these bulbs have a very short lifespan because the filament must
be driven very hard to get minimally legal levels of light through the
light-stealing colored glass.
There is also no such thing as "cleaner" light. The High Intensity
Discharge headlamps available on many European and Japanese vehicles and a
few American models produce light by means of a wholly different
technology. The colored-glass bulbs imitate the color, but not the
performance of the HID ("Xenon") headlamps. There is no advantage to the
color of light produced by HID headlamps, it is just an artifact of the
technology used to produce the light. So-called "HID kits" with HID bulbs
modified so as to fit in place of halogen bulbs are illegal and unsafe;
the whole headlamp must be designed for HID usage.
"Color temperature" / "Kelvin rating" (correct terminology: CCT) is a real
phenomenon, but its use in the advertisement of automotive lighting
products is almost entirely fraudulent. Higher-CCT light, contrary to
misinformed and disinformed advertising hype, is not "closer to natural
daylight" and does _not_ help you see better in any way, and it produces
significantly worse seeing performance in any kind of bad weather. All
higher-CCT light does is change the appearance of the operating headlamp
and, outside of a very small range created by different surface luminance
characteristics of different legitimate bulb designs, increase glare and
reduce total and usable light output.
If you are trying to see better, what you need is _more_ light, which will
look whiter *because* there's more light (not because it's tinted to try
to fool you into thinking there's more). There is no legitimate upgrade
from H9, which is (again) the highest-output halogen globe in automotive
use.
Changing to anything other than the OEM bulb will greatly reduce your
high beams' performance -- don't do it.
The same info relates to any globes you replace...
I received an interesting reply from an email I sent to a Globe Seller, his Honesty is refreshing and STRONGLY believes we are wasting our money changing OEM Globes to try and find a "Whiter" stronger beam.
Basically he says ALL those so called White or Bright Globes just have a colored lens to make the lamp look whiter where in fact you are actually diminishing the strength and performance when compared to OEM Halogen Globes.
He says the OEM H9 used in the RX-8's HIGH Beam is the best and strongest lamp available today.
He calls all the "sellers" of Super Whites and Diamond style lamps as Scam Artists..., in all cases the reliability and longevity of their globes are inferior to the OEM ones...
Here is his reply...
Xenon and halogen headlamps are two completely different technologies.
They look different because they're supposed to look different. Trying to
match the color of a Xenon headlamp with a halogen bulb is pointless and
counterproductive. It'll never look the way you want it to, and in the
meantime all you're doing is wasting money, reducing your seeing ability,
and creating glare.
Unfortunately, the "whiter light" and "high kelvin" verbiage that's being
used to sell lighting is essentially a marketeering scam. There is no
light that is "whiter" than that from a properly-powered halogen bulb with
colorless clear glass. All of the so-called "extra white" bulbs, including
the ones we have, use blue or purple glass to tint the light. This does
not make the light "whiter", but it does make it significantly less
intense; the colored glass steals a great deal of light that would
otherwise reach the road. There is no seeing advantage to so-called
"whiter" light from bulbs with colored glass; in fact such bulbs put you
at a distinct seeing disadvantage because of the reduced intensity. In
addition, these bulbs have a very short lifespan because the filament must
be driven very hard to get minimally legal levels of light through the
light-stealing colored glass.
There is also no such thing as "cleaner" light. The High Intensity
Discharge headlamps available on many European and Japanese vehicles and a
few American models produce light by means of a wholly different
technology. The colored-glass bulbs imitate the color, but not the
performance of the HID ("Xenon") headlamps. There is no advantage to the
color of light produced by HID headlamps, it is just an artifact of the
technology used to produce the light. So-called "HID kits" with HID bulbs
modified so as to fit in place of halogen bulbs are illegal and unsafe;
the whole headlamp must be designed for HID usage.
"Color temperature" / "Kelvin rating" (correct terminology: CCT) is a real
phenomenon, but its use in the advertisement of automotive lighting
products is almost entirely fraudulent. Higher-CCT light, contrary to
misinformed and disinformed advertising hype, is not "closer to natural
daylight" and does _not_ help you see better in any way, and it produces
significantly worse seeing performance in any kind of bad weather. All
higher-CCT light does is change the appearance of the operating headlamp
and, outside of a very small range created by different surface luminance
characteristics of different legitimate bulb designs, increase glare and
reduce total and usable light output.
If you are trying to see better, what you need is _more_ light, which will
look whiter *because* there's more light (not because it's tinted to try
to fool you into thinking there's more). There is no legitimate upgrade
from H9, which is (again) the highest-output halogen globe in automotive
use.
Changing to anything other than the OEM bulb will greatly reduce your
high beams' performance -- don't do it.
Last edited by ASH8; 02-27-2009 at 11:54 PM.
02-27-2009, 11:56 PM
#105
Super Moderator
BTW..There is a lot of evidence that after market LED's do not last the distance either...
05-01-2009, 05:17 PM
#109
Lighting Yellow
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wow this is easier than i thought.. only took me 5 min. but i stil need to buy led ones because i only got regular whites which turned out to be not as bright as the stock ones
04-02-2010, 05:11 PM
#111
Registered
Ok, so the driver's side is pretty easy and straight forward.. removing the ECU cover is easy enough EXCEPT one part that is driving me crazy. How the h*ll do you remove the wire from the back and the same sort of clip with the wire attached to the front of the cover. I have circled it in the picture. Any info would be greatly appreciated because I am about ready to just break it to get them off! 
04-09-2010, 01:19 AM
#112
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lol awesome guide. Too bad I didnt see this before I got mine and installed em myself.
Also for those of you with SKINNY *** hands, its possible to install both driving lights without having to remove anything, well, at least for the pessenger side. I managed to squeeze my hand in and unscrew it, then put it back in and screw it (no pun intended). It was pretty painful, but got the job done!
Also for those of you with SKINNY *** hands, its possible to install both driving lights without having to remove anything, well, at least for the pessenger side. I managed to squeeze my hand in and unscrew it, then put it back in and screw it (no pun intended). It was pretty painful, but got the job done!
12-03-2010, 07:38 AM
#115
Sorry to bump this but one of my parking lights (stock ones) went out last night. So i figured id switch it to LED that i had bought insteaad of going to mazda and getting stock bulbs. Heres the thing:
- bought LEDs for my license plate (they come in 2s so i had one left)
- i was going to just put the light that went out as the LED left over but i figured it looked odd so i changed both to LED
Whats weird is that when i put the stock bulb back into the license plate fuse thingy that they wouldnt light up !!! I tried all 3 (the parking light that went out, the other working parking light and i even tried the old license plate bulb) BUt they seem not to turn on WTF !!! I tried turning them also, still nothing. What do you guys think ??
Also was this common for you guys but when i took off my ECU box, the clips broke from pulling it too hard
!! I also had to cut these zip ties that connect a few hoses (the 2 infront of the ECU box) to the ECU box so i could remove the cover. Did you guys have to do this ??
Thanksss
- bought LEDs for my license plate (they come in 2s so i had one left)
- i was going to just put the light that went out as the LED left over but i figured it looked odd so i changed both to LED
Whats weird is that when i put the stock bulb back into the license plate fuse thingy that they wouldnt light up !!! I tried all 3 (the parking light that went out, the other working parking light and i even tried the old license plate bulb) BUt they seem not to turn on WTF !!! I tried turning them also, still nothing. What do you guys think ??
Also was this common for you guys but when i took off my ECU box, the clips broke from pulling it too hard
!! I also had to cut these zip ties that connect a few hoses (the 2 infront of the ECU box) to the ECU box so i could remove the cover. Did you guys have to do this ??Thanksss
03-26-2012, 01:07 PM
#118
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good DIY but removing ECU box/cover is a hassle and unless you have the hands of a small child, good luck doing the passenger side.
might be helpful if somebody could post up photos of removing all the wires that attach to the ECU cover - not sure best way to free up the wires?
might be helpful if somebody could post up photos of removing all the wires that attach to the ECU cover - not sure best way to free up the wires?
01-19-2013, 01:17 PM
#119
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2 words for you ndtechie09
Thank you,
Still driving my '04 RX8 with 90K miles on it and now have been bitten by the LED bug. This was most helpful as I had no idea on where and how to replace the front parking lights.
You LED the way!
Thanks,
Claude H.
Still driving my '04 RX8 with 90K miles on it and now have been bitten by the LED bug. This was most helpful as I had no idea on where and how to replace the front parking lights.
You LED the way!
Thanks,
Claude H.
05-14-2013, 07:05 PM
#121
Registered
Just did this and the driver side is easy... the passenger side, not so much! I managed to do it without taking the ECU out and I'm not equipped with 5yr old girl hands.
I used a fork.
It fits in nicely on one of the 'fins' and the two holes with the wires in them. Insert fork, twist and it came out like a charm. Tightening it was easy too.
I used a fork.
It fits in nicely on one of the 'fins' and the two holes with the wires in them. Insert fork, twist and it came out like a charm. Tightening it was easy too.
. So far I've had no probs without it lol.
05-15-2013, 09:05 PM
#124
Installed these: driver's side was super easy, passenger side was a pain. I used the procedure of removing the ECU cover without too much trouble. LEDs from vleds.com: 5K WHITE 4 LED 2W HIGH POWER BULBS 194 168 158 | 1 PAIR
