yeah but I don't really want bright side markers... IMHO I'd rather draw the attention to the front of the car than the sides... plus less police attention

 

OK, a few more pics. A few at night and some with the HIDs on:

 

hey aipex since u suggested apexcone 6k d2s's for a better match, are you inferring that vled's "white" has a hint of purple in it? or would u say blue? i want to get as close as possible for all the lights to match

 

The LEDs have a blue tint to them. The Philips 6000K have a bluish-purple tint, so the color doesn't match exactly up close, but if you back off a bit you get into the cut off area where it's much more blue and it matches nicely. From what I've seen in pictures, the Apexcone 6000Ks are more blue (less purple) compared to the Philips, so that's probably your best bet for a perfect match.

 

that looks great... When I save up enough $ I'll get the fogs... but for now I'm contempt with just the OEM Bulbs

 

Most LED modules today already have built in resistors. But if you want additional resistance to match what you have at for stock rear bulbs...

Connect a multimeter in ohm mode and measure the resistance between the STOCK bulbs when lit. That is the proper load-resistance that the circuit is seeing from the factory ECU.

Then perform the same resistance measurements with your LED taillights. It usually is less than the incandescent bulb. You make up the difference by adding the missing ohms in series with the LED bulb.

 

Make sure to size up the proper wattage of of the resistor required.

Power dissipated = V^2 / R.
Where V = 12
and R = total resistance of circuit.

 

too bad they dont have yellow leds

 

Everyone that want's yellow leds let's email them and ask if they'll make them.

 

As one of my first mods I wanted to replace the very dim front parking light bulbs with something a bit brighter. It's housing reminds me of a light saber. So I bought a set of PIAA Super Plasma GTX bulbs that were stated as "HID effect". In fact they were much brighter than stock, but had a slight purple hue.

Stock on left - PIAA on right


PIAA on left - V-Led super white on right.




Holy cow these suckers are bright. You can see from the above photo how much illumination is given off from the V-Led bulb.

 

If you want yellow, there's really no reason to go with LEDs. PIAA's plasma yellow bulbs are awesome. I have a pair of them too, just got tired of the yellow and wanted to change it up a bit. Check out the pic (no overlays, all bulb):

 

Do they really look that yellow in person? If so those look good. I have yellow bulbs and yellow overlays and they tend to look much more yellow in photos than in person.

Personally, I'd like something that's similar to the yellow(HID?) fogs on most lexus'.

 

Yeah, they are that yellow in person. The PIAAs really surprised me after seeing other yellow bulbs. Here's another pic of them (BTW, this pic is from when I first got my 6000Ks... they've color shifted a bit from that extreme purple to more of a purplish-blue. Also, those are different LED in the parking and side markers than the ones at the start of this thread, not as bright):

 

Those look great, altspace! Funny, I have an old desk in my garage where I put all my stickers too (not going on the car!)

 

time to get HID yellow fogs....haha
just like mines!

 

Thanks Aipex8, I'll have to take a look at the PIA's.

I'd love to have HID yellow fogs but haven't felt like paying for them or dealing with the install.

 

Oh, almost forgot. A nice bright LED for the plate light too. Check it out:

 

I like keeping my rear plate as dark as possible.

 

Just installed these and these

the corner LED's are less bright than I thought they would be (which is perfect for me) and they have a more bluish tint than the HID's or parking LED's

The parking LED's look great, no complaints. Maybe a little different color than the HID's but not too much of a difference.

All in all for $25 shipped it was a great mod... Thanks for all the input Aipex8

 

Let's see some pics.

 

Just making sure that the RX-8 headlights are HID Xenon's and not Halogens correct?

 

Depends on which model it is. Anything above the base model has HIDs. Easy way to tell: If your car has foglights, then it has HID. No fogs: halogen.

 

Now I just need to upgrade the HID's to 6K and everything will look pretty similar

 

Hey Aipex.. just wanted an update on the LEDs... everything still in working condition?? This is one of my christmas gifts that i'm asking for!

 

Everything is still working. I actually checked them last night and all LEDs are working. Post some pics after Christmas!