LED strip for under headlights. My way.

[Judge2]

I "customized" the look by adding a blue LED strip under the headlights. Search term on ebay of "2x led car lights strip 15".

The way I did it, lessons learned is to grab the electrical current from the yellow covered corner light. (1 single screw.) Just strip a little more of the insulation from the LED strip, and fold the exposed wire over the existing wedge connection of the bulb, reinsert. LED wiring requires that the positive and negative ends be in order. so when you look at the bulb, align for connection the green colored wire from the car, with the red colored wire from the strip. The strips have adhesive backing, I just attached them below the headlamps.

The effect is not that dramatic, but it is a cheap and easy to do customization. Kind of fun.

[iovaykind]

be careful that they dont burn out quickly.. the corner bulbs blink twice everytime you unlock the car and once everytime you lock it. burned out my angel eyes quickly.. LEDs not very good for blinking applications

[Chris Crash]

Picsssss

[fenixus]

[EverReady]

Originally Posted by iovaykind

be careful that they dont burn out quickly.. the corner bulbs blink twice everytime you unlock the car and once everytime you lock it. burned out my angel eyes quickly.. LEDs not very good for blinking applications

What how not? are you sure you just didn't use the right resistors against the variable 14.4V current?

[iovaykind]

The LEDs I used were rated for 3v to 3.6v, which means when wiring 4 in series, there wouldn't be need for a resistor. Namely it would be okay for anything from 12v to 14.4v I guess it depends on which LEDs you bought. I got mine from overseas china so possibly they have lesser quality LEDs. Still, that's only a caveat for you.

[EverReady]

~82 Ohm resistor is needed with these details...
14.4V source
3.2V LEDs
20mA forward voltage estimated.

Also China LEDs are some of the best, cheap free shipping most cases and bright.

Edit: Hell even if you had 4 LEDs @ 3V forward with a source of 12V you should still have a resistor against inrush current no?

[TCam01]

yea man you you always need resistors with those kinds of leds..... if you didnt use them then thats the reason why they burned out so quickly.. also you should use a relay with your angel eyes and an inline fuse to be on the safe side i guarantee they wont burn out for a longgggg time

[iovaykind]

You use resistors even when they're rated at the right voltage? I used a voltage calculator and it says you need a 0Ohm resistor..

[EverReady]

Well you used a calculator and burned out LEDs....
I must be wrong.

Also back on topic PICS! I was gonna do this rip off the Audi idea.... couldn't decide where to put them, and shoved em under my dash.

[TCam01]

Originally Posted by iovaykind

You use resistors even when they're rated at the right voltage? I used a voltage calculator and it says you need a 0Ohm resistor..

well the battery is 12v the led's are 3.3 so your gonna have to stop some voltage. I used 220 ohm 1/2 watt 5% resistance resistors with a serial connection what kind of setup did you use?

[4Cyl'erThriller]

Heres a pic of what mine currently look like. I have mine just sitting inside of my headlight covers. I ran them to my fogs for now. The connection was open and right there.... So.. Why not?


This on is an old setup with a shorter led strip.

[iovaykind]

Originally Posted by 4Cyl'erThriller

Heres a pic of what mine currently look like. I have mine just sitting inside of my headlight covers. I ran them to my fogs for now. The connection was open and right there.... So.. Why not?

now THAT'S sick I actually had audi leds coming in and i was gonna do that and post it up, didn't know someone already had done it

Anyway, I have four leds wired in series so that is rated at 12 - 14.4 volts. I used http://ledz.com/?p=zz.led.resistor.calculator to calculate it and it says 0 ohm resistor shrugs.

[4Cyl'erThriller]

Haha Nice! Audi LEDs should be sweet. I think Ive seen people with em over the top of the lights too.

[iovaykind]

Did you just use regular LED strips? I got ones where the LED's have a "fatter" look to them and they're spaced out a cm each.. I don't think they're exactly like the audi LEDs though, those cost a heck a lot on ebay or anywhere else