exterior lighting

[h1h0silver]

im not feeling the mirror and rear plate lighting. i think white LED would be the way to go. anyone know what bulbs i can put in there?

 

[MilkMan]

That sounds like a good idea, I doubt there are any pre-made led lights for it... although if it is some kind of standard bulb used on other fords.. and I would hope it would be, there might be a good chance. (not really answering your question I know, hehe)

Anyone know a good online place to look up part numbers for stuff like this?

I haven't looked at all at what is in there, but if you could get the voltage it should be pretty easy to replace the bulb with an led (or a few), you can buy like 100 white leds for $10 on ebay. I have done a few things with them in the past, never on a car, but don't see why it would be any different.

 

[hawkeye18]

Are you guys seriously not capable of looking in your owner's manual? I'm pretty sure it'll tell you what size the bulbs are, which will more than likely be a 194.

With that having been said, the two largest sources of automotive LEDs are www.superbrightleds.com and www.autolumination.com. Go there and check out prices, shipping, etc.

 

[DDakRT]

Just a note on the white license LED bulbs, they do not tend to last and usually will start flickering in a few months regardless of where you buy it from. So buyers beware.

 

[MilkMan]

Thanks for the info guys, didn't even think about the manual, heh.

The manual has a "Trade Number" .. 168 for the license plate lights (says there are 2), did a search and there are all kinds of led lights for those

But not sure what the one on the mirror is, there is a list of bulbs, but none of them sound right... may be Sidemarker lamp (front), also a 168

https://www.fleet.ford.com/maintenance/owners_manuals/ - on Page 70

 

[Eric VerValin]

I bought a big fat bag of 194's when I did my swap to the 93... pulled every bulb in the cluster. Cheap and easy insurance.. plus those bulbs are stupid cheap if you buy 25 at a time.

 

[hawkeye18]

damn, I'd download the manual but I'm tethering on my blackberry and that would take forever, not to mention I'm kinda close to my bandwidth limit as it is (I kinda hacked the phone, sprint doesn't let you tether normally).

168 is just a bigger version of a 194, and have the same socket. Basically for the license plate bulb you don't need a very powerful one, and you don't need the light to go in all directions. two of those 1W 135 degree bulbs should work fine for you. As for the mirror lights, you might want stouter bulbs, maybe, but the 135 degree angle should also work fine for you.

 

[SHOZ123]

Here is a site I got my LEDs from. They don't have any Ford specific kits but you can get the lights you need if you know the size.

http://www.diodedynamics.com/catalog/index.php

 

[thepawn]

Yeah, for the plate and mirror bulbs, make sure you get the one-way firing ones when switching to LED, or they tend to be too dim....

 

[needaQuaife]

I just changed my front amber parking light and directional amber blinker with LEDs. They now blink faster and make the crappy lens look updated, as it just blinks brighter and looks sharper. I am leaving the white incandesent side marker as it seems very bright.

 

[way2evil]

Can anyone tell me which style light I need to order? Just any 168 bulb? There is so many different styles.

 

[thepawn]

I just changed my front amber parking light and directional amber blinker with LEDs. They now blink faster and make the crappy lens look updated, as it just blinks brighter and looks sharper. I am leaving the white incandesent side marker as it seems very bright.

you can correct the fast blink by either changing the flasher relay to a low-resistance relay for LEDs or by adding load-resistors to each light you install an LED on that blinks.

On my Lightning I went the load-resistor route...on the SHO I'm thinking I'll do the low-resistance relay.