Hey Folks!

I am interested to try LED bulbs (white) in the Rear (C-Pillar) Courtesy Lights of my KJ - only thing is, the lamps in these reading/courtesy lights are mounted "sideways" - standard is a large-ish oval bulb, has a T10 wedge base.

Most LED bulbs I have seen are designed to shine away from the wedge base, so in the Rear Lamps it would shine into the trim, not sideways out into the car.

Anyone used LEDS in the Rear Courtesy Lamps, with decent light output? Sources/rough idea of prices appreciated also!

Thanks, Phil :P

I have modded the Front rada map light in my TW, using foam collars to support the LED, and soldered extra wire in so they can shine straight out the (want of better word) orifice.
The hole that lets the heat escape is your access as LED's dont get that hot.
The effect is quite amazing. I dont need footwell lights now.lol
I also used blue LED's, you can drive with them on with no detriment to your night vision.

I suppose you'll want pics next.

The rear maps are due to be modded shortly.

Aaaaahhhhh!! I never thought about the front map lights!

To be honest I don't use them much, but they have the same large/oval bulb as the rear courtesy lights, don't they?

I have a Jaycar 2-LED festoon in the "room" lamp between the Map lights, and its surprisingly bright - and that clear white colour, by comparison the rears look very yellow and dull. When doors are open, or remotely unlocked, I tend to notice the bright intense-white in the front against a dull yellow glow from the rears.

I guess if I find something LED to suit the rear courtesy lamps, I'll have to fiddle something similar for the front map lights.

SHOOT, did you use LED bulbs, or bare LED's?? in your adapted set-up?? I've been know to wield a soldering iron on wiring etc, but usually not on electronic components!! (low skillz and a bit unco)

I used 6 Blue LED T10, tapped into the wire after the switch, soldered onto the wire at the base of the T10LED and secured them with Air Con Pipe insulation ( coz I had it lying around ).

I will do the rears similar but there's no wires to tap into, so I'll just make a dummy T10 base, to get soldered ends of wire into the T10 plug, and hold them in place the Air con insulation.
And to convert back to factory Just change the globes. I also covered my LED festoon's with Blue laser printed overhead transperency (http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee217/SH00T/IMG_0412.jpg)film. To take that harshness away.

Pic (http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee217/SH00T/1frontmapsbest.jpg) Pic (http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee217/SH00T/aaroof.jpg)

Or there are T10 side light emitting bulbs on Ebay, but they shine only 2 LED's out sideways, but wont aim it at the angle you want. If you do this in white, and some one turns on a map light, you wont see the road, due to brightness in the cabin, but with blue, you can motor on, unaffected.

I wondered about the side-facing LED's on Ebay, are they the ones look like a bit of circuit-board?

Was worried that if polarity wasn't right in the T10 wedge base, they'd be useless (unless I cut and swapped loom, and wasn't sure there'd be room to do that easily). Was also worried about no way to adjust the beam - that's the beauty of teh festoons.

Hadn't ever thought about your point of blue lights and visibility to drive at night. I put a set of blue LED's in front and rear footwells of TJ Executive - was a cheap "under car" set I adapted..... this was before I found this site about footwell looms being in-place if bulb-holder got from wreck etc. The Blue LEDs are quite effective in parents' car, but as they are footwells and only on with doors open, I'd never thought/realised about blue light and night-driving.

I might even see if I could adapt some festoon holders into rear lights or maplights, that would give me the ability to angle LED's for best or desired light beam/spread. Hella, I might even end-up with home-made Parra's in the rear panels :badgrin:

Well, I've bit the bullet and have bought 4 pairs of the side-shooting surface-mount LED's from an e-bay joint in Brissy.
They look like a piece of circuit-board that lugs into t10 base at one end. I'm expecting I'll have to re-wire at least one side of the car to get the polarity right for these things - so LEDs shine out into car, not backwards into panel.

I've also bought 3 strips of 25cm LEDs and may try these as a boot light - the strips can be cut to length if desired. I've used a similar thing (from Jaycar) as down-facing door lamps, shine on grounds when front doors open.

Currently investigating a swap of front position lamps in Verada bar with the Blinkers - nothing that hasn't been done before by members. Trying to raid some wrecks so I can do this without cutting looms (looking for loom connectors to make an extension to get blinker connection down lower to the Verada position-lamp.

I'd also like tp make that Verada position lamp multi-purpose, maybe squeeze some LEDs behind the reflector piece which is behind/beside the lamp lens. This may be a pipe-dream......

Good luck with the panel LED's, it motivated me to angle in my blue 6LED lights, very easy, just interfere with the wire thats runs from the switch to the bulb, that's the + to the LED, the connect the - to the red/blue and you're done.
Mine's so bright now I can play shadow puppets on the back of the front seats.:cool:

...
Mine's so bright now I can play shadow puppets on the back of the front seats.:cool:

Well, forget headrest DVD screens, "shadow puppets on the back of the front seats", THAT's InCarEntertainment, right there!! LULZ. Sounds good.

My efforts to swap parkers and blinkers in the front bar came to nought - was too chicken to cut loom to extend blinkers down to lights at corner of front bar. Think the "position lamp" loom would have been long enuf to bring up to the blinkers position without extending.

IN this process, I discovered that my drivers side position lamp had a blown bulb - so maybe its time for LED's there - dunno whether to try super-bright 100degree single LED, or the 6-LED cluster type - I think (will have to check) that the position lamp bulb is a BA9S bulb base.

I did, however, manage to graft a Falcon horn in parallel with the Verada one - so there's a bit more OOOMph there now (thanks also to Brad (BJ31OS) for mounting some of his new toys on the drivers side engine mount, cos I copied and that's where I mounted the second horn).