A while ago, I was looking into getting LED taillights (facelift style) because I really like the instant on/off nature of LEDs. It just looks so much sharper to have an LED-light bulb as opposed to incandescent. So, I started looking and got sticker shock. I couldn't believe that I would end up paying nearly $400 for a pair of taillights, not even counting the price of sidemarkers and front turns. I quickly scrapped that idea and gave up for a while.
Then, I decided to just get smoked lights all around and live with the incandescent bulbs. The order arrived, and I found that I was left with white turn signal bulbs. That is unacceptable; looks like crap and is illegal. Back online I went to look for amber bulbs (which the auto store didn't have in my size [1156].
A while ago, I remember seeing some LED bulbs for turns that required resistor packs. I quickly dismissed these when I first saw them because I didn't want to modify wiring. On my search for bulbs, I decided to search again in hopes that someone would have come out with error-free bulbs that didn't require external resistors and once again came up with nothing. When I was about to stop searching, I found a thread on E46Fanatics from LEDAutomotive claiming that they have bulbs for sale that are error free. I thought it was too good to be true; the specs lined up, they had lots of LEDs on the bulb, and required no resistors.
I jumped on the offer and ordered (2) pairs of amber bulbs and (1) pair of white bulbs ($33.72 shipped each pair, come as a pair per unit), (2) for the front turns, (2) for the rear turns, and (2) for the rear brake lights on the top of the taillight. I left the running lights as incandescent as their purpose, the price is more right. They are advertised as fitting both 1156 (180-degree pins) and 7507 (150-degree offset pins) sockets, so I couldn't go wrong for fitment.
Today, I finally installed the bulbs. Keep in mind, I have smoked tails, sides, and front markers, so the light output will be diminished a bit. They are still visible in direct sunlight if you are almost right in front of the car. From the sides, however, it's difficult to see, but the sidemarkers should take care of that.
Here is a video of what the bulbs look like with the sun out and very bright. In this video, the brake lights are on as well as the turns. Please note, the sidemarker bulbs are from Khoalty.com.
Here is a video of just the rear, with the brake lights off. Easier to see the color of the bulbs.
Finally, for those of you with amber, I would highly recommend the amber bulbs. It fills up the amber turn housing very nicely, even moreso than with my smoked tails, which are clear and smoked. I'm considering going back to ambers just for how good it looks!
I hooked up my old amber tail to the wiring and here is the result (tail only):
Overall, I'm happy with them. There are 0 errors on the Check Control display, though I haven't gone out for a drive yet. I highly recommend them.
This is where I got them from:
http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?p=13064147
I don't think they have it on their site yet. You can buy them from that thread for the moment.
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