lyonkster

I've been searching for an answer to my question for the past two days, and haven't found an answer (if there is one already posted, please point me to it).

I recently replaced the city lights in my '01 GS430 with Philips "194" 6000K LED bulbs, and I really like that look (it complements my HID nicely).

But I would also like to have the same white color for my DRL's. I read all sorts of threads about converting the DRL/high beam 9005's to LEDs, but with a resulting reduction of high beam output. I don't want to go that route because I do want to maintain good high beams.

So my thought was to disable the DRL function of the 9005's (using the jumper trick), and thus retain the good high beam output with the current halogens. And then to provide DRL functionality, to somehow reroute the DRL "signal" to the LED city lights. That way my white city lights will function as DRLs, which is the objective. Is that easy to do with some kind of a jumper? Or is there another way?

Mr Jokster

iTrader: (8)

Well... Now that new LED technology is being used for headlights... Just do an LED conversion as you would with HID.

LED "conversion" not LED bulbs. Gonna cost $$, but you will achieve what you want

ThomasGS4

iTrader: (19)

Not really worth it...city lights in general are too dim to be DRL worthy...

lyonkster

Thanks for the thoughts. I'm probably not motivated enough to do a conversion (if it's more like a retorfit), I want something relatively simple. Do you have a link to what you are talking about?

lyonkster

I was wondering about that. In fact tomorrow I plan to do an unscientific comparison between the brightness of the 9005 halogen DRL and a 168 LED city light bulb.

I guess failing this plan, I may convert the foglights to DRLs. I did that on my minivan. Or just accept the yellow DRLs .

lyonkster

That was a good call Thomas. There is no comparison in brightness between the 9005 DRL (even at 6V) and the 168 city light - the DRL is much much brighter. So this is a no go, problem solved. Thanks for the help!

GS400V8

iTrader: (4)

A quality LED 9005 kit made for headlights or highbeams run about $50. They are plug and play and just look like 9005s with heat sinks on the back. This is what I would do if I didnt have the 1998-2000 model that uses 168/194/2825 small bulbs in that spot.

lyonkster

The reviews for ones I've seen (even the more high priced ones) seem to say that these bulbs won't be as bright as the halogen high beams. Moreover, won't the LEDs be too bright as DRLs, since they don't dim as much as halogens at 6V?