Little tweaks. Shorter gear selector and white LED sidelights

[derkins]

It might be a small thing but the extra length visible of the gear selector rod bugged the hell out of me and I wanted the knob a bit more flush to the gate.

Sawed 10mm off the thread and put the knob back on...still clears all of the trim, looks neater and feels a little bit better being lower.

 

As many of you know, the voltage going through the sidelights '501' lamp seems well under 12v and gives a poor orange glow with standard lamps or terrible strobing and faults if swapped out with 12v LEDS.

I managed to source 6v LED lamps in the '501' style. eBay seller in Ireland....so far so good. Look a lot better too and compliment the HID lamps.

[cruisermark]

Any pics?

[derkins]

Quick before & after of the reduced length gear selector...maybe should've made a better job of cleaning up the cuttings.

 

Could probably get another 2-3mm out of it if I really wanted.

[Britprius]

You may have problems using 6 volt LED's with them burning out. The voltage drop along the thin wires Lexus use to the side lights is dependent on the current the wires carry. So 6 watt incandescent bulbs will draw 0.5 amps each at 12 volts. The LED replacement bulbs typically have a loading of only 1 watt or 0.083 amps although the light output is the same or more.

If the voltage drop along the wires with 2 OEM bulbs is 6 volts at 1 amp leaving 6 volts to run the bulbs the wiring must have a resistance of six ohms.

With the LED bulbs the load is 2 X 0.083 amps = 0.166 amps. The voltage drop along the same wires at a loading of 0.166 amps will be 0.996 V rounded up to 1 volt leaving the LED's running on 11 volts.

All this assumes the Battery voltage on charge "ready mode" is 12 volts when in fact it is much closer to 14 volts

John. 

[derkins]

The voltage for the sidelights isn't dependant on there being a voltage drop caused by the resistance of two 6w bulbs in series. (otherwise you'd lose both if one failed).

eg. in a simple resistive circuit, two 6v lamps is series over a 12v supply - works as the internal resistance of each drops the voltage over each component ... two 6v lamps in parallel with a 12v supply - blows. The lamps have a fixed resistance. Current will vary depending on the voltage applied.

The two sides are separate regulated voltage feeds at well under 12v. There isn't 12v potential and it'll remain at that set voltage regardless of the current drawn by varying lamp resistances.

ps if the wiring had a resistance as large as 6ohms for the insignificant length...it'd heat up a hell of a lot. Typically I'd expect to see less than 1 ohm per 100m of copper cable at that small CSA.

 

Dave

[Britprius]

Not wishing to put you down just to put things straight. I am a retired electronics engineer. The figures I used are based on your numbers.

The bulbs are effectively in parallel not series. The OEM lamps do not have a fixed resistance, but change from a low resistance to a high resistance depending on filament temperature. 

A resistance of 6 ohms in the wiring at a load of 1 amp would only cause a heating effect of 6 watts along the entire wiring run back to the Battery. So the wires would not noticeably get warm. The heating is dependent not only on the resistance, but also the current carried.

The value of 6 ohms was extrapolated from your figures of the OEM bulbs only running at 6 volts "the reason you chose to use 6 volt LED's".  The other 6 volts must be lost in the circuit to the bulbs in those circumstances.

The lighting circuit is not supplied by a separate regulated 12 volt feed, but by the Battery rail voltage that varies between the Battery voltage "for a good Battery 12.8 volts, and the charge regulated voltage when in ready mode of around 14.2 volts dependent on the Battery state of charge.

With no bulbs in place no matter what the resistance of the circuit the full Battery voltage would be available at the bulb holders until the bulbs are fitted. Only then does the voltage drop, and that drop depends upon the current being carried for any given resistance "the less current the less the voltage drop".

John 

[cruisermark]

Sounds like A man who knows what he's talking about lol

[derkins]

Yes, let's not start an argument where one of us ends up looking a bit foolish...and if that's me then good on ya!

(Ex-Electrical Technician...)

I think we should get out our respective retired multimeters...and actually see what the feed is for the sidelights as up to now I have postulated that the standard 501 6w 12v lamps run under voltage to get the sad orange glow. ..and this same low voltage feed causes strobing in 12v LED 'lamps' (internal resistors to drop the normal 12v to around 5v as is common for most white LED modules).

So...with the 6v LED 'lamps' they should operate (in theory) happily in the 5-9v range...and they'll draw whatever current they fancy.

Check it in daylight tomorrow. ..

 

 

[Britprius]

No argument intended rather clarification.

I am using 1.5 watt 12 volt LED G4 bulbs "rated light output 10 watts 100 lumen" in my front side lights. These give out a good amount of light that is white in color. If the terminal jaws in the bulb holders are squeezed together a little the G4 bulbs fit, and hold well in them. This lights up the headlamp reflector well.

These bulbs also have the advantage that they were designed for AC with an inbuilt bridge rectifier so are not polarity sensitive when fitting.

 I am considering supplying the lights through a diode from the OEM circuit and also directly from a ready mode feed to give daylight running lights.

The diode could be connected in series with a suitable fuse, and arranged so that it replaces the OEM fuse in the fuse box. It could pick up the extra feed at the same point. Meaning no external wiring, and returning the car to OEM is just replacing the fuse.

John

[derkins]

Hi John, well I tried the G4 LEDs and although beautifully bright (and 12v)...and not suffering any odd strobing that several other 12v LED '501' fitment lamps has I wasn't too happy with the way I'd got them to stay in the holder (packing out behind the contacts) so in a moment of friggin' genius...went to Halfrauds and got a pair of 12v LED '501' lamps. NOT CE rated as allegedly 'off-road only'...but now have a pair of white lights to match the HIDs instead of a couple of orange glow worms...and no future issues.

ps. voltage at the contacts...not exactly inspiring at 11.9v but OK...but not the 'I thought it might be closer to 6v (like half voltage DRLs) as the lights were so crap'.

Whilst I was in the mood...I changed my fog lights to HID (4700k) as I had a spare set of kit lying around...zero glare but double the light output. Plug 'n' play so easy to put back to stock.

[Britprius]

4 hours ago, derkins said:

Hi John, well I tried the G4 LEDs and although beautifully bright (and 12v)...and not suffering any odd strobing that several other 12v LED '501' fitment lamps has I wasn't too happy with the way I'd got them to stay in the holder (packing out behind the contacts) so in a moment of friggin' genius...went to Halfrauds and got a pair of 12v LED '501' lamps. NOT CE rated as allegedly 'off-road only'...but now have a pair of white lights to match the HIDs instead of a couple of orange glow worms...and no future issues.

ps. voltage at the contacts...not exactly inspiring at 11.9v but OK...but not the 'I thought it might be closer to 6v (like half voltage DRLs) as the lights were so crap'.

Whilst I was in the mood...I changed my fog lights to HID (4700k) as I had a spare set of kit lying around...zero glare but double the light output. Plug 'n' play so easy to put back to stock.

Happy you got it sorted to your liking. I have been considering changing the fogs to HID's.

I did this with my Prius to good effect as the light fittings were all metal with glass lenses. Are the GS fog lights metal or plastic? As I am a bit concerned with them melting although this should not happen with 33 watt HID's against 55 watt halogen bulbs. I too have a number of HID kits doing nothing.

I am also considering fitting HID's in the main beam lights as although these light up the road well are very orange compared with the dipped headlamps. I have some 4300K, and 5000K bulbs. I know there is a short time delay "from cold" for the HID's to come to full brightness, but I do not think this will be a problem.

In the dipped headlamps I have fitted D2S 55 watt bulbs, and ballasts improving the light output without any glare because of the excellent cutoff. On the very rural roads in the area I live the OEM dipped lights were woefully inadequate going from main beam to dip for oncoming traffic put the area in front of the car into near darkness. The Prius halogen dipped headlamps put the Lexus to shame.

John. 

[derkins]

Housing & lens are plastic but the heat output is probably less the 55w halogens (UV's a bit more thought!) but not like they're used all the time.

Loads of space behind the wheel arch liners to bundle up & zip-tie the mass of extra cabling, ballasts etc out of harms way. It's a REALLY tight and hand crampingly awkward to twist in the HIDs compared to standard lamps (thickness) with the liners just folded / twisted out of the way...do it on a warmer day for more flexibility.

Not a fan of HIDs on main beam (maybe likely to fail MOT?).

My last car (2015 Qashqai) had full LED headlamps - dip & main. Awesome pure white - WAAAAY beyond anything Halogen or HID. Ah, modern technology...

[Britprius]

There are so many cars around with HID's fitted in standard reflector headlamps with poor cut off, and I have yet to hear of anyone failing the MOT let alone being stopped by the police.

The MOT generally tests for headlamps dipping down, and to the left to avoid blinding motorist in the opposite direction. Main beam does not require to be non dazzling in it's use.

Technically you are correct as the beam headlamps were not designed for HID's, but the same applies to the fog lights. Neither are marked on the lens as being for use with HID bulbs. A requirement under EU regulations.

I could try some LED bulbs in the beam headlamps these would also be technically illegal, but they should match the color of the dip beam HID lamps nicely. 

John