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Ok, so my LED's came in the mail today. Was excited to get one side installed to test their brightness compared to normal light bulbs. Got one side installed and turned on my parking lights.

Hmmm, no lights. Took all the LED's out and put the regular bulbs in. No lights still. Weird.

Checked fuses. Yep, burned out fuse. Replaced it and it instantly blew as soon as I turn them on. Very strange. Replaced it with a 20 amp fuse.. blew that one too.

The turns signals work (albet they are flashing rapidly which was expected, have to get a new flasher unit that works with the low current draw of LEDs)

Pressing the brake pedal and the brake lights light up. Put the car in reverse and the LED's light up.

Going to have to wait till tomorrow to go to the store to buy some fuses and a new flasher. I'll buy plenty of fuses and reinstall the normal bulbs to see if that fixes it. If so, then I'll start swapping the bulbs in one at a time to see which one is the issue.

Sounds like you caught something in a lamp socket that shorted
it. I'd pull all the lamps and recheck step by step. Make
sure no parts of the harnesses leading up to them are mangled
and touching the car body, either..
.
_H*

Alrighty, went to the garage to put all the original bulbs back in and thats when I found another 10 amp fuse....

Swapped them all in one at a time skipping the brake lamp (since I suspect thats the one thats causing the issues)

Tada! they all work. I'm impressed with how bright some of them are. The license plate LED is actually brighter than the original bulb. The front marker lamp (the tiny round light in the headlamp assembly) is very nice looking.

Now the LED store did say to not put LED's in an assembly with a headlamp because the heat will cause the LED's to fail and void the warranty. Ehhh, I'll do it anyway and see how long they last :D

The Turn signal light is a tiny bit less bright, but much clearer.

The backup light is a different color white... Not sure how it will fare at night when backing up. I suspect that it will be easier to see with the whiter light, but it is dimmer... Not a ton though.

The interior lights look great. One odd thing though... and this could be caused by the high idle since the car was cold. It looks light there is a slight pulsation, sort of like its varying the amount of light output ever so slightly. I have eyes like a hawk though and most people would probably not notice it.


I'm going to go back to advanced auto tomorrow to get a stash of fuses to try and figure out what's causing the brake light LED's to pop fuses. I'm betting its either they have to be installed a certain way (in fact, every single one I put in I had to switch around.. You would have thought that installing 8 LED's I would have gotten at least one right! heh).

I need to get a new flasher unit as well. This is going to sound sad, but anyone have an idea of where the flasher is on the insight? I know it has to be on the interior fuse block, but I've never had to replace a flasher so I'm not sure what it looks like. It has to be a black square right? there's a couple down there.. One looks like a cube almost and then there's three rectangles. Is the cube looking one it?

Where did you get the LED's?

www.superbrightLEDS.com

This is a list of the bulbs I got for my Insight.

WLED-WHP Pure White High Power * 5 (2 - Front marker lights, 2 - Front Parking Light & 1 - License plate light) $4.95 each * 5 = $24.75
7440-xHP3 Amber * 4 (Front and rear turn signals) $12.95 each * 4 = $51.80
7443-xHP3 Red * 2 (Brake lights) $12.95 each * 2 = $25.90
921-x12 Wedge White (Backup lights) $5.95 each * 2 = $11.90
WLED 5-LED Wide Angle Cool White * 3 (Interior light and Map lights) $3.94 each * 3 = $11.82
LED Flasher CF13JL-02 = $12.95
$10.00 for shipping

$149.12 total. Definitely not cheap but I'll never have to replace a bulb again (hopefully) ;)

I won't recoup the cost back, and if I did it would most likely be many years before that happend. I did it because I felt like it :D Thats good enough of a reason for me. You could probably just skip the turn signals since they are hardly ever on and cut the cost almost in half. I got the most powerful bulbs for each exterior slot and ones that had the widest degree of output for the inside. Looking back on it, if you wanted a more natural looking light for the map lights, you should go with the WLED 5-LED Wide Angle WARM instead of Cool white. If I had to do it again, I'd get those instead.


The only one I didn't get a replacement for was the rear hatch light as its a festoon bulb and I didn't see one that would fit.


I still need to see if the brake lights will work but I won't know until tomorrow so I can have some spare fuses incase I pop one again.


Also, If you replace your turn signals, you'll need a new flasher. I'm not sure what kind I need yet, but I'll let you know tomorrow when I figure it all out. I'll post some pictures of a comparison on the brightness as well.



EDIT: Opps, I actually missed two bulbs, there are two parking lamps that I didn't get. Added them to the list along with the needed flasher for an almost complete list. Still missing festoon bulb in the back

I don't suppose you have any before and after pictures? I like pictures. :)

Not yet. I just solved the fuse issue and I have to run out to get fuses before I put the brake lights in. I've only got one side installed atm just for that very reason. I like pictures too :D

I'll have pictures up by noon at the latest tomorrow

The interior lights look great. One odd thing though... and this could be caused by the high idle since the car was cold. It looks light there is a slight pulsation, sort of like its varying the amount of light output ever so slightly. I have eyes like a hawk though and most people would probably not notice it.

Heh, this is fairly easily explained. Chances are, at idle, the DC-DC converter is not going to be continuously on, but probably engaged whenever the battery drops below some point. Hopefully there is some hystersis built in so that it doesn't cycle on / off too frequently.

Then you have the LED bulb construction. An LED has a fixed voltage drop across each diode, call it 5 volts - probably less, but it may be this high for a large white diode. However, once forward biased, an LED has very low resistance. Generally, a resistor is used to control the current through the diode. The intensity of the light emitted is related to the current flowing through the diode - each diode generally has a "nominal" current rating. The bulb designer may have selected a resistance to run at this nominal current, or slightly less for better life with decreased output.

Call the nominal current 200 mA.

Quick maths:

V = IR => R = V / I

Nominal resistance = (12v - 5v) / 200 mA = 35 ohms

Now say the DC/DC comes on and the voltage jumps to 14v.

I = V / R = (14v - 5v) / 35 ohms = 257 mA

% diff = (257-200)/200 = 22% current increase.

That would result in a clear fluctuation in brightness.

Probably any electrical accessory that causes a large draw of current would cause a similar voltage swing when rapidly turned on / off. It's just much more pronounced with LEDs because they can turn on and off rapidly - they have no incandescent "inertia" like normal bulbs do.

Thanks for the math! I love stuff like that. The light output fluctuation I'm seeing is extremely tiny, barely noticeable.

The current draw for this particular LED is 26mA at 12 volts with an operating range of 9-14.8 volts, so I'm sure its just varying light output like you said with the rapidly changing voltage because of the high idle. I'll see if it changes tomorrow after I have the car up to operating temp and I haven't drained down the 12 volt battery from trying to figure out what's going on with fuses :D

Hi Blake,
You will have fun getting the factory flasher unit out of the under dash fuse block. The one on my Insight was white (and a bit on the contrary side). It is at the upper top of the fuse block. I got the recommended led flasher from superbrightleds.com and had to modify it before it would fit. It is slighty bigger than the spot it needs to fit in. I removed the cover from the led replacement unit, and cut the edges of the circuit board down, using the factory flasher as a guide. Once it was small enough to fit into the fuse block, I wrapped the exposed components with electrical tape, and plugged it in.

Your list of bulbs looks to match what I installed from the same supplier, with the exception of my red interior map lights. I also got the led festoon bulbs for the rear cargo area, although I never seem to use that light.

It seems to me that the Insight loves the led marker/HID headlight combination. I have seen a very noticable reduction in power consumption. One leg of my commute is headlights on.

I have had no problem with the leds being installed in the headlight housings. I'm sure that is a standard disclaimer, on the part of the supplier. In some headlight housings there could be a problem, if the bulbs are closer to the headlamps. On the Insight there is quite a bit of thermal distance between the markers, and the headlamps.

Sounds like your having lots of fun.
If you need some pics of that flasher set-up, drop me a PM.

Randall

Did you go with a HID kit? or just replace your headlamp bulbs with "HID" bulbs. Just curious as there were a couple people asking about such a kit.

"HID" bulbs draw just as much current as standard halogens would, as they are just tinted to modify the color output. A true HID retrofit complete with ballasts will use much less power than typical halogen bulbs.

Oh, and another thing - a largeish capacitor like the ones used for car audio (1/2 Farad+) should probably stabilize your 12v voltage enough to eliminate the flickering.

Randall, did you retrofit the entire housing, or just use bulbs with glare shields?

Thats what I was getting at Shifty.. infact when I replaced the bulbs on my first subaru they were just HID bulbs and they drew MORE power than my normal set up. I had to replace my headlamp wiring harness as a result. True HID kits are $$$$ from my experience.


Oh and your right about getting that flasher out. What a PITA. If I wasn't 150lbs theres no way I could have gotten that thing out without major discomfort. I'm going to cut off the tabs that hold that thing in, otherwise trying to get it back out again will pose another contortionist endeavor.


For future reference. It appears to me that the flasher you will need for putting LED's in your insight is: CF13JL-02 from the superbrightled website.

Blake, since you are interested in this type of thing and obviously know more about it than I...

What do you think of the kit available here (http://www.xenonlink.com/product_info.php?products_id=142&osCsid=5fd87b16132262b47f0960ccdc092f37)?

The price does not look ridiculous... but I really don't know much about this equipment. Maybe you want to be the guinea pig for it? (Hint HINT ;))

For reference I've got H7XVs in my car right now so it appears this would work for me... and it seems from their website that your 9003x series lights could be replaced with the H4 spec?

I really can't tell if the equipment might be shoddy or not...

hmmm.... I'll read that page but anytime something looks to good to be true, it probably is. This is a quote right from their webpage...

We are direct factory sales office. Beware of cheaper product that might seem like a great deal, but are low quality knockoffs with numerous problems. We are a the manufacture, so we can support for all types of questions and offer you the best price in the market.

sortof funny how they say to be on the lookout for cheap products that cost $1000 less... when they are providing that very product ;)
Caveat Emptor!

I'll look for a system that I think is decent and see what it would take. I do miss my HID's from my STi

For reference I've got H7XVs in my car right now so it appears this would work for me... and it seems from their website that your 9003x series lights could be replaced with the H4 spec?

I really can't tell if the equipment might be shoddy or not...

Also, I should point out that by going with a HID system, if your car has only one headlamp bulb per side, your going to loose your hi-beams. I did some searching and found that some of the kits that had a "hi-beam mode" was simply a magnet that pulled the light housing up.... :rolleyes:

Losing highbeams is something that should be heavily weighed.

Good point, but it is very rare for me to hit the brights since I put in the brighter halogen bulbs. Those HIDs are so bright I doubt I would ever need high beams again if I put them in.

If I did get them put in I'd need to go through with putting in my FAS switch (yes, yes... I'm still procrastinating on that one) because (among other things) rapidly cycling HIDs is probably not a good idea.

I think the initial warm up is what's hard on the bulbs. Once they are up to temp I wouldn't imagine it would be all that hard on them (obviously turning them off and on as little as possible would be good)

When you key off, do your headlamps go off? I can't imagine the wear would be any more on HID's than a regular bulb... its the ballasts that would be the concern and those should be alright if you go with a decent setup.

Yes, my headlights go off when I key to anything other than the ON position. :ccry: I know they did it to help keep the battery from draining but it is really annoying. Every time I key off, and every time I crank the lights are off until the key is returned... but the parking lights don't do that. That's only one reason I want the FAS switch, but it is a big one. The other is that my ECU is absolutely glacial when it comes to reboots. :p

Too bad we live so far apart -- I'd get you to help me wire it up! It shouldn't be hard I'd think... There is a single fuse for the fuel injectors and I figure I could splice in some wire with a rocker switch in the cabin. Ideally it would be mounted under the shift boot directly on the shifter rod itself where I can just reach down and flip it with my ring finger (while pulling the selector into neutral). Before I bump or key start I can just flip the switch back and have at it. Anyone looking at the car would never know it was there and the position would be really convenient.

Why don't I just do it? I've never done any car wiring and I don't want to screw something up.

Sean, I'd imagine you could mod your headlights to stay on with key off just by swapping a wire from switched +12v to constant +12v. And the FAS button, as you say, should just break either the wires going from the ECU to the fuel injectors or the hot side of all 4 injectors.

As far as the HID's, almost all of the plug-n-play bulbs I've seen look terrible compared to a true projector retrofit. Halogen headlight housings are simply not designed the same as a projector lens for an HID lamp. The glare is pretty bad, and it is illegal in just about every state.

I'd vastly prefer to steal a set of projectors / bulbs / ballasts from a TSX or similar and retrofit them inside the Insight housings, but that's not nearly as easy as a plug-in bulb.

Nor is it as cheap.... Thats the orignal point I had. The only way to get a true HID system, thats safe (not burning your car up), legal, has the correct light output, is to spend $$$$. If you could find a set of Insight headlamps and a set of any other car that has HID's, you could theoretically fit them in there.

There was a guy on the subie forums that took the "halo" effect HID's from a BMW and modded them to fit in his STi. It ended up costing him ~$2000 but it looked cool and the light output was great.

I hate to mod my headlamps without having a spare set... if you mess up you'll end up with really bad lighting at night :( which is the exact opposite of what we want.

I used an HID kit that included the ballasts.
I did not modify the lamp enclosures.
I used a bulb that has a halogen element for brights.
The proposed plug and play propogada from the supplier was bogus on the Insight. Apparently the Insight is not a normal vehicle.....hmmmm.
Had to re-wire the kits three prong connector to get it to work on the Insight.
Much whiter/brighter roadway, and only been asked to dim 1 time since installation. The DC/dc is soooo-much happier. The MPI fan has not come on but one time since. And yes, I checked it to see that it still works, the fan, that is.

Randall

I saw some kits that had halogen bulbs for the brights... How long have you had them in the car?

1st of August.
I had them in house before HF07 in July, but no time to install until I got back.

Randall

Sean, I'd imagine you could mod your headlights to stay on with key off just by swapping a wire from switched +12v to constant +12v.

I found the relay that would allow me to do that but it was suggested in one of the forums here that I might get a CEL if the ECU is checking performance of relays... Given the FAS switch isn't that much more complicated to do and is a superior functionality to add to the car I'm thinking that is the way to go...

If I do install HIDs it won't be the bulb replacements. I'll do the full ballast treatment.

Randall, would you mind giving a ballpark number for the price of the kit you used?

The kit I saw that had high and low beam bulbs (like randall was describing) with balasts was ~$400 I think. Thats almost worth it to me. I like being able to see at night and HID's are very nice ;)

Dang you Sean, talking me into doing more mods.. haha

Wanna fly up here and practice on my car? ;)

How about I drive... I could go for another tank record, but it would have to wait till spring. I want a 1,000 mile tank!

Finally got dark here.

LED's on the left.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v717/jamieboyd/PICT0877.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v717/jamieboyd/PICT0878-1.jpg


LED's on the right.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v717/jamieboyd/PICT0879.jpg



more to come in a sec.

How about I drive... I could go for another tank record, but it would have to wait till spring. I want a 1,000 mile tank!

Sure! Looks like my place is roughly 1230mi from where Google Maps pegged Cary, NC.

Did I mention I lived in Durham for a year before moving up here?

Nice photos! I like the hypermiler and Apple stickers. ;)

Theres a green, "Try ECO driving, Not EGO driving" sticker cut in half longways so its one long sticker at the top... along with a terrapass sticker on the left hand corner.

I like my stickers :)



Ok, update. I went out to get my dad help me take a picture of the brake lights and they will not light up. Brake light fuse is blown.... Replaced it and it blew instantly again.

Weird. Either the tail lights blow or the brake lights blow... anyone got any ideas why?

I don't have LED's in both sides, could that be the issue? I'll try that tomorrow when it get light outside, but for now I had to put the regular bulbs back in for the drive home.

We have OEM HID's in the Prius. They are a single bulb in each side with the shade being slid out farther when the high beam is on. The single bulb is not an issue. On high, it is much brighter and the projection is increased.

I'm going to do some searching about the quality and operation. One of my front marker lights is burned-out on the Insight, so I would like to order the led's for them and the rear if you find out what the issue is.

The only issue is the brake lights... That and the flashers for the turn signals, but thats an easy fix.

I'm thinking it might be the fact That I have one LED and one normal bulb... Its really strange right now because if the bulb is turned one way the tail lights work and the brake light fuse blows, turn it around and the brake lights work and the tail light fuse blows.

Sounds like an issue with bulbs to me, but I'll go ahead and try to get both in there to see if that fixes it.

I'm thinking it might be the fact That I have one LED and one normal bulb... Its really strange right now because if the bulb is turned one way the tail lights work and the brake light fuse blows, turn it around and the brake lights work and the tail light fuse blows.

Sounds like an issue with bulbs to me, but I'll go ahead and try to get both in there to see if that fixes it.
Wonder if it's the contacts on the base of the LED bulb not agreeing with the contacts on the socket and shorting out?

its the only thing I can think of. Either that or they have to be installed in pairs (which doesn't make sense)

Since I'm home and I don't have to worry about tail lights going out, I'll go to the garage and put them both in and see what happens.

So tail light and brake light are two separate circuits. Usually bulbs have two filaments, one for brake, the other for tail light / parking light.

Chances are on the LED bulb, some of the LEDs are used to brake, some for tail. In this case, there are two circuits, one of which is shorted out. Turn it one way, tail shorts. Turn the other, brake shorts.

I suppose if they were clever they could make all the LEDs light at one brightness when tail and another for brake... doutbful though.

I think Lightfoot might be onto something, I've seen that problem of mismatched contacts before - one of the cases I saw had the contacts 90 degrees from 'correct', another had the contacts out of line enough that 1 was center and the other was near the edge. Another possiblity is that the LED bulb locating/retention pins are pushing the bulb in so deep that the contacts are shoved deep into the holder and contacting the outer/back of the socket causing dead short.

So tail light and brake light are two separate circuits. Usually bulbs have two filaments, one for brake, the other for tail light / parking light.

Chances are on the LED bulb, some of the LEDs are used to brake, some for tail. In this case, there are two circuits, one of which is shorted out. Turn it one way, tail shorts. Turn the other, brake shorts.

I suppose if they were clever they could make all the LEDs light at one brightness when tail and another for brake... doutbful though.

The LEDs I got for the tail lights are supposed to be compatible with my bulb type. It does have four leads on it. While testing to find out what is going on I did notice when I flipped it there was a noticeable difference in brightness, which is what the bulb is designed to do... half power for normal tail lights and full power for brakes. It would be cool if I could get them to work.

I've tried both LEDs in both housings and both together... they just blow one fuse or the other. Not sure what's going on, but I'd really like to get them working since besides the headlamps, the tail lights are the biggest user of power on the car... I'd say maybe more than headlamps in terms of total power usage since the headlamps are not always on.

Have you checked the resistance of the park versus taillight terminals and checked to make sure there is not a ground with an ohm meter?

alrighty, I'm ashamed to admit this, but with all the tinkering with cars I've done.. including adding plenty of electrical equipment. I have never owned a ohm meter until three days ago since I saw it as one of the required tools for my MIMA install. I just opened it up. Not knowing how to use it I just pluged in the leads and clicked it on to the 20M and after that there is an omega symbol. Logical would say that stands for ohms ;)

Now are you refering to the actual bulb housing or the LED's themselves. I touched the probes to all the leads coming off the bulb and when I touch the two probes to the leads across from one another (opposite side of the plug) a picture would probably help here... I get a reading of 0.001 that flickers to 0.000

I'm assuming that means its grounded.

No clue what all that means in terms of my problems, or even if it means anything, but :) at least I look smart playing with it. haha

The normal bulbs are back in the car and they are working fine. Curious....

The LEDs I got for the tail lights are supposed to be compatible with my bulb type. It does have four leads on it.
FOUR leads? I may be wrong, but don't dual filament bulbs for tail/brake lighting have THREE contacts: a hot lead for the brake filament, a hot for the taillight filament, and a common ground for both?

As a start, why not check the number of contacts on the OEM bulbs vs the LED bulbs? And their locations on the base of the bulbs? Maybe the LED folks sent the wrong bulbs? The fact that the orientation affects the circuit strongly suggests a mismatch.

I'm rooting for this to be figured out so I can go out and buy a set of LED's just for my tail/brake lights and front parking lights since those are on the most and would not require messing with the flasher unit!!

I just went outside and took one of the stock bulbs out to check the leads.. Yep there are four leads on the bulb.

I'm assuming its the correct type since it has 7443 written on the housing of the LED.

Just for giggles I hooked up the OHM meter again and tested the stock bulb. It does NOT ground like the LED does when I touch two leads (it only does it on a certain combo of two leads... none of the others)

That makes me think there is a issue with the LED's

EDIT: looking further.. two of the LEDs in the LED are connected to each other and goto one side of the bulb. Makes sense, since its just a ground and the LED varries brightness from the same LED to achieve the braking brightness effect. I'm very curious now...


I PM'd Randall who got bulbs from them as well. He isn't having any issues with his bulbs so I just need to make sure he got the same type as I did and possibly get him to hook his up to an ohm meter.

Now are you refering to the actual bulb housing or the LED's themselves. I touched the probes to all the leads coming off the bulb and when I touch the two probes to the leads across from one another (opposite side of the plug) a picture would probably help here... I get a reading of 0.001 that flickers to 0.000

I'm assuming that means its grounded.

That means they are both electrically the same. To find out if something is grounded, you can do the same with the negative terminal of the car.

If the LED's where made in China they are probably grounding. H

Looks like I used a different bulb for the brake than you, Blake.

Here's the list of my choices, as installed with no problems.

7443-15 LED Red 2 each @ 6.99USD
7740-15 LED Amber 4 each @ 6.99USD
3022-x9 Festoon bulb red 1 each @ 2.95USD
WLED 6-LED White 0.95 3 each @ 3.74USD
921-x9 wedge base LED White 1.75 2 each @ 3.70USD
WLED 6-LED RED 3 each @ 2.79USD
WLED 6-LED Amber 2 each @ 2.79USD
CF13JL-02 Flasher 1 each @ 12.95USD

Invoice dated 6/20/07
superbrightleds.com

There "could" also be some difference in the wiring between my early '01 and your later model, although I doubt it. And I know for sure there are differences in the Canadian models from the US models, from looking at the SM.

Looks like you used a different brake light than I did. Hmmm... might have to order the other ones and hope they work. They won't be as bright as these are supposed to be, but at least they will actually work :)

and since you posted which festoon bulb you used, I can finally replace that one and I'll be 100% LED :)

I forget pretty quickly, so I don't remember exactly what my train of thought was at the time I ordered them, with the exception that I wanted to invest in power savings in prep for future EV enhancements.

Randall

Well it could be that the ones you ordered are half the price of the ones I got! Reguardless, I'm sure they will work fine :) Just ordered them along with the festoon bulb. I'll send these high powered ones to anyone that wants to try and get them working... if you can get them to work, you can keep them as long as you tell me how you did it so I can do the same ;)

Sean had asked about the HID kit I used.
Spent right at 360USD.
If some of the Insight folks are interested I could put together a thread on the subject, but it would definately be Insight specific, and specific to the kit I used, and we should get off of Blakes' LED real estate.:D

Randall

I'm intrested in the HID's...

I actually purchased yesterday a set of silverstar Ultra's for the insight to help brighten up the headlamps and after all the talk of HID's, I took them back this morning on the way to send the money order to Mike for my MIMA.


Start up the thread... I'd love to see what you did :)

Please do startup a thread for that -- I'd also love to see how you accomplished the upgrade!

Update... The LED's for the brake lights that Randall posted do work just fine! Got the flasher in and I no longer have super fast turn signals. The festoon came in as well so now I'm 100% LED minus headlights.

If I haven't said it before.. the honda engineer that designed the Insight headlamps needs to be shot. ;)

I thought changing the front turn signals was bad... try changing the passenger marker lamp. If you don't have really small hands and a lot of patience, I wish you the best of luck. make sure you have lots of bandaids before you start :)

Congratulations, Blake! That's got to be a good feeling of accomplishment! I'd like to do that to my car but I wonder how feasible that would be...

I'm hoping either Randall or you will post a nice big write up with lots of pictures for the HID conversion. :D

Randall is almost done with the thread. He PM'd me the other day saying he was about 1/2 way done, so I'd bet it will be showing up within the next few day. I'm looking forward to it as well.

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but I may be able to shed some light on the Honda LED issues. Hello. I found your thread while doing a search for LED pulsating problems. I am a Honda owner yes, hybrid no.
While doing an LED conversion on my Element, I found the 7443's from superbright to be not that bright. I received different LEDs from v-leds. These are very bright and clear, but now I have some pulsating feedback to the instrument cluster, HVAC, and radio. This only occurs when I press the brake pedal with the parking lights off. The fact that the superbrights did not do this, and the combination of the brake switch AND the parking lights leads to the conclusion that there is some voltage leaking back to the parking light circuit through the LEDs when I press the brake pedal. I will install some small 12v relays to prevent the stray voltage from leaking back. I will post when complete.

Welcome to CleanMPG! There are many makes and models of cars represented here. Please post anything you find out, positive or negative. I am interested in LED's and have not yet converted.

ElementOwner - I appreciate you buming this thread. :)

I guess I missed this thread all together. What was the conclusion? Did it save any gas? Did Randal do his tread on the HID lights?
Louis