SMDs in the fog light housing, Final iteration using 90mm circles of SMD 5050 leds Options

[dangrouche]

Okay, in my continuing quest to update the incandescent bulbs in our teeners, I changed out the 35 watt bulbs to SMDs in each housing. the cost was minimal of course. I also augmented the light fog grills with "3W White LED Eagle Eye Daytime Running DRL Light Tail Backup Lamp, Stock number# 2XSKU40521" from my my favorite China vendor, Bang good.com. Cost was $5.99 for four of these eagle eyes units; I installed the other pair as daytime running lights on my other car.
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I cut out some styrofoam discs (from a take out container) and placed the assembly into the fog light lenses, added some wiring, all WITHOUT cutting any of the OEM wiring.
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check it out, one of the pics shows the driver's side bulb with the 35 watt incandescent, compared to the passenger side with the four SMDs.
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the pics are misleading. I had the camera flash off and it looks like a blaze, but in person, you see eight bright dots, of the same color as DRLs that you see on current Audis. I will try to add a better pic later.

[Cap'n Krusty]

Something seldom mentioned in discussions of HID and LED type DRLs is the mismatch between how incandescent bulbs and these aftermarket mods interact with the reflectors and lenses. In this case, only the lenses are affected, but a lot of folks don't think about the light source differences in adding HIDs to a lens/reflector assembly. Focus of the beam is dramatically altered, and there's NO fix for that short of a complete redesign of the unit. Take a look at modern lens/reflector design. It's a LONG way from what we had, even in the late '80s-early '90s. The focus is different, the cutoff design is different, the whole design caters to the physical characteristics of an entirely different light source.

In this case, we have a number of light sources, not just one filament, and the flutes in the lens cannot begin to perform their job.

It's not that I don't like modern lighting; My old eyes love it! However, modern light sources, applied badly, just don't get with the program!

The Cap'n