LED Lights for your Clamshell Underhood

[LancePearson]

There are probably several ways to do this but I discovered on the Internet a drop in but all LED bayonet replacement for the two bayonet original incandescent bulbs for the under the hood lights which should use substantially less current. They are rather bright in place after I put them in. There are some members able to build them (Scottfab) and supply them with several led bulbs on each unit and I'm sure those are bright, potentially even brighter as well. They are also a different price that is much higher so to be sure you know there is a choice I supply the following data. I have no affiliation whatsoever with the vendor and have sent Scott a PM defining this for him as well. His may be better in some way as I am no electrical engineer...just did a drop in replacement. The light levels are at least equal to or greater than the originals especially after cleaning the dust off the inside of the lenses.

The only thing I should caution no matter what you do is that I did not realize the lenses were glass, presumably to handle the original heat of the incandescent bulb, and when I unscrewed the first one I did not have a soft cloth beneath it and my big fingers slipped and the lens hit the garage floor and broke so as soon as I post this I will endeavor to buy a new one and replace it. At the moment the half I could salvage is on with tape to keep dirt out.

The leds have six little button lights on each bulb and are listed and shipped at $15 a pair. They say they are 5,000 kelvins which is a nice white light and it is quite bright in place. I don't know the current draw but with led's I'm sure it's not a whole lot which along with being cooler should help on whether to switch or remove the fuse for a few hours worth of open hood work.

Here is the http://www.ebay.com/itm/280945644878...84.m1497.l2649

2x 211-2/42mm/4210 6 SMD 5050 NONCANBUS Under hood light White LED Bulb

Lance Pearson
Chester, Va
1991, #00682 ZR-1

[GOLDCYLON]

Lance can you post up a pic with no light other than the bulb? I would like to see how much light these bulbs put out.

Also will these fit in the console? Thanks GC

[LancePearson]

I don't know about the console as these are bayonette type fixtures under the hood. Go to the guys site and see what other lights he offers since he is an led light specialist and offers quite a few. They are listed on his site.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/280945644878...84.m1497.l2649

2x 211-2/42mm/4210 6 SMD 5050 NONCANBUS Under hood light White LED Bulb

I'll post per your request the photos of mine on tonight in the garage. The ceiling flourescents are on in the garage...11 foot ceiling and two 48" two light flourescents in each fixture for reference.

Now, to find the broken lens my clumsy fingers dropped.

Lance

[GOLDCYLON]

Originally Posted by LancePearson

Now, to find the broken lens my clumsy fingers dropped. Lance

Well the good news is they are the same in all C4s

[LancePearson]

Just purchased one on ebay that is used in good shape. Zip did not have it but I took the easy way out. Blanket under in future each time. As a big boat sailor I should have known that. Old trick when working on a fiberglass boat...put something soft beneath so the thing that drops does not hit, bounce and splash! In this case, crash on the concrete!

Lance

[scottfab]

It's always good to have options. As with LED TVs the prices are dropping. Two more years and I bet it will stabilize a bit.

There are several vendors for the same size bulb as the our Underhood Engine Lamps bulbs (bulb type 2112)
It all depends on what you what. Some of the direct fit LEDs (as the one OP posted) don't appear to post how bright they are in lumen. They say things like "supper bright". You have to do some digging.
The one the OP selected is 95 lumen @ 165ma. However I found some weeks back that I can get same bulb from a non ebay vendor:

[URL]http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/festoon/6451-led-bulb-6-smd-led-festoon/662/[\URL]

FYI - I ordered four of the above 6-LEDs and picked the brightest for comaring.
I did a comparison of the above 6-LED light to the 24LED lamp I'm assembling. The pic was taken at 12in away and both lamps using the same 12V. Surprisingly the 6LEDs use more current (95ma) than the 24LEDs (40ma). The reason for this I won't go into here. What the pic bellow does not show in a measured way is how bright each is. I use a digital camera in "auto" mode to see what it would do to the exposure time if the F-stop was held constant. Well as you'd expect the exposure was four times longer with the 6 vs 24 LEDs indicating 4X brighter.



There is an OEM company called CREE. They have a new line of LED product called High-Brightness LEDs that I have been looking at.


http://www.cree.com/led-components-and-modules/products/high-brightness/5mm-round-p2/~/media/Files/Cree/LED%20Components%20and%20Modules/HB/Data%20Sheets/C503D%20WAN%20935.pdf


The newest of the line C503D-WAN runs at about 120 lumen. That is one diode doing that.
That is 50% brighter than all 6 LEDs in the OP's link.
To put that in perspective a 60watt bulb puts out about 800lumen.
Six of these new LEDs would be like a 60watt bulb aiming down at the engine. With two engine lamps that's like a 120watt bulb of light for about 10% of the stock bulb power. To put that kind of light inside the car would be annoying (to me). Inside you want a "night light" kind of thing. However, it's a different story under the hood. You want BIG light there. Imagine 24 x 120 lumen. That's 2880 lumen. The total with two lamps under the hood would be 5760lumen. That up close to the brightness of a 1000watt incandescent bulb but only a few watts used !.

Anyway let me outline some options.
I have been researching this for sometime now. Here is some stuff I found out.

Some vendors are about $5 for 19 lumen if you want to go cheap.


http://www.superbrightleds.com/morei...d-festoon/237/

Or if you want brighter (150 lumen @ $18) but wider dispersion

http://www.superbrightleds.com/morei...toon-base/839/

The next step up is the 165 lumen solution at $20

http://www.superbrightleds.com/morei...uct/1240/2890/

Or you can go with the variable load resistor type (40 lumen @ 190ma for $6

http://www.superbrightleds.com/morei...oon/1264/2937/

But if you want to pull out the BIG GUNS
Here is one the will just barely fit and has 90 LEDs. The brightest of them all for only $20 (but there is some solvable mounting issues)

http://store.ijdmtoy.com/90-LED-Inte...anel_sku93.htm


BTW there's a whole boat load of Vett specific bulbs for the inside but no hood lamp at:

http://www.carid.com/1990-chevy-corvette-led-lights/


In conclusion. I knew about all these options when I decided to go for what seemed missing. A low power LED with adequate light (200 lumen at least) Well, I have them and they are installed.
Doing the upgrade to 5760 lumen or some even submultiple can now happen at any time I choose. I can just swap out a few components on the board I have as prices drop.

[LancePearson]

Scot:
"Gezz I almost feel responsible since my "unpublished" TechNet article mentions that they are glass and they are "keyed". (only go in one way). I sat on the article because the final design of the one I'm working on was not complete.
It's still not published but a direct link from here should work to see it.
The pics are of an unsealed unit. (no pic of sealed unit yet)
http://www.zr1netregistry.com/Inform...placement.aspx
Had I published earlier who knows, your cost of 2x $15 + the cost of the new glass cover would have been less sorry.
I did add a list of bulb options to that article just now."

You didn't make big. clumsy fingers drop the lens. I did! This is not exactly the first lens over a bulb in my life I've ever changed either. You ought to try some of the ones on big sailboats where when dropped stuff goes "bounce, bounce, splash" and is gone forever.

The bayonet receivers in my two housings are very tightly together and very forgiving of any length. When you push them in they are in very tightly in my car's case. Since my fuse was out by the previous owner to keep the incand. bulbs off I really wonder if those lights have ever been on much. I kept the bulbs in with the fuses in the glovebox but I'm not really sure why as the new led's work well and have a whiter light at 5,000 Kelvins instead of the more yellowish red of the incandescent.

I'm sure your article will be terrific. In my case it's $15 for the pair of lights not $15 each and for that it wasn't much of a risk experimenting and for me it's been a successful experiment. new lens on the way as we speak.

It seemed to me that there was some type of gasket it sits in to keep moisture out as well but I'm operating on memory as they were only open for ten minutes max while I changed bulbs. Both screws also have a type of gasket around them as washers as well so there is some moisture provision.

I rarely drive either of my Vettes in the rain either.

[HAWAIIZR-1]

Lance,

Thanks for taking time to post options for LED in our cars. I too have replaced my underhood bulbs with cooler, brighter, lower draw LEDs and was pleased until now. In most cases as you stated, it is enough and having a direct light source in an emergency will be what you need. I even ordered an LED headlamp to keep in the car. What you posted is definitely the best bang for the buck.

Scott,

Despite all of the options, please count me in your option as I have seen over the years your technical expertise and trust what you are doing. For me, you can never have too much light. I even remember when at a Gathering a few years ago and there were issues on Rich's and Tom's car and a lot of folks were in the parking lot at night trying to get under the hotel's light to work on the cars. It is just me, but I love light even though with 28 years of service in the Army, I have become accustomed to doing things under darkness and low light. I don't know if I will ever need or even use the light, but I know they are there when I need them. From a cool factor I go to a lot of night events and would love to be able to show off the LT5 I worked so hard on for show purposes without worrying about draining the battery after hours. I know that you are not in this for profit and just taking time to offer up something to the brotherhood and it is greatly appreciated. Everyone has to make something for the efforts and research put into this; I can see a lot of thought was put forth. Thank you again.

Craig

[scottfab]

Originally Posted by HAWAIIZR-1

...snip...
From a cool factor I go to a lot of night events and would love to be able to show off the LT5 I worked so hard on for show purposes without worrying about draining the battery after hours.
...snip...

Craig

Exactly. The glass cover has a design which helps focus the light on to the engine. That together with a 15 deg LED set means more of the light is going where you want. Most fastoon type replacements spread have to spread the light out to 120deg because they are used in other applications. The cool factor is in the beam and quantity of light. The wow factor is being able to see all the dirt on the engine.

Originally Posted by LancePearson

I just checked and, Yes, the inner screws on the glass lens are the only ones you need to unscrew to free the lens for access to the bulb area. I suppose the outer ones do hold the fixture in place but I don't know for sure as I'm not taking anything that works apart!
... snip...

FYI There is no need to take the lower screw out. Just loosen it and take out the top one. The glass will then slide up and out. I use duct tape on the glass to hold it as I take out the upper screw. That is the duct tape is stuck to the glass such that you can hold the duct tape between your fingers to keep the glass secure as you remove it. Remember it's not very obvious but the glass is "keyed". It only goes in one way.

[LancePearson]

This made me laugh. We are all doing a collective phd on underhood lights on our ZR-1's! The truth is though that with the keyed and the rest it all keeps telling me the same thing...whoever thought C4's weren't much doesn't have a clue!

I took mine on my 90 mile nickel and dime ride today and you just have to come home smiling after a sunny day ride like that.

The duct tape is a good idea...will do that with the new lens when it arrives in a few days.