Daytime running lights

[xf1ref]

Hi Mark, you have to twist the bulb holder but I think it rotates quite hard.

[GiveMeABreak]

Thanks - I tried with my fingers to rotate it but I can't get my hand in the opening to get any leverage on it. It won't budge using my fingers at all. If I get a pair of pliers on the wiring block and try and twist that counter-clockwise maybe that will do it - how much does it need to be twisted - a quarter turn?

[GiveMeABreak]

Here's a few shots of the new DRL LEDs against the previous ones. The camera doesn't really show these well, but the newer ones are definitely brighter in the daylight, so am really pleased with them.

Original LEDs

Original DRL LEDs

New LEDs

New XBD LED

New XBD LED

[xf1ref]

Yes, a quarter turn I think. Sorry but until Friday I can't check because I'm not at home. DRL's looks good

[GiveMeABreak]

No problems. I won't be doing them until the weather improves!

[xf1ref]

Hi, here are new pics. Is a quarter turn clockwise for the passenger side .... driver side for your car.

[GiveMeABreak]

Thanks for taking the time to post these pictures - mine still won't come off - it seems they are stuck on with glue! That would be counter-clockwise looking from behind the headlamp and clockwise looking at the front - as in the second picture. I can only get 2 fingers into the recess, so may have to use pliers as they won't budge! - I can't believe these things are on so tight.

[xf1ref]

I replaced the resistor with new ones, 22 ohm and 50W and I put them on the big cover. These new resistors dissipate less heat.

[JohnD]

I changed one of my running lights (just with a new HP24 bulb) while I was staying in Spain during January. I and a couple of friends spent ages trying to remove the bulb holder. Finally I put a small blob of blu-tack into the hole then forced the Torx40 bit into the hole so that the blu-tack spewed up the sides of the bit holding it firmly. A pair of pliers on the Torx bit easily got the bulb holder out. To assist in removing the bulb holder in the future, I drilled a small hole in one of the lugs, then passed a small zip tie through the hole.

[GiveMeABreak]

Hi, here are new pics. Is a quarter turn clockwise for the passenger side .... driver side for your car.

I had another attempt today and managed to get out the left hand side bulb at last! Although I could extract the bulb holder from the electrical connector - trying to coax out the bulb pins from the holder was another matter. I got it about 5mm out, but it refused to come all the way out.

Can I ask whether you actually cut the pins on the old bulb and then pulled the left over pins out of the holder? As an experiment, with the spare HP24W LED I had - I tried to hook this onto the connector - but it would not light up. Further, when I put the bulb back together, neither of the bulbs lit up (main lights on steering turned fully left and right) - so either I've blown a fuse or it needs to be dark before they will come on. I even tried to cover the light / rain sensor to fool it, but nothing doing. I'm going to try again tonight to see if they are working when it's dark and in the meantime I'm going to check the fuses.

One more thing, looking at my LED replacement for the HP24W DRLs, I don't think the pins are going to be long enough from what I could see from the original PH19W, so it looks like I'll have to scout about for some different types like the ones you used.

Oh and by the way everyone - another misprint in the owners manual again - these bulbs are NOT hp19W - they are PH19W, made by Philips and also used by Mercedes and others. Just tried googling and now get a lot more results than I did previously!

Edit It seems that my cornering lights didn't come on with engine running and steering wheel turned and headlights on manual - but with the help of a friend they did come on once I had moved the car forward a little, then stopped and applied handbrake - so panic over. Maybe it was having a fit when I changed them over with the engine running before. I'm now ordering the same 50W resistors as you did second time round and some similar bulbs to you as the others don't seem available.

[GiveMeABreak]

Looking again, it now seems that I was trying to lift the actual bulb out of the small plastic clamps, when you should separate the whole module from the plug - so that would allow the replacement LED to fit into the socket - I see that now. Will likely need to solder the pins from the original bulb onto the LED to ensure they are long enough to make contact.

At least I have identified a couple of locations now for mounting the resistors which should also help with cooling - I don't much fancy mounting these on the inside of the plastic headlamp protector to be honest just in case!

A disappointing day yesterday. Finally managed to find some suitable G4 type LEDs similar to xf1ref's by browsing on the Aliexpress site. What a mistake that was! After spending hours finding the right type, I signed up to create an account and went to order - £13 in all. Added address details and went to pay - used a voucher they supplied for new customers so about £11 in all. Thought I'd use Amex which has a zero balance and wanted to be able to easily track the charge. Went to pay and screen went - security failure - and returned me to some other screen that said I could appeal! - So out of curiosity, I clicked this and they then wanted me to upload a range of documents - Driving licence, photocopy of credit card, passport, CC statement....! Sure, I'm really going to do that...

So that was my first and last experience of this scamming site. I closed the account immediately and will now be waiting for the £1000s turning up on my statement! I've reported them to my Card company just in case, apart from the fact that they are breaking the T&Cs of the Banks and Card Lenders by demanding all this stuff, I suspect it would also breach the user T&Cs if anyone was stupid enough to upload their documents!

I've also left a choice review on Trustpilot along with many others who have had the same happen on other blogs.

Back to searching in the EU again.....

[white exec]

A site much easier to search for automotive LEDs is superbrightleds.com. Good detailed specs, although prices high. Most of it Chinese, anyway. Being American, postage costs to Europe not cheap, but quick. Useful as a shop window, even if not for cheapest buying.

[Paul-R]

... Aliexpress site. What a mistake that was! After spending hours finding the right type, I signed up to create an account and went to order - £13 in all. Added address details and went to pay - used a voucher they supplied for new customers so about £11 in all. Thought I'd use Amex which has a zero balance and wanted to be able to easily track the charge. Went to pay and screen went - security failure - and returned me to some other screen that said I could appeal! - So out of curiosity, I clicked this and they then wanted me to upload a range of documents - Driving licence, photocopy of credit card, passport, CC statement....! Sure, I'm really going to do that...

So that was my first and last experience of this scamming site. I closed the account immediately and will now be waiting for the £1000s turning up on my statement! I've reported them to my Card company just in case, apart from the fact that they are breaking the T&Cs of the Banks and Card Lenders by demanding all this stuff, I suspect it would also breach the user T&Cs if anyone was stupid enough to upload their documents!

I've also left a choice review on Trustpilot along with many others who have had the same happen on other blogs.

I've also recently opened up an Aliexpress account but I certainly didn't have to give them any extra documentation - not that I would have done had they asked mind you.

Possibly because you used Amex? I used a MasterCard.

[GiveMeABreak]

Thanks Chris - I clocked that site along with about 2 others I'm slowly wading through. The bulb has to have 2 pins like a G4, or will need to be one I can modify by cutting the plastic off a T10 wedge - so scrolling page after page is so time consuming as there are so few 'native' HP24W / PH19W LED equivalents out there. All will need modifying. I have even tried looking for a suitable adapter to change the fitting to a more universal type like a wedge - but the problem then is the fitting of the PH19W holder in the actual headlamp housing - it again has a certain number of particularly sized lugs! Why they didn't just use the H7 fitting that the non-Xenon headlight uses for bend lighting is beyond me - why complicate matters? - but then it is PSA I suppose.

[GiveMeABreak]

I've also recently opened up an Aliexpress account but I certainly didn't have to give them any extra documentation - not that I would have done had they asked mind you.

Possibly because you used Amex? I used a MasterCard.

That's quite possible Paul. I was going to use a MC or VISA, but my better self kicked in and made me think - do I really want to give them another card given what has just happened...

Good luck with them Paul and I hope it goes well - I've since read of some pretty awful horror stories when researching this issue - customer service have about 3 standard replies - anything out of that and they can't deal with you - non delivery of orders, orders being charged 3 or more times months afterwards - enough for me to bail out

I think I might be able to get the same type in the EU - but at double the price - that's the price to pay for more peace of mind I guess!