I am doing a custom DRL for my S, I brought some bulbs to test from ebay (Cree Q5 7w 501 bulbs) they can be used as sidelights so I thought that they would work well, they are nice and bright and fairly small. I made a custom holder and then plugged one into the 12v output in the car to test it, I did 4 short journeys over the course of 2 days, each journey around 20 mins, and by the 3rd trip the light was getting dim, and on the 4th trip the light died completely, each time it was used the bulb got very hot, almost too hot to hold for more than a few seconds.

Does anyone have any suggestions on good bright bulbs to use for this custom installation, I want bulbs that are less than 15mm across but that are still very bright.

Thanks all

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eagle-White-...X2783X6MW38RAW

Does anyone have any experience with this type of bulb?

 

It possibly got too hot and burned out because you used a 7w bulb in place of a 55w bulb? Even though the DRL's use less power than full high beams.

 

I dont plan on replacing the high beams with the LEDs, I plan on adding them onto an extra fused output I will be making, but to test I plugged 1 into the 12v output inside the car. I dont know what the wattage of the 12v output is.

 

You can buy DRL LED fixtures that are made for that purpose, just wire them up to a switch and 12v underdash power supply and you are good to go, they could last the life of the vehicle. The ones I run have 5 x 1watt LED lights in each fixture , using two fixtures, so 10 watts in total. No need to mess with individual bulbs.

 

I have seen those ones, but I want to do a custom drl fixture, where the fake vents are in the ap2 bumper, I want a 50mm hole at the top for an air intake, and then a cluster of 3 bulbs underneath it.