Brighter front parking lights/turn signals possible?

[Ricky Bobby]

Guys, I know most of us code the front parking lights off with NCSExpert, and I considered doing that but I enjoy my parking lights being on, more visibility doesn't hurt. If I had angel eyes on my truck, I would definitely code them off.

I have chrome Bimmian invisibulbs now and they are OK, although I will say that the parking lights on this car are very dim compared to say my wife's Rav4, which I can just run in parking lights only and they are very bright (perhaps they are a single brighter filament bulb?).

I looked into doing amber LED replacements but am looking to avoid the use of resistors if possible, but I would consider it.

Is there any way to code the parking lights slightly brighter, or perhaps use a different parking light bulb that is single filament so that they are "on" full brightness for parking lights and blink for turn signals?


Thanks guys, just toying with some ideas, I mean I'm happy with the way they look they just seem to be "dim" in the parking light position.

[X5SND]

Please please please don't be one of those people who drive around with just park lamps on in place of DRLs! I beg you!!!

You can get away with out having to use resistors if switching to LED bulbs if you get the correct ones.....as for brightness, there isn't anything currently available to fit our trucks In an LED variant that will surpass the brightness level of its incandescent counterpart; rival it maybe, but not surpass it.

[romeokc10]

Originally Posted by X5SND

Please please please don't be one of those people who drive around with just park lamps on in place of DRLs! I beg you!!!

.....as for brightness, there isn't anything currently available to fit our trucks In an LED variant that will surpass the brightness level of its incandescent counterpart; rival it maybe, but not surpass it.

Not true, I replaced my front and rear turn signals with CREE LED projector lights, and man let me tell you, they are bright, they come with a warning not to look directly at them.

[Ricky Bobby]

Originally Posted by romeokc10

Not true, I replaced my front and rear turn signals with CREE LED projector lights, and man let me tell you, they are bright, they come with a warning not to look directly at them.

pics or links?

[X5SND]

Originally Posted by romeokc10

Not true, I replaced my front and rear turn signals with CREE LED projector lights, and man let me tell you, they are bright, they come with a warning not to look directly at them.

The projector LED may be brighter in the sense its light is focused in a forward biased manner to that of a traditional bulb. But the reflector within the headlamp assembly (in which the bulb sits) also relies on light emitted radially, and backwards....not just straight ahead. So while a projector LED will appear brighter from head on, it won't be from the side (as one would view a side marker). Furthermore, since it does not utilize optics of the reflector, your nicely contoured amber corner light will only appear as a dot (like any other projector would when viewed from head on).

Prime example of what I mean: http://www.xoutpost.com/923395-post7.html

[Ricky Bobby]

No no no no not in place of DRL at all!

I don't use DRL, however I use parking lights when leaving the car running at night, or when I don't want to shine lights into someone's window or storefront, etc, as well as on some evenings/mornings when it isnt dark enough to use low beams and isn't light enough to not have any tail lights illuminated in the rear.

I was just noting that my wife's vehicle (I think it has 7443 bulb) has an noticeably brighter "parking light" setting if we were to park our cars side by side, just wanted to know why that is. It might just be the "waffle" in front of my turn signal bulb which diffuses the brightness a bit.


Saw these on fleabay, apparently the seller claims they are the brightest on the market (but are they as bright as an incandescent?)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3157-3156-HI...aa1a0f&vxp=mtr

[SlickGT1]

I will check my NCS next time I am messing with it. But I doubt you can have it brighter via coding. Get a brighter LED, but you will need to make sure you code out the cold monitoring. It will blink like a mofo.

[Ricky Bobby]

Originally Posted by SlickGT1

I will check my NCS next time I am messing with it. But I doubt you can have it brighter via coding. Get a brighter LED, but you will need to make sure you code out the cold monitoring. It will blink like a mofo.

Let me know what you find man I'd be interested to know! oh my old VW, with the coding options you used to be able to have the option to change the brightness on front parking lights because they were notoriously dim in the "city light" setting


If you guys are telling me that the brightness of an LED equivalent is 100 bucks then forget that! haha although thanks for the link!

[X5SND]

RB, Makes sense....the "Park lights instead of DRL's because they look cooler" is a major pet peeve of mine lol (and people who use fog lights all day long). The "perceived" brightness not only depends on the source, but also how it distributes the light within the reflector. While LED's have come a long way in this regard their distribution is still fairly narrow.

These are the closest thing to an incandescent you can get....a couple guys over on hidplanet have had mixed reviews of them (mainly due to the price). But they have a bunch of videos on youtube as well. Getting them to work might be tricky as i think they rely on a pigtail....but haven't really looked at them that closely. If you want "bright" these are it.

V3 TRITON AMBER MULTI-APPLICATION HIGH POWER LED TURN SIGNAL LIGHT SYSTEM

[Ricky Bobby]

What about these for front turns? "Brightest LED on the market"

CREE LED Chip Car Reverse Turn Signal Brake Stop Light Bulb 7443 1156 1157 3157 | eBay


Might be a little tall for the parking light housing, not sure if it would hit the reflector or not.