Upgrade to LED inside and headlights

[purpletiger]

Hello all, has anyone upgraded to LED lighting on a 2006 inspire? Wondering if there is a best option for the headlights and interior lights, any suggestions would be welcomed.

[sundayfish]

Get in touch with 818 Retrofits on facebook or instagram. He builds custom headlights that will put out the best light possible and not blind oncoming traffic. They are great.

[purpletiger]

Hey thanks for that, I will check them out.

[jfnf51678]

Originally Posted by purpletiger

Hello all, has anyone upgraded to LED lighting on a 2006 inspire? Wondering if there is a best option for the headlights and interior lights, any suggestions would be welcomed.

Hello Purpletiger
I also own the same unit you have.
Below is the description of the bulb for the overhead halogen lights from SUPERBRIGHTLEDS.COM. They installed nicely and provide great lighting. I also replaced all other bulbs with LEDs. I believe they were all a 194 based bulb. I would recommend doing this after I saw another unit under retrofit and noticed that there was a char ring where the ceiling halogen had been at each location caused by the hot fixture. As a retired firefighter/paramedic, I replaced all lights as fast as I received my LED order.
BTW, I also replaced the bulbs in the dash bar.

Hope this helps.



G4 LED Light Bulb - Bi-Pin LED Disc - 40W Equivalent - 350 Lumens
Part Number
G4-xWHP21-DAC-HH

[jfnf51678]

Originally Posted by jfnf51678

Hello Purpletiger
I also own the same unit you have.
Below is the description of the bulb for the overhead halogen lights from SUPERBRIGHTLEDS.COM. They installed nicely and provide great lighting. I also replaced all other bulbs with LEDs. I believe they were all a 194 based bulb. I would recommend doing this after I saw another unit under retrofit and noticed that there was a char ring where the ceiling halogen had been at each location caused by the hot fixture. As a retired firefighter/paramedic, I replaced all lights as fast as I received my LED order.
BTW, I also replaced the bulbs in the dash bar.

Hope this helps.



G4 LED Light Bulb - Bi-Pin LED Disc - 40W Equivalent - 350 Lumens
Part Number
G4-xWHP21-DAC-HH

Note. Do not replace the Engine warning light or the ABS lights as it is my understanding the computer doesn’t like LEDs in these sockets.

[2 Stroker]

Ken

I replaced all of my dash light with the exception of the ABS, a total of I think around 19 bulbs all white because the dash is colored close to 8 years ago with these. https://www.superbrightleds.com/74-l...t#tab/Overview
They are polarity sensitive only work one way.
I replaces all my inside lights around 10 years ago with LEDs all a higher end bulb around 5 or 6$ each no China junk along with the docking lights.

Can't help you on the headlight, don't drive at night
2 stroker

[sbeers]

If your inside lights are like mine, I replaced all my fixtures with these:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...e?ie=UTF8&th=1

[IASM]

I replaced the headlight bulbs with high quality led and likely double the brightness. The interior lights were more of a challenge since i was looking for a warm light so i ended up ordering from maybe 5 places before i found the color i liked. Once i got that nailed down i ordered double what i needed for spares. very happy with them.
For me the interior was all about the color of the light. I dont care for the bright white .

[followingsea]

Originally Posted by purpletiger

Hello all, has anyone upgraded to LED lighting on a 2006 inspire? ....

Hi Ken

Welcome to the forum.

The question I always ask is why?

I replaced lights I used a lot because I dry camp and it reduces generator run time. Then I replaced expensive RV specialty bulbs that had burned out with cheaper LED.

Another good reason already mentioned is they are much cooler. This also a reason to not replace them in some places. I am full time and sometimes it gets a little below freezing. I turn on basement lights where I have water lines.

[Stonefish]

IF you only replace the headlamps you will be fine, but if you start replacing stop, tail. turn, backup etc. you will need to use a different flasher and possibly install diodes because of voltage draw, or lack thereof I should say. I kept the stock incandescent style on front STT bulbs, but changed all others with no issues.

[Piros1]

Originally Posted by purpletiger

Hello all, has anyone upgraded to LED lighting on a 2006 inspire? Wondering if there is a best option for the headlights and interior lights, any suggestions would be welcomed.

Ken I tried replacing my headlights with some highly rated LED lamps in my 2005 Affinity using the stock headlights and they did not work out well for me and I switched them back. From what I have been told the reflectors are the issue. My headlight beam appeared split. There maybe much better LED Lamps available today than I had at that time as well. My point is you may get lucky and get some that work out well or may not.
I like the suggestion of contacting 818 Retrofit regarding your headlights and see what they have to offer.
As for as the interior Superbright has a lot of options.

[Coach Driver]

We have been upfitting our 1991 Country Coach Concept with new flooring, residential refrigerator, smart TV, mini split HVAC, and new lighting. We replaced old, tired looking sconces and fluorescent tubes with new puck lights that recess into the ceiling. I used the existing switches and placed lights where we wanted them. We used 2 lights in the entrance/steps, 8 in the seating area and 6 in the bedroom. We love our new lighting! They provide better lighting, look modern and were inexpensive. We like it so much we are going to replace the bath and dressing area with the same new lights.

[astrnmrtom]

As for your headlights, what bulb number is the factory bulb?

Since you have a round reflector, make sure the replacement LED has two important features.

1. The chip array must mimic the size and shape of the original filament as close as possible. Proper light patterns are all about angles and the farther you deviate from the original design, the worse the pattern, because the angles of the light leaving the chips is wrong which means the angle leaving the reflector is wrong too.

2. The low beam chip array should have a built in cut-off shield. This will prevent light from spraying upward into the eyes of oncoming drivers. Here's an example that has a small metal shield on the low beam chip array. I use a similar one in my motorcycle and it provides a nice clean horizontal cut-off. https://sealight-led.com/x1-h4-9003-hb2-led-bulbs.html

The wrong bulb design will turn your headlight into a floodlight. You can see examples of this effect in a lot of ads. Yes, there's a ton more light, but you'll often see they are also illuminating the tops of the trees. These bulbs throw away half their lumens lighting up the sky.

One thing to note is there's no way to duplicate the exact size and shape of a filament with LED chips because they must be mounted to something, and they are comprised of separate chips mounted together. This means there will be some uneven illumination - bright spots and dark spots in the beam pattern. As long as there's good illumination on the part of the road that's important, some irregularity isn't harmful. One other thing that can't be avoided, again because the chips are mounted to a board, is some widening of the beam. For me I've found it helpful as you get more illumination of the shoulders of the road.

You need to take into consideration how much room you have on the back of your headlight housing. Is there room for the fan or passive heat sink fins?

Finally, it's important to note that when enclosed in a housing, the temperature at the chip array, even with cooling, rises which reduces the output. One thing that can help is using a bulb that has the driver separate from the bulb. That's because the colling system whether passive or active must also contend with removing the heat generated by the driver electronics.

Hope this helps.

[140.6Guy]

Further on the topic of better headlights for your Country Coach, I tried HID and LED before and could not find the combination that worked with the stock reflector. (from a 2008-10 Lincoln Navigator, so not the same as the original question). The result was a brighter headlight but poor illumination of what I needed to see.

818 takes a new headlight (the same as OEM) and retrofits a whole LED lighting assembly (lens, reflector, LED and driver) into it. It is then a drop in replacement to the coach, although in my model the whole headlight has to be glued in place (Sika 221 like OEM does). 818 does about 10/week of the 2005-10 Magna assembly that I need and does many other Country Coach lights as well. See the videos here: https://www.youtube.com/@818retrofits/videos
The videos of interest are near the bottom and were posted about 6 months ago. In particular look at the one that compares the 9007 halogen to the bi-led projector. (kind of like night to day)

It's about a month for delivery and cost varies by shipping cost and which vehicle you are doing. Kevin is your guy at area code 818 in SoCal and phone 446-9427. (txt same number) My new lights should be shipped Feb 20 at a cost of $775.

Good luck
John