[Joe Schmoe]

Mods can't seem to get around to approving my posts on the other board, so I'll try here.

So the tinkering begins. I'm starting with interior LEDs since that's a mod my wife can go along with and benefit from. I replaced all the interior bulbs and the reverse bulbs with part number WLED-WWHP15-TAC Warm White from superbrightleds, and replaced the brake light bulbs with part number 3157-R45-T Red. The interior went mostly OK (I haven't done the glove box light yet). Only hangup was that some of the terminals needed to be tweaked because the LED bulb contacts were a little thinner. The difference was pretty dramatic. So much so that we decided it would be best to go with the stock bulbs in the front fixture and the LEDs in the rear fixture. The tail light bulbs were a little disappointing. The LEDs ended up slightly dimmer than the OEM bulbs. On the plus side, while the OEM bulbs give the tail lights a pinkish hue, the LEDs project plain red. Finally, though the little interior bulbs were physically much smaller than the OEM reverse bulbs, they projected the same amount of light - no overall improvement and light spread was inconsistent and resulted in the OEM bulbs being mildly brighter from some angles. We stuck with the OEM reverse bulbs.

Conclusion: this was a mixed bag. I'd recommend the interior lights highly. The brake lights are only slightly dimmer and I'm comfortable running those until I find something better - perhaps something better suited to the design of the budget-minded housing and it's lack of much of a reflector. Same with the reverse lights. Enjoy!

Before and after. The difference really was this dramatic. Yes, I shot the pics the right way. I duplicated the exposures and I used a baseline color temp and applied it to both shots. This is with LEDs front and rear. The fronts have since been changed back to stock.

Handheld this shot, so sorry for the blurriness.

Red LED tail light bulbs. Stock on the left, LED on the right. This is with the lights on "parking" in this shot. It's a similar difference under braking. No shots of the reverse lights, sorry.

 

[koozy]

by chance are you Joe Schmoe on spyderchat.com?

 

[Joe Schmoe]

Yep, that's me!

 

[koozy]

It's been awhile. I went by iMR2 on there.

 

[Joe Schmoe]

I remember. Pat, right? I was on my 4th Spyder when an old lady turned in front of me and totalled it in April. That's probably the last one....probably lol. I drive an MX5 now, but I try to find an excuse to drive the Mrs' ST whenever I can. Awesome little car. Do you still make parts? I would see one of your breast plates pop up every once in a while and no one would know who made it lol.

 

[koozy]

wow 4th Spyder! I still had your red one stuck in my head, but that was back in like... 2002? LOL. Nice clean looking roadsters in the photos there. I haven't made parts since then. After the Spyder I was in an Evo 8 for 7 yrs. I sold it a few years ago when I was into motorcycles, riding an '09 ZX6R. Got the bug to get back into a car and the only thing that piqued my interest in my price/performance range was the Abarth and the Fiesta ST. After spending some time in both the ST was the better choice for me. I look forward to seeing the next MX5/Alfa Romeo Spider that's being developed by Mazda and FIAT. I might be lured back into a rear wheel drive 2 seater once again, LOL.

 

[Joe Schmoe]

Since the last post we've picked up the non-ST rear cargo cover and put that on top of the spare, but below the cargo floor and picked up a Covercraft UVS100 sun shade. Also did the initial oil change at about 1000 miles and switched to Mobil1. Now that the break-in oil and filter are gone, it's nice to be able to open the car up here and there.

 

[[email protected]]

I'm on my phone and can't tell; where are you located? The last pic is awesome!

 

[BRGT350]

I agree with Randy, the last pic is great!

There is no doubt that the ST wears white very nicely. If Performance Blue wasn't an option, I would have gone with white.

Great review on the bulbs as well. I haven't pulled the covers off of the lights in my wife's 2013 Escape Titanium, but I think they are LED's from the factory. They look very similiar to what you have done to the ST.

 

[Joe Schmoe]

Thanks! We are in SOCAL. That was taken in Manhattan Beach. We were down there looking for big surf from a hurricane but we were there a day too early. The picture was taken with a Galaxy S4 and the quality of the pictures on that thing always surprise me. Had to set it to HDR since the sun was right there, and had to step back maybe 20 feet to keep from the car from looking exaggerated, then cropped the rest out.

As for the LEDs...I'm still not satisfied with the taillight bulbs not being better than they are. I'd like to try the Triton LEDs from V-LEDs, but $100+ is hard to swallow for bulbs. White wasn't my choice....I suggested silver. I've noticed that not only does brake dust layer the wheels, it gathers on the rear hatch and it's pretty obvious on white. Well, I'm guessing it's brake dust, I have yet to taste it LOL. Nonetheless I enjoy this car so much I'm thinking really hard about taking advantage of the rebates on a Focus ST, but I'm probably better off with less horsepower . Came really close to getting a speeding ticket on the way back from there. Had to give the mea culpa wave to a sheriffs cruiser and I was fortunate he was kindly lenient.

 

[Joe Schmoe]