LED lamp upgrades for passenger cabin.

[Crimson Pearl]

I'm not prone to change much on an XLR, but it seemed that it was just crying out for an upgrade to LED bulbs on a few applications.

I changed out the Rear License Plate lamps and the trunk interior lamps. Big improvement.

I also changed out the bulbs in the door courtesy lamps and the driver and passenger footwell lamps. The pure white light of the LED units looks much better than the yellowish light of the standard bulbs.

Now here's the question. I have not had very much success in removing the bulbs for the map lights in the interior rear view mirror. There seems to be an abundance of mis-information about which lamps these are.

Anyone here changed these lamps on an 2005 XLR?

What lamp is installed in there?

How do you get them out without damaging anything?


All help and good information appreciated.

 

[ccclarke]

I changed out my rearview mirror incandescent bulbs last year and installed white LEDs with great results. I didn't care for the yellow light cast by the stock bulbs and the clean, white light of the LEDs makes a big difference in the cabin! You lose the dimming effect when the power is removed after 30 seconds or so, but it was a fair trade-off for me. I tried blue and then white to get the effect I wanted.

The stock bulbs are wedge-tail 194s (same as the glove box and under dash lighting.) They can be a PITA to remove from the mirror housing. The stock bulbs get real hot, real fast so you have to work quickly to get them out; it's easier to just remove the lighting fuse and go to it. One of mine pulled out easily enough, and the other made me work long and hard to get it out of there. I ended up making a special tool to do it, since the reflector makes it tough to get ahold of the bulbs. The round LEDs I installed have a serrated metal ring which not only dissipates heat, but makes them very easy to remove.

Replacement LEDs are available from superbrightleds.com. The WLED xLX type works fine and has a wide spread pattern (120 degrees.) I bought a bunch of 194 replacements and experimented around the car until I was happy, and have some spares also.

Hope this helps!
CC

 

[Crimson Pearl]

LED lamp upgrade

Thanks for your reply.

I agree with you, I thought that the yellowish light from conventional incandescent bulbs was so "out of character" for the XLR. I have been purchasing my LEDs from V-Leds, as they have a good selection of bulbs in different configurations as well.

I found that I had to use a unit designated as a "short" lamp to replace the bulbs in the rear license plate lamp. The lamp for the courtesy lights in the doors was a slightly larger and longer unit since there was more room available there. The lamps for the driver and passenger footwells was a lamp that is oriented to one side, and works very well there.

That left me with just the map lights. It certainly looks like a 194 / 168 type of wedge base lamp, but as you mentioned, it doesn't want to come out easily!

There is an abundance of misinformation about these cars when you go to look things up. My favorite GM parts counter man looked it up for me and the factory info claims that these are 212 lamps, which they clearly are not!

In the past I have made a tool to remove lamps using rubber tubing. Would you care to provide details of what you used?

Once I get these map light bulbs changed out, the interior cabin "lighting upgrade" will be complete and there will be nothing but the clear white light from an LED inside!

 

[ccclarke]

Heat shrink works great. Slip it over the bulb, heat it up, wait for it to cool and the bulbs pull right out.

Lightbulb configurations and LED replacements for the XLR would make a nice upgrade thread for those wishing to do so. We made one up on a CTS-V site I frequent, and before long, it became a pretty popular mod. I still need to replace the festoon/hook lamp under the hood with a much brighter, wide angle LED.

CC

 

[HOMEGAMEROOM]

I've replaced all my exterior incandescents with LED's. My only issue is the amber DRLs in front - they aren't quite bright enough in daylight. Any suggestions?

I also had to add a resistor in-line with them; the blinking is controlled by the BCM.

 

[Crimson Pearl]

It worked!

Heat shrink works great. Slip it over the bulb, heat it up, wait for it to cool and the bulbs pull right out.

Worked like a charm with the heat shrink!

Thanks for that tip.

Now all my interior cabin lamps are LED and the effect is gorgeous!

 

[b_pappy]

I like this idea for the interior lights, I may look into this. Are these companies charts pretty accurate for what bulbs I will need, or would one of you two list the bulb number and its location? I assume the dimming etc still works.
Bruce

 

[ccclarke]

You lose most of the interior dimming effect with LED's because of the way they operate as opposed to incandescents. But the amount and quality of the light (especially the white vs stock yellow) is sweet.

Here's a start to a LED replacement list. Feel free to cut/paste/improve it in subsequent threads. Once this is bullet-proof, we should have a nice LED mod guide for the Knowledgebase.

--Sorry about the formatting mess. I'm unable to get proper lists to stick after editing!

CC

LED Sources:

superbrightleds.com

Location Qty OEM Bulb LED Replacement Info
Rearview Mirror 2 194<O</O
Under Dash 2 194<O</O
Glove Box 1 194<O</O
Door Courtesy Lights 2 194<O</O
Front Side Marker 2 194<O</O
Back-up/Reverse 2 3156<O</O
License Plate 2 2825LL
DRL 2 3757<O</O
Front Parking 2 3157<O</O
Front Turn Sig 2 3757<O</O
Trunk 1 PC168 Any WLED series or 194 style<O</O
Hood 1 Rigid Loop Festoon 44 x 10.5mm<O</O

 

[Crimson Pearl]

More concerning LED lamps for the XLR

The lamp replacement guide at www.sylvania.com seems to be pretty accurate for the most part.

The listing for the step/courtesy lights were wrong for my 2005. I found that the courtesy lamps in the doors were PC168 units, which are 168 type lamps in a holder.

The lamps for the trunk lamps were also PC168 units as well, but slightly different in that the units in the door lamps were integral, with the lamps being permanently made into the lamp holder assembly, whereas the ones in the trunk lights were just 168 lamps that were plugged into a socket adapter that then plugged into the fixture.

I was able to install an LED replacement lamp into the "adapters" that were in the trunk lights. I looked and found that most auto parts stores sell these socket adapters. I found them at both Autozone and O'Reilly Auto Parts. It is referred to as a 1/2" Instrument Panel Socket (Dorman p/n 85835). https://www.dormanproducts.com/cgi-...=&start=&vfrom=&prev=&vnext=&category_list=:0

Evidently, these pc168 lamps are commonly used for dash lamps.

After I purchased a pair of these "sockets" at Autozone, I was able to plug the 168 LED replacements into them and install them in the door courtesy lamps.

The "footwell" courtesy lamps were 168 bulbs and replacing them was a snap. This left the courtesy/map lights in the rearview mirror, as covered in previous threads.

One thing that I found is the apparently the 168 and 194 lamps are about the same. However, you must be careful concerning what LED replacement lamp you use to install in each location. 168/194 bulbs cast their light out in a 360 degree patterm, and most LED lamps don't. As a result, you need to select which LED unit you use in each application.

ccclarke had some very good information in his post and he said he has had good experience with superbrightleds.com. I have been purchasing my LED units from V-leds.com and they also have an eBay store where I have been purchasing my units. They have an excellent selection and the shipping is very quick.

I used the units that they refer to as "flank bulbs" in the footwells, as the flank units direct all their light to one side which seemed to be the best for this application.

You have to be careful if you replace the rear license plate lamps as anything longer than a stock 168/194 lamp will not fit. As a result, I ordered a unit that had 6 leds end-mounted and was no longer than a standard 168/194 lamp. This was also the lamp I used for the courtesy/map lights in the rearview mirror, as most of the light from these is directed downward.

I think there is a small improvement in the safety aspect as well, concerning the door courtesy lamps. The LED units I used there (plenty of room) have 13 leds and are very bright .They should be much more noticeable and visible to anyone else when you open the door at night.

You can't believe the improvement that replacing all the incandescent bulbs in the passenger cabin with LED units will make! A car that is as modern as the XLR is deserves better than the "yellowish" light of standard bulbs. I know that when you open the door of my XLR at night now, it looks as modern and "cutting edge" as the rest of the car does!

 

[ChicagoDave]

As part of your LED upgrade, I am assuming you changed out your front running lights (the small lights that come on with Parking Lights or Headlights). I just never understood why they would put the more "yellow" lights right next to the HID Headlights.

I want to change my license plate bulbs to LED's, but am having a bear of a time getting the lining off, to get to the sockets. Any suggestions? Is there a special tool to remove the clips? I've broken quite a few of them in attempting to remove them.

And for the backup lamps, what are your recomendations? I have LED's in my 2000 DTS, but the just are not that bright... not as bright as the standard bulbs.

I am looking forward to changing over all of my lamps to LED's, such a cleaner, updated look.

Also - I installed HID lamps for the FOG lamps, it is HUGE... looks great with how it matches the Headlamps.

Thanks for this thread and all of the information.

 

[ccclarke]

This is a great thread, since there's a lot of data-gathering involved.

Yeah, it's a real PITA getting most of the XLR's retaining clips removed. I bought a nice set of trim removal tools from Eastwood that make the job a lot easier, protects the finish and generally improve my language in the garage. Still, some of the fasteners are just prone to breaking, so I keep a bunch of spares handy. They're inexpensive as well. The right tool can make or break a job!

V-LEDS is a great site! They tend to be a little less expensive than superbrightleds.com overall as well.

Their (white) replacement LEDs for the license plate PN is: 194_HP_W_6K. These should fit the map lights also. One LED set that looks interesting for the map lights is their 194_X5_HP_W. It contains 4 radial-firing LEDS for the reflector and one axially-pointing LED to shoot straight thru the bezel. It has 50 lumens less output but may work better with the reflectors.

Keep improving this thread folks!

CC

 

[Crimson Pearl]

I haven't changed any of the other exterior lamps yet.

In my XLR, the clips that hold the trunk lid liner are the type where you use a flat-blade screwdriver to pop-up the center of the clip and then the body of the clip just pulls out of the hole. Be careful with the bezel and the switch for the trunk pull-down push button switch!

I also haven't yet changed the back-up lamps, but will probably look at them next.

Please tell us about your HID upgrade for the fog lamps!

 

[ChicagoDave]

Please tell us about your HID upgrade for the fog lamps!

Here is the site I bought the HID upgrade from.
http://www.omnixautosports.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=ED-9045-HID-KIT

Was very easy to install - just had to mount the ballasts and then it is just plug and play - one end plugs into the lamps, in the house, the other end to the ballast, then a connection from the ballast to the XLR socket. It should take you about 45 minutes to do both sides.

Let me know if anyone else has done this - I tend to use my fog lights all the time, it really brightens up the road at night.

 

[b_pappy]

Great list & info, thanks guys.
Bruce

 

[Nightshift]

This is a great thread, since there's a lot of data-gathering involved.

Yeah, it's a real PITA getting most of the XLR's retaining clips removed. I bought a nice set of trim removal tools from Eastwood that make the job a lot easier, protects the finish and generally improve my language in the garage. Still, some of the fasteners are just prone to breaking, so I keep a bunch of spares handy. They're inexpensive as well. The right tool can make or break a job!

V-LEDS is a great site! They tend to be a little less expensive than superbrightleds.com overall as well.

Their (white) replacement LEDs for the license plate PN is: 194_HP_W_6K. These should fit the map lights also. One LED set that looks interesting for the map lights is their 194_X5_HP_W. It contains 4 radial-firing LEDS for the reflector and one axially-pointing LED to shoot straight thru the bezel. It has 50 lumens less output but may work better with the reflectors.

Keep improving this thread folks!

CC

CC, I'm just getting round to switching out mine to LEDs. You provided the part number here for license and map lights. Can you provide the other part numbers you used to help us (me) order the correct ones? For example, is p/n 194_6F_W the right number for under dash? And is p/n 194_13_SMT_W the one for the door courtesy? What about the others? Much appreciated in advance. Bill

 

[ccclarke]

Bill,
The part numbers I provided are for the OEM bulbs. Aftermarket vendors make many variations that can directly connect to the OEM sockets. Alternate part numbers may reflect side-firing LEDs (good for footwells or door markers) or axially-firing LEDs (good for dome lights). I went with 6k after trying a bunch of different colors. Your milage may vary. Just match the vendor's pictures to the application installation in your car, cross-referencing with the OEM bulb and you should be alright. (Except where noted.)

CC

 

[rleonard]

Dave,
I just ordered the HID kit for the fog lamps. They need serious help!

Bob

 

[GizmoQ]

Dave,
I just ordered the HID kit for the fog lamps. They need serious help!

Bob

Installed mine the first week I had the car. Big difference on light output. Still not as bright as the 55W 8000k HIDs I put on my Eldorado but I didn't want to risk melting the housings on the V (I knew the housings on the eldo are metal and could take it). One thing that can also be done to get more light output is remove the reflector inside the housing, but that also screws up the aim point (I put eyelids on the Eldo Fogs to solve it).

 

[ChicagoDave]

Dave,
I just ordered the HID kit for the fog lamps. They need serious help!

Bob

That's great, Bob. You'll love 'em! They are a snap to install (just gotta mount the balast).

 

[cubby558]

I don't think it is going to be that easy on the V--their are things in your way on the V that aren't there on the base model. I had mine apart for something else and noticed the 'clutter' behind the fog lights.

Bob, let me know how it goes, I may end up doing mine as well.

That's great, Bob. You'll love 'em! They are a snap to install (just gotta mount the balast).