Lighting Questions

[Bunty]

Hey everyone,

I'm new here and I have a 2011 Escalade. I wanted to ask some questions about some lighting mods I wanted to get done.

First of all, I'm getting this underglow kit, do you guys think this is good:
http://www.ledunderbody.com/Advance...Wireless-LED-Underbody-Neon-Lighting-Kit.aspx

Secondly, I wanted to get brighter bulbs that are blue for my fog lights and park lights. I don't want to have any major modifications done or have any issues with the bulbs melting anything. I just want bright bulbs that are plug and play. Are there any out there that you recommend? And are the bulbs easy to change? Like I won't have to seal or do anything once I change it?


I don't know too much about this stuff so please forgive my ignorance. I just want to get my new Escalade looking nice, thanks in advance for any help.

 

[soulsea]

Oh boy ... did we timeslip back to the 90s?
J/K B ... in my opinion tis a shame to underlight a brand new esky, but if it makes you happy then by all means proceed.

The only proper way that I know of to get that the blueish color out of lights is by using the corresponding kelvin rated hid bulbs or something like this: http://osram.com/osram_com/News/Tra...ing/2010/100302_Cenarc_Cool_Blue_Intense.html with 35w ballasts. But these need projectors to work properly and I don't think you want to be going retrofitting fog lights right off the bat as it is complicated and expensive.

I'm assuming you don't have the Platinum LED headlight setup ... so your only solution that doesn't involve cheap and ineffective ebay PnP kits that devalue your esky, is to upgrade to better bulbs such as Sylvania Silverstars. They won't give you the blue color you are looking for but they are a quick, easy, and cheap way of significantly improving oem bulb output.

Not sure how hard tis to change bulbs on an Esky ... tis a major pita on the Tahoes.

Welcome to TYF.

 

[ezdaar]

Just for reference, I have used the Sylvania (non HID) cool blues in the past and while they give the lens that light blue effect, the color of the road is very white.

IMO, the only way you will get a real blue color is with some 35watt HID's 8k-9k range. but they will completely useless for vision.

More expensive but will enhance the color is the 25watt ballasts. The lower the wattage, the more intense the color is.

 

[felixgun]

Welcome! You could definitely do an LED exterior light conversion. I changed all of mine that you could possibly change.

Front end has Parking Lights changed out using (5) SMD-LED's and Fog's changed which are now using a 5k 35w HID kit:


Rear has the 194 White (5) SMD-LED's for the license plate lights also and the reverse lights in the tails have also been changed to 68 SMD-LED's to match the license plate lights:

 

[soulsea]

Felix, please don't be mad at me but the above picture is indicative as to why PnP hid kits/bulbs without retrofitted projectors, although somewhat attractive, do little in improving usable light and usually result in significant glare. The beam dispersal which generates this glare is also the reason for the lighting issue. I understand that the picture is slightly overexposed, but this is in fact because of said glare.

I appreciate that those fogs are probably an improvement over the weak stock fogs, but oncoming traffic bears the burden of that decision more so than you do.

 

[Bunty]

Alright thanks for the info guys and yes I do have the non-led light setup. Well if its too much of a hassle to get bluish lights I'll take anything that is an improvement over the stock ones that are simply plug & play. Visibility for the fogs and parking isn't a big deal for me, I just want it to look bright and cool. lmao

I guess upgrading to better bulbs would be the best option, which ones would simply be plug & play yet still be bright and perhaps be some sort of color (bluish, purplish etc)? The visibility and glare issues aren't that much of a concern as the look and style.

I also want to thank the three of you for responding to my thread, I'm really happy I found this forum cause its awesome. I haven't gotten the underglow yet and wanted to hear some thoughts first, but getting the parking + fog setup is a definite priority cause the stocks ones just don't look good.

 

[ezdaar]

if you do install underglow, hook it up to puddle lights. so under vehical is nice and lit up when approaching it.