Reversing bulb upgrade

[seboni121]

Son has just reversed the Monte Carlo into a very low wall :( it was just over a foot high and has caught the bumper on the right as you look at it , as we all know one revering light on the fabia and a **** poor one at that , so anyone upgrade the bulb if yes what are the gains and which bulb did you use

[Lee]

Replaced all the rear bulbs with the varying fitments of these when I first bought the car:

 

http://www.ringautomotive.co.uk/uk/products/Cars/Performance+Bulbs/13+Safety+-+Rapid+Response+Bulbs/RW382RR

 

Primarily for the brake light response and if it's the "placebo effect" and or subject I'm not too bothered but they are better than the standard ones installed at the factory.

[seboni121]

Thanx Lee

[Prykey]

I had the dealer fit parking sensors for me before I collected it, if you are having the bumper repaired you could consider going down the same route as most of the kits available today you can colour code the sensors that go into the bumper.

[dieselV6]

Easiest would be to source at least 10W Cree LED, and hopefully the matter would end there. But before you do that, best to check first if bulb filament has an unobstructed direct path (roughly level to the ground) to outside through the rear cluster housing.  In some housings (Mk 1 Superb) LEDs won't do as the stock bulb is obscured, and relies on reflector to guide the light out.

 

If you want to keep using bulbs, a relay to car battery voltage (socket in the boot, or if it is not there you'd need to run a wire to the front) will give ~2x more light from stock bulb as factory wiring is inadequate. Once you do that there are also HIR bulbs, you need to get a low-profile G4 (no ridge) adapter for these. I upgraded reversing lights on my Superb, works quite well, unfortunately thread photos are now gone, and also low profile G4/Ba15s adapters are harder to get nowadays. Without boot socket running extra 12V through the cabin is a hassle, so I do not recommend this mod.

 

But since then, I also successfully modified high beams on both cars to be driven by higher voltage (at the price of reduced lifetime), so if I was improving reversing lights today, I'd just wire one of these regulators in line with the stock bulb, solder an extra 10uf-100uf capacitor in line with the blue voltage adjuster to get soft start and prevent blown bulbs, and set it to 16V-17V loaded output voltage for ca 3x-4x more light than stock install. Actually, I still have 2 of these regulators in the garage... might have a look at putting them in the Roomster at some point...

 

Even without any soldering (screw in / crimp connections only), 14V would also give 2x more light than stock, and the whole mod requires £3, 2x crimp connectors ,1x scotchlock, some wire, some tape to wrap connections afterwards and glue/epoxy/screws (or tape) etc. to mount the board out of the way. Connect board grounds to ground at the light, board input to reverse light cable from cabin, board output to bulb, adjust voltage and it is done, the only tools needed are screwdriver, pliers/cutters and crimp tool, the mod cost less than a decent bulb and is hard to beat for the amount of light as well as beam pattern produced.

Edited 22 September, 2014 by dieselV6

[seboni121]

Thanx u v6 as for parking sensors , son just said " don't need them " lol