Replacing Filament Running Lights With LED Bulbs

I *think* the North American versions are different. The domestic/Euro versions were set up for remote adjustment of the headlight beam height, aren't they?

Don

Don said:

I *think* the North American versions are different. The domestic/Euro versions were set up for remote adjustment of the headlight beam height, aren't they?

Don

Click to expand...

The UK iOn & C-Zero definitely do have remote adjustment of the headlights.

I just did a full LED lamp conversion (with the exception of the high-beams) on my American i-MiEV. I love it so far. Here is what I used for the running lights. I just dremmeled out the hole a bit, and they fit beautifully:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TEPTQN4?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00

Things I found out about what you have to bypass to not get error message or fast blinks in your iMiev:

1. The turnsignals need load resistors on all 4 lamps
2. the top brake lamp bar needs a single load resistor for the whole bar (otherwise your traction control warning lights will come on)

Other than that, the car doesn't seem to care about lighting loads. I used these LED headlights which work great. Just remember that you need to get to that infamous 3rd screw behind the side of the bumper to get the headlamp assembly off:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K61CG5U?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00

These for most marker, license plate, parking, and high bar stop lights:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MGI60RQ?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s02

These for fog lights. Also had to dremmel out the hole a bit to make them fit.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QEXY5CQ?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s01

Also found these yellow LED's for turnsignals:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TX47O12?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00

I'm loving the look so far. The little guy looks like a mini futuristic spaceship on wheels.

@rhunter81005 - Thanks for the good information.

rhunter81005, thank you VERY much for this post. I'll be tackling the DRLs first...
Edit: oops, meant to say DRL not driving lights

Any luck with your DRL tests?

rhunter81005 said:

Any luck with your DRL tests?

Click to expand...

The lamps haven't come yet. I'll post when I do the install.

I just converted my Daytime Running Lights using the same LEDs as rhunter81005 used.

I did NOT modify the housing or reflector though, I modified the bulb. I cut the little bit of extra plastic off it with a dremel. Worked great after that.


More details and photos on my DRL upgrade at my personal blog - http://300mpg.org/2016/01/07/led_fog/

Ben - way cool! Just measured the current draw of my LED which is identical to yours: 0.20A at 13.26vdc. What's the draw of the incandescent bulb you pulled out? Right now I'm unable to crawl around much, but will follow in your footsteps in a few months - neat trick with the moto-tool - thanks for sharing!

Hello Ben, was there an equivalent LED part number available at Super Bright LED.com?

I'll be doing this mod in the spring.

Please let me know,
Brian.

Continuing with the theoretical range increases resulting from installing LED bulbs...

Daylight Running Lights (standard on SE)

The conventional (filament) P13W bulbs are rated at 13W.
The LED replacement I measured at 0.20A at 13.26v, or 2.65W.
Two P13W bulbs draw 26W
Two LED replacements draw 5.3W
Savings of 20.7W using two bulbs
Looking at these LED bulbs from a range-increasing perspective, if we say we drive for an hour we save 20.7 Watt-hours.
Dividing that by our (nominal) 16KWh pack capacity yields 20.7/16,000 = 0.12937% potential increase in range.
0.12937% * 62 miles(EPA) = 0.0802mile = 423ft (129m) range increase
Now we're getting somewhere... :roll: :mrgreen:

Isn't the excesories (including the lights) run exclusively off the 12v battery?

I was under the impression that the traction battery powered the wheel & heating only.

Brian

FrostyCanada, you're right that lighting and most of the onboard accessories use 12v; however, all onboard energy originates from the traction battery. The little 12v battery is continuously charged by the traction battery via a dc-dc converter. Reduction in 12v power usage directly translates into a reduction of traction battery power use (plus dc-dc converter inefficiency).

Hello Joe, I just learnt something new about my little iMiEV.



Regards,
Brian.

So....has anyone figured out how many extra miles they get per charge, assuming they use their headlights 20% of the time? Or are we doing this just because it's COOL?

I'm mostly doing it because it's cool.
Well, more for "the look". I think the more bluish instead of orange-ish color light looks more modern.

I AM also doing it for the energy savings, but only as a very long-term thing, knowing that it's pretty minor energy savings. I would say that ALMOST any other modification to the car would save more energy.

For example, making sure your tires are at the correct air pressure is likely to give more energy savings, and costs nothing (other than the time and attention you need to give it.) Also, tire pressure makes a difference all the time that you are driving the car, whereas the lighting improvement energy savings is only while the lights are on. In fact, I converted the Daytime Running Lights to LED first, because they are on more often than the low-beam driving lights.

I am NOT doing it to save money. A pair of the LED headlight bulbs cost me $70. I can buy a LOT of electricity for that!

Here's a photo with my car on the left with 20 watt LED headlamps, and somebody else's iMiEV on the right with stock headlights.

This is the first time I have ever bumped into another iMiEV driver in the wild. It was during a snow-storm, and we were both trying to use the same CHAdeMO station, which wasn't working!

It was a pretty light and fluffy snow. I think I quick wiped the snow off my headlights, but not the other car's before I took the photo. In the photo, the headlights on the other car look a little more "glowy" than mine do.

JoeS said:

...Looking at these LED bulbs from a range-increasing perspective, if we say we drive for an hour we save 20.7 Watt-hours.
Dividing that by our (nominal) 16KWh pack capacity yields 20.7/16,000 = 0.12937% potential increase in range...

Click to expand...

So, did no one pick up the mistake in my argument? The denominator should be the exact kWh expended in that one-hour drive and not total pack capacity. This will result in a greater percentage savings!

benelson, that's a great photograph of the two i-MiEVs, and certainly shows the difference in color temperature between the two headlights.

I don't think the difference between your erroneous calculation and the correct one will yield much. Driving for an hour would use at least half a charge. At least it does for me.

Finally got around to not only repairing the front bumper squishing damage to the DRL bracket but also replaced the DRLs with LEDs at the same time as well as repaired the right turn signal.

Removal of the front bumper (actually, bumper cover, as that thing is useless as a bumper itself) is straightforward, and I was glad I bought some extra plastic pins to secure the the plastic wheelwell liner as well as the bumper and I was appalled to find a number of those pins missing! Before I bought it, the car had been in to a Mitsu dealership for airbag sensor recalls. :roll:

Anyway, repaired the DRL support bracket by simply bending it back into shape, put in the new LED DRLs which necessitated cutting off the flange a bit (thank you Ben!), installed the new $2.40 plastic bumper side bracket, repaired the turn signal (merely re-inserted the LED turn signal light which had fallen out in my wife's accident), and removed the two ballast resistors the previous owner had put in when he replaced the incandescent turn signals with LEDs.

Bumper cover replacement is not as easy as Ben Nelson makes out at 3:35 in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcPIHZE3mn0

But everything eventually wiggles into place.

QUESTION: For those of you who have removed and re-installed your own bumper covers, how in the heck do you check to see that the two plastic pins (as well as the center guide pin) coming in from the front are properly engaged with the internal bumper?

Here's a shot comparing two i-MiEVs, with my impression being that brightness of each is about the same (if anything, the incandescent is brighter), but the color temperature is different.



Edit: Finally, let's do the math:

In this post http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=25620#p25620 I showed that the range on a full charge increases by 423ft as a result of switching over to LED DRL.

Let's look at it differently...

12v power consumption by the DRLs is reduced by 20.7W by switching to LED.

Let's say our dc-dc converter is 80% efficient, thus 20.7/0.8 = 25.9W power reduction from the traction pack.

I've already determined my average power consumption (from the wall) per mile to be 1/4.2 = 0.238kWh/mile.
Ref: http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5744#p5744

In our family, one person drives an i-MiEV just around 12,000 miles/year. Thus, one i-MiEV consumes 2856kWh per year from the wall.

In order to see what impact the 25.9W power reduction from the pack represents, we need to determine an average speed. For our mixture of 50% city and 50% highway driving, I'll throw a dart and assume 30mph.

Thus, 12,000miles/30mph = 400 hours/year spent sitting in the car. :shock:

400hours*25.9W = 10.36kWh reduction in energy consumed from the wall annually as a result of switching to LED DRL.

Hey, that means that 4.2mi/kWh*10.36kWh = 43.51miles/year that I could drive just from the savings of switching over to LED DRL

Assuming cost of electricity is 15¢/kWh,

10.36kWh * $0.15/kWh = $1.55/year savings

Sheesh, that's going to take over ten years to amortize those two LED bulbs!

Finally, the annual consumption of the i-MiEV is reduced to 2856-10 = 2846kWh

Hmmm, that brings up an interesting point: 2856kWh*$0.15/kWh = $428.40 annual electricity cost assuming 15¢/kWh rate, pre-LED DRL. In my case, since I have solar and a zero energy cost bill, that means I save a further $428.40/year.