An Iq Called Toya

[mhc]

I should really have done an update on the bulbs but no-one really seemed interested in them :(

So far they're still working, still the same colour and i've not had any flashes or angry motorists shout, wave or gesture to me, i've also passed a fair few police cars and been behind a couple, so far, no problems.

To be honest, they're nowhere near as bright, or as blue as the badly fitted HID kits i've seen on loads of the chav bangers around here, why people fit them into old Corsas/Mondeos/Saxos is beyond me...

Toyas looking good Craig, let us know how you go with the bumper :)

[Soeley]

Nice one Craig, I'd be interested to see what you think of the bulbs as I wouldn't mind some to color match my DRL's which are 6K.

[tarquin]

Craig

Did you have to pay import tax on those lamps?

David

[craggle]

That's an interesting thought David, I didn't think about import duty but no, they just arrived in the post.

They did come from the states too and the value is printed on the label, maybe it fell below the value worth bothering with?

Craig.

[craggle]

Just finished playing with something else too.... :)

I have seen a few posts on here about changing the colour of the dash display and thanks to David telling me what LED's to order I finally decided to make a start tonight.

Only done the centre heater console at the moment with a green display and blue switches. I rather like it, photo doesn't really give it justice but you get the idea.

One thing to note for anyone trying this is the top left LED on the board in my photo has an "R" next to it and all the others have "A" next to them. I figured out after changing them all to blue LED's that the "A" stands for amber and the "R" stands for red.

The red LED is behind the hazard warning switch which wasn't glowing very brightly after I changed it to blue so I went through the pile of LED's I'd removed with a 3v Battery and sure enough, one out of them all glowed red so I re-instated that LED to it's original position. The Hazard switch is red plastic anyway so you can't change that one to blue so keeping the red LED made sure it was as bright as it originally was.

Craig.

[tarquin]

Well done mate. I too made a boo boo by changing the hazard light to blue. Then realized one night when i needed it, i couldnt see it at all. Changed it to white as the hazard cover is red. All good now. If you need a heads up on changing any of the others let me know

David

[tarquin]

Think it is ik if its less than $18

David

[craggle]

Cheers David

It's not till I looked this morning I realised this could take a while, Door switches, dashboard, display next to the dash, There are quite a few orange LED's in there!

I also noticed today that when I pressed the demist button the illuminated line next to the button lights up to indicate it is on. I assume you changed all the LED's to blue so as well as the switch backlight being blue the indicator line is also blue?

It did cross my mind to swap them back to orange so only the switch is blue and the on light is amber again but not sure if that would be over the top with three different colours going on?

Craig.

[tarquin]

Yes i changed them to blue. You could change them to white instead of puting the amber ones back. You still have the Door switched,the anti skid button, the headlight leveller, the start switch, The dash, the seatbelt/airbag module and the navigation buttons on the steering wheel

David

[craggle]

Thanks for that! At least I have many winter evenings to spend soldering LED's into place. :)

Thought I'd try the amber lamps back in the slot positions and think they look quite good now. Illuminate orange when in use and obviously disappear when they are off. Makes them a bit more visible perhaps.

I wanted to use some red LED's on the dash and while looking today I noticed the forward voltage seems to vary on red and yellow LED's. The blue and green ones I have been using are 3.4V and the red ones are 2V

Not knowing that much about LED's will they work in place of the original amber LED's or will they need additional resistors to reduce the voltage to them?

Cheers

Craig.

[tarquin]

Interesting with the Amber ones in. Not sure what the forward voltage is on the amber ones. This was one of the problems with Chris iQ having white ones, the PCC02 ones were ok but the 603 ones in the steering wheel nav buttons illuminated with a blue tint on them and using a Power supply, by increacing the voltage by 0,2 of a volt the tint went. Very difficult to follow a multi layer board to reduce resistors

David

[tarquin]

You could i suppose have 3 different colours for Temp, Mode and Fan

David

[craggle]

Didn't think of that for the round dial, Possibilities are endless.. :)

I'll order some red LED's as they are only a couple of quid and solder them in place and see what they do. Guess the worst they can do is not work.

Thanks David

Craig.

[tarquin]

The trouble with the circuit is you dont know the source voltage. For instance assuming a source of 5v then the red Led would be 2v. Standard Led would be 10ma. So the resistor would be 300ohm but if the source voltage was 12v and the Led was Red 2v then the resistor would be 1000 ohms. So without the source voltage info its dificult to find the source voltage. Measuring at the Led/resistor junction would only give you the voltage the Led requires. Its further complicated as some Led's are in series and others are in parrallel.

David

[tarquin]

"Guess the worst they could do is not work" Mmn maybe not so, heating effect on the smt resistors could destroy them or take out the pcb track. Try to see what value the resistors are that are feeding the amber /blue ones are

David

[craggle]

Okay, Cheers David, When I get to the main dashboard I'll be careful and take a look at resistor values before I try the red ones in place of the amber.

Oh, An update on the headlight bulbs, I don't like them and have changed back to the original HIR bulbs this morning, one old Toshiba bulb and one new Philips bulb. I will order a replacement Philips one now and keep the old Toshiba one as a spare in the boot.

I found the light was very blue, too blue, everything in the path looked blue, hedges, road surface, white lines, Just no difference in colour. They were also no where near as bright as the original bulbs and the light just didn't get down the road the same distance as the proper bulbs did. Gave them a fair try but back to the originals for me.

I suspect they are simple halogen bulbs in the HIR-2 base fitting rather than proper HIR (high Intensity Reflective) bulbs.

Craig.

[vox]

Hi Craig,

Sorry the headlights didn't work out. Frostyballs suggested in a post somewhere I can't find now, a pair of "Osram HB4 Night Breaker Unlimited" bulbs. I gather these need a little fettling of a tab to make them fit, but they have 110% more light output than standard lamps, that's more than the 85% (I think) that HIR2's have.

I can't try and fit them yet as I'm not too well at the moment and can't go out. These are not cheap and have a shorter life, but if they turn out to be brighter/better, I don't mind as the standard IQ headlights are really not so good as I am used to having. These are road legal by the way. I bought mine from ABD (I bet that last sentence, "where I bought them from" will get me a telling off from a mod)

[craggle]

Interested to hear what you think of the Osram HB4 lights when you fit them, Get well soon. :)

I have ordered a new Philips HIR2 bulb over lunch time so I will have a matching pair in the car. That was £25 though, best price I could find for the Philips one. Not cheap things.

Craig.

[vox]

Thanks Craig,

HB4 OSRAM Night Breaker Unlimited +110% 12V 51W9006 Halogen bulbs (Pair)

£29.50 inc VAT plus a reasonable price for postage. Looking at the price of HIR-2 bulbs each, these are a bit of a bargain, even if they don't last as long.

[vox]

Hi Craig,

annoyingly ABD now has a set of HB4 bulbs that are up to 120% brighter and are called Twenty20. these have a 2 year guarantee on them and are only £25 a pair. (free postage)

HB4s are easy to modify, looking at the flanges from the back of the bulbs side by side, you will see the bottom left hand side tab on the HB4 is wider than the HIR2s. Preferably wearing rubber gloves to stop you touching the quarts glass accidentally, you need to slowly shave it down a little bit at a time with a Stanley knife until it matches the HIR2 tab. the top tab is narrower than the HIR2, but this seems not to matter. They fit! Not quite so tight as the originals, but tight enough not to fall out.

I'll be going out tonight and I will post on how good/bad they are. :)

(These are the Osram bulbs.)

[vox]

Well, after not the best test I can say they are better. I would have liked to get out of this urban mess I live in ad get out on to an unlit road to really see how they are, but I didn't have enough time tonight. Can I suggest, because of the price difference and 2 year warranty, it would be worth buying the Twenty20 bulbs as they are easy to mod and much cheaper and bound to be brighter and legal.

[iQ-Chris]

Great posts. One thing though, wouldn't that 2 year warranty be void because the bulb has been modified. Just wondering.

I'd like to buy some - Are they the 'Daylight' or 'Hybrid' variants, please?

Chris

iQ² in black ☆ red and white leather ☆ sunroof ☆ upgraded interior lighting ☆ white backlit dashboard/switches ☆ auto-folding mirrors ☆ smart entry ☆ auto-locking doors ☆ chrome handles and exhaust

[vox]

Hi Chris,

The warranty may well be void if ABD actually noticed a very small mod if done with care. The flange has nothing to do with the workings of the bulb it's self. The main thing is they have the confidence to give a 2 year warranty, that must mean the bulbs are reliable. As high power bulbs go they are cheap, so compared to coughing up a small fortune for the genuine bulbs, it's well worth the risk in my opinion anyway.

The bulbs are just up to 120% brighter normal bulbs. I guess the gasses filling them change the brightness. As for colour temperature, I have no idea. Hybrid? you mean half HID? no

not arc discharge.

The biggest killer of long filament bulbs is the ubiquitous pot hole. The shock with a long hot filament can break it easily.

My old Smart 4/4 had H4 bulbs and they lasted ages compared to my friends Smart Roadster that used H7s

Have a look at Auto Bulbs Direct's website and you may find more info on the Twenty20 bulbs I can't give you a link, only mods or admin are allowed to do that.

[craggle]

Had a few spare minutes this evening so changed some more LED's to blue in the seat belt / airbag warning module.

Changed the guy wearing the seatbelt and the outline of the car to blue. The orange airbag LED seems to be a different type with four terminals on it so can't change that one, Not yet anyway...

All the centre lights are done now and coupled with the Pioneer radio I think looks pretty good. They look more blue in life, the iPhone camera seems to make them appear very pale.

Craig.

[Soeley]

Looks good, you have more patience than me :)