Parking Lights - Bulb replacement

[Penguin740]

2XS suggested when I last saw him to change the parker lights to white led's.

I got them today, but being the type of person I am I had a look in the manual to see how to change the bulb.

The manual suggests that the job is not for the faint hearted and doesn't give any instructions at all on changeing the bulb.

Is it really that hard? Do I need to remove the engine or something?????

[shakespeare]

2XS suggested when I last saw him to change the parker lights to white led's.

I got them today, but being the type of person I am I had a look in the manual to see how to change the bulb.

The manual suggests that the job is not for the faint hearted and doesn't give any instructions at all on changeing the bulb.

Is it really that hard? Do I need to remove the engine or something?????

That would make it easier, as you can stand in the space made by removing the engine....

Ok simple answer

1) Remove stock airbox (for passenger side bulbs)
2) Remove black caps behind high beam units (there is a small tab on top, push down and pull the cap backwards)
3) Look where the parker bulb is and place fingers/long nose pliers behind bulb, grab socket and pull out gently
4) Remove stock bulb and replace with LED
5) Replace socket, cover and airbox

From the Manual

[rogwick]

lol I just done a big write-up and google chrome crashed!

Changing the parklight bulbs would be similar to this (apart from the air box) I can do a reply on removing the air box if you like later if you need. Good work though Shakes with the image and description

Changing the 194's in the headlights - Mazda 6 Forums : Mazda 6 / Mazda Atenza Forum

If you're going for LED's, plug it in and if it doesn't work, rotate it 180 degrees. From my experience LED's never seem to last long in the park lights, been through so many!

[Yeldarb]

Good timing for this thread. My parts arrived today.
1. 18 SMD LED White Fog Lights.
2. 4 SMD LED White Park Lights.

I've gone down this path as I want to match the colour of my factory Xenons.

Won't be installing tonight as I'll be at the STATE OF ORIGIN. GO QLD!

[shakespeare]

lol I just done a big write-up and google chrome crashed!

Changing the parklight bulbs would be similar to this (apart from the air box) I can do a reply on removing the air box if you like later if you need. Good work though Shakes with the image and description

Changing the 194's in the headlights - Mazda 6 Forums : Mazda 6 / Mazda Atenza Forum

If you're going for LED's, plug it in and if it doesn't work, rotate it 180 degrees. From my experience LED's never seem to last long in the park lights, been through so many!

Thanks Rog, the Images are out of the Mazda 6 Workshop Manual (not MPS) If anyone is interested I'll see if I can upload it (about 40mb)

[rogwick]

Good timing for this thread. My parts arrived today.
1. 18 SMD LED White Fog Lights.
2. 4 SMD LED White Park Lights.

I've gone down this path as I want to match the colour of my factory Xenons.

Won't be installing tonight as I'll be at the STATE OF ORIGIN. GO QLD!

I'm not sure of the 3 but with the 6 the fogs were a little more difficult to replace due to restricted space. Unbolted a few things on the drivers side which was right in front of the rear access to the fog light. I think I had the car up on stands already due to doing a service so the wheels came off and accessed through the wheel arch guard. You may/may not have to do the same. Fogs look pretty good when installed sorry to say but useless for light! A mate has got them in his. As far as colour goes it looks great.

Since we're on the topic if any of you guys want to consider something DIFFERENT. Give this a shot...I had never seen it done so I gave it a crack. A blue looks to obvious and not to mention illegal...BUT it looks cool. Following this path I done a bit of guess check and improve to get the best looking parklight IMO. White LED's look pretty cool and bright as I've had plenty. What I've done with mine is this...I'll share

FYI - read below

If you can find it, get a hold of a Phillips crystal vision or silver top crystal vision 5w wedge globe. The blue one as seen in the link below. I may even have a darker shade of blue.

Phillips Lighting - go to 'signalling and click on 'wedge'

The result is pretty cool, a white light woop-de-do. Then what I did on mine, is purchase one of these silicone blue caps. I got mine from MALZ but for reference this is what I mean (see link below) It's basically a silicon capping that sleeves on top of the wedge globe

Silicone sleeve - click the option and change to 'blue'

The end result is a lighting effect that fills the sort of cylinder housing (where the high beam is) To make it stand out more I have an ultra blue H1 glove which adds to the reflection a little (the mirror-like insides) The light fills this due to it being an incandescent bulb. A LED rather is more of a spot light and directs straight out. A difference in opinion of course but I prefer the filled lighting in the whole cylinder..if that makes sense

If you wish to put a blue (or any other colour) sleeve on a normal 5w wedge you can, but the end resulting colour will be more like green. You need to get the Phillips (or similar) crystal vision or blue wedge to get a blue light in conjunction with the sleeve

Appologies, this photo does not compliment my suggestion, it was a dodgy shot with an old camera phone, just to give some idea...The picture on the left (above mentioned) the picture on the right is just another thing I was trying but it was too obviously blue.

NOTE: If you're concerned its too BLUE if you decide to do this, the head of the wedge with deteriorate the blue a little in the capping over time. What I'm saying is that it will get a little lighter after you run it a while...Try it out sometime for a cheap mod! Looks awesome.

Let me know if you want more and better images, more than happy to get them for you guys

[Penguin740]

SHAKESPEAR
Thanks for all the info. Looks like its not as hard as the MPS user manual indicates.

ROGWICK
Dam you. That link has a connection to more cool bulbs for the lights. They mention a turn signal bulb that is clear when not illuminated but turns orange when lit......How cool is that. Its a Sylvania 1156A ST lamp and uses some fancy technology that I don't understand. I may need to investigate further.

[rogwick]

SHAKESPEAR
Thanks for all the info. Looks like its not as hard as the MPS user manual indicates.

ROGWICK
Dam you. That link has a connection to more cool bulbs for the lights. They mention a turn signal bulb that is clear when not illuminated but turns orange when lit......How cool is that. Its a Sylvania 1156A ST lamp and uses some fancy technology that I don't understand. I may need to investigate further.

Haha nice! You're right for saying damn you! As there are plenty of options, just keep in mind not to go too over the top and try keep it border line legal. For eg, red LED wedge as a parklight and YOU WILL get picked up and possibly fined as it is the same colour as brake lights standards. Orange could look kinda cool, as long as its not too orange to attract too much attention!

Phillips is good, they are expensive but the quality is superior to china bulbs. You might want to consider 6000K HID's too!

[Toddy22587]

I forgot you had to remove the filterbox to change the lights. guess i've got used to not having one

Yeldarb - I've got 68 SMD LED fog lights and they seem to match my 8000k headlights so they might look a touch whiter then the stock HID's but it'll still be better then the standard globes.. also the LED's dont give out much useable light, more just for show

I've given up with LED park lights. One of mine always blows after a couple months and i'm sick of changing them so now i just have my LED DRL lights under the headlight and no park lights (still had parklights when i took the pic)

[Penguin740]

Installed.

It took all of 10mins total. The longest part was taking the top off the CES intake box.

Thanks all.