Anyone changed parking lights to white color

When changing exterior light colors on a vehicle, be sure to check the applicable laws. There are a lot of things you can't legally do, although you can usually get away with it if the modification isn't too obvious. Some are worse than others. For example, in Michigan, any blue exterior illumination can get you arrested for impersonating a police car. This is somewhat more serious than a defective equipment ticket.

Tom

 

I replaced all of the exterior bulbs (excluding the LED headlights and taillights)--more info here:
http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...-parking-lights-rear-license-plate-bulbs.html

 

If you do change them out, get an extra pair for the license plate in the rear... same type of bulb.

 

Isn't the parking light covered by the yellow reflector? Or am I thinking of something else...

 

Keep in mind those prices are in British pounds, so it's ~$16.

Also, when I bought the Philips SilverVision turn signal bulbs, I got the W5W bulbs for free.

 

what's the difference between phillips blue vision and every other LED out there? Never heard of em.

 

They're not LEDs. I've been using them in my cars for 10+ years.

 

When are the parking lights on? sorry for these lame-nice person questions. I dont know much about these lights and how they compare to the typical DRLs, headlights, etc.

I'm trying to understand what the big deal is changing these bulbs.

 

They were the Philips Bluevisions.

 

Parking lights, or "running lights" (not to be confused with DRL, daytime running lights) are the first click of your light switch. They are meant to be "low level lighting" for when you're driving in places where you kind of need to see a little, but bright lights are not welcomed (like Drive In Movies, for example.. or approaching military base gates, or driving around parking areas for concerts or events like fire work displays.). They come on before the headlights do.

Daytime Running Lights are a modern twist on parking lights, but are generally automatic/full time and are meant for increased visibility during normal daytime driving. Many cars just use the low beams, but it's becoming more common to have separate lights for DRLs (probably for longevity of bulbs? or just design, maybe..?). I might be mistaken on that.

For us non-V (and IV?) owners, we have no "DRLs", so our parking light bulbs are pretty dim/weak. Upgrading them means you can have "some light" at the front of your car without having to run your headlights. Headlights consume more energy than LEDs (for us non-V owners), and the stock bulbs are also fairly yellow (distracts from the LED headlights on the V and our low beams in general). Putting in whiter bulbs matches the low beams better, and if you go to LEDs you use less energy (probably not enough to notice over the long term).

I'm putting in LEDs to get a whiter, brighter light than stock. I could put in the Bluevision bulbs to get the same effect, but I like the idea of saving a little energy where I can

The high beams are also touted as being more yellow than the low beams/LED headlights, so I'll be switching those out as well. And I'll be putting in the Silver Vision bulbs in the blinkers, they mask the "always orange" look and only go amber when lit.

 

LEDs for the parking lights and license plate lights. Going to run the WLED-xHP5: Wedge Base Bulbs from superbrightleds.com

Super Bright LEDs - Store

Don't think I'm going to upgrade my high beams.. too expensive for my taste ($50) and converting the low beams to LED is, as I understand it, VERY expensive (so I won't be doing that, either).

I'm currently trying to find out what alternatives we have for Silver Vision bulbs for the turn signals since those don't seem to be made in WY21W any more.

 

Thanks. In other words I'll probably never use my parking lights. That's what I thought. I'll skip this retrofit.

 

At least here in CA, it is not legal to drive on public roads with just the parking lights on. Please note that they are ALWAYS on when the headlights are on, so you use them even without knowing it. The usage of parking lights as I understand them have nothing to do with driving around with low-level lighting. They are for making your car more visible when parked, and they're for backup safety in case one of your headlights goes out (still shows that the car is a car and not a motorcycle) - and this is why they're on with the headlights at all times. Note that the parking light position on the light switch turns on all exterior lighting except the headlights (and the brighter brake lights, of course).