Fifty150

I would take them off your hands, if I knew that I could use them.

Ha, ha! The learning curve being taking apart your car and not being able to put it back together. Truth is, here in The U.S.A., there is an auto service in just about every neighborhood. The demand is so high, that they have become nationwide chains, and aggressively compete with advertising and coupons. What that means is that even though we Americans love driving our cars, most can't even hange their own oil.

You have more skill, tools, and shop space than a lot of us. That is so cool. I wish I could do what you're doing.

It sounds like this build is just a little out of your "do-it-yourself" level. You might want to find a shop with an adventurous mechanic, and float it by him. Just trying to get ideas from people online, then playing Dr. Frankenstein sounds dangerous. I wish you all the luck though. It's something I can't do. The mere fact that I know where my limits are, stops me. I once had a crazy idea to drop a Ford 302 crate engine into a salvage yard Mazda RX7. But once I figured out that I did not have the knowledge, tools, or shop to do it in, I quickly factored in what it would cost to pay a mechanic.....and my dreams were killed. Actually, I had help. My ex was a real dream killer. She sprinkled reality into every one of my hopes and dreams. She kept reminding me that I was too old, fat, bald, and short to play in The NBA. She kept pointing out that no matter how many videos I made, and posted online, the adult video business was not knocking on our door because Ron Jeremy did his own stunts. She kept inviting her mother over, to remind me of what she would eventually turn into.

It sounds like you should spend more time in that Mustang. I have a neglected Honda. I should drive that more. It's a '99, and I'm finally thinking about upgrading the head unit because I want to watch movies in the car while I'm in traffic.......

What initially caught my attention to LED upgrades was Terralux offering upgrade kits for flashlights. I thought I had the best flashlight possible with my collection of Streamlight, Surefire, and MagLite in various models and sizes. The LED upgrades were so good that I was willing to spend $XX to upgrade a little MiniMAGLITE that was only worth $X. Suddenly, I found that it was worth the money to put another hundred into a flashlight that cost well over $100. When LED lighting hit the automotive market, I knew that even though it was not perfect, LED lighting would help me do away with running all of those 100 watt spotlights bolted all along the roofline and sucking up my battery.

Don, Great questions. It was not hard. Remove OEM lamp, connect LED lamp, insert LED lamp. Just like changing any other light bulb. On my van, and yours also, the low beam and high beam are 2 separate lamps. This is only a low beam replacement. You do not have to remove the headlamp. You do have to remove the dust cover. 10 minutes is actually very generous. I think both lamps took less than 5 minutes. On my van, the noticeable difference was that there seemed to be more light, and brighter light, in the immediate area in front of the van. The obvious comparison is the brightness. Everything which used to be bathed in a dull yellow, is now brightly lit. The drawback is that your OEM headlamp housing is designed to reflect a halogen lamp. Depending on the vehicle, and it's headlamp design, results will vary. A halogen lamp will always throw a farther beam, since that is what the headlamp was designed to do. So if you're in a wide open, unlit football field or parking lot, you will see everything in front of you with clarity, but your beam is not going 100 yards down field. Your halogen won't go 100 yards either, but will go down farther than LED. But what good is a dull light which goes downfield, if that dull yellow light doesn't allow for me to actually see? For me, being able to see what was in front of me was a higher priority. Most of my driving is in The City, where there are street lights on every block. On long stretches of unlit open road, the LED is sufficient. Driving with halogen, I found myself using the high beams on cross country road trips. With LED, I haven't had to turn on the high beams. When I'm out in the woods, or up at The Lake, with LED low beam & high beam, I no longer need offroad lights. And the fact that I'm offroad, in uneven terrain, means that I'm not going 75 MPH, and I never drive faster than I can see. Transit Connect low beams are H11 (55 W @ 12.0 V, 1350 lm ±10% @ 13.2 V) . Transit Connect high beams are H9 (65 W @ 12.0 V, 2100 lm ±10% @ 13.2 V). So while a LED replacement may not reflect as well, you are getting about 3X the lumen. Why did I buy this off-brand, generic? It was on sale. An Amazon.com lightning deal. I figured that I could always return it if I didn't like it. Back in the dinosaur days, when lighting upgrade was HID kits, they all came with an external power supply because that was the only way to do it. Just like lighting fixtures that had to have a ballast. You simply couldn't wire your fluorescent T8 tubes right into the building without a ballast. The actual LED and the cooling fan had different power demands, and the driver made it possible to power both via the OEM harness plug. My pickup's LED system was designed so that the OEM plug connected to the driver, which had two separate lines going out to feed the LED and cooling fan. And the advantage was that since the LED itself rarely had a failure, you could always replace just the driver/ballast. Today's technology allows for all the necessary electronics to fit neatly into the lamp unit. There is a driver, but it's small enough to fit between the LED and fan.....so no visible external driver. So I've got 2 cars with LED lights. I'm happy with both, because I accept the plus & minus of running LED in a halogen housing. The aftermarket has begun manufacturing units which replace the entire headlamp housing with an LED unit. These are by far superior. They're usually round, and a sealed beam, with all the drivers and cooling demands built into the same unit. I see them sold for round lights. Jeeps and Harley Davidsons are the target market. If you have an old Harley, check out the Harley Davidson Day Maker. Old VW with a round light bucket could probably use them also. And it looks like they are now in the small round fog light size, so cars like Transit Connect with round fog lights can use them.

Some people don't like DRL. You will probably never want to drive at night with all the lights off, but I might need the "tactical advantage" of being able to creep up on somebody.

So far, so good. Bear in mind that I'm doing city driving. Every street I go to, there are street lights. So with sodium vapor lights painting everything yellow, it's hard to tell how much good it's doing or not doing. Some streets now have LED street lights, which means nothing, since the LED lights sort of blend together. On my pickup truck, the LED lights really made a difference in off road and country roads where there are no street lights. For the time being, since I have a truck for going to The Lake, the only time I'll see a difference is if I'm driving through a parking that has no lighting.

I will do that once I get into a good area for that. It's hard to do in front of my house, because the overhead sodium vapor street light makes everything yellow.

Just installed LED H11 that came from Amazon.com. Easy plug-n-play installation. Because of extra wiring and LED driver, keeping the dust caps was not an option. Not a big deal, since LED lights run hot and have a fan built in for cooling; you will want to have airflow as opposed to trapping the heat with the dust caps. Initial impression is that road seems brighter, and LED reflects better on signage. It could just be my mind playing tricks on me. With OEM halogen hitting the pavement, already illuminated by yellowish sodium vapor street lights, you can't really tell what your headlights are doing. With LED lighting on the pavement, you can obviously see the white light.

It is difficult to get a good photo without professional equipment. But this will give you an idea of what the finished product looks like. The same installation can be done on a Transit Connect. The little LED lights, and LED reverse lights really make a difference.

And in case anyone is interested, the camera that I used for the pickup truck was one of the inexpensive options from Amazon.com. I mounted the frame/bracket with LED lights in tandem with the camera. The lights turn on with the camera when I shift into reverse.

Solar powered calculator watch, with keys so small that you can't really use it.

That's the way, uh-huh uh-huh, I like it.

This is the view that I have with a camera mounted on my pickup truck's license plate. Just one of those low cost options from Amazon.com. Because when I look over my shoulder in my truck, I can't even see this little Honda. Over the years, with tight parking spots in The City, and me driving a lifted pickup, I've backed into a lot of Hondas. From that view, there is still approximately 20" from bumper to bumper.

The passenger side will show you the cop making a wide arc around your vehicle as he approaches to cover the officer making contact with you.

I was always taught to set my mirrors just off to the side of the vehicle. Until you can't see the side of the car anymore. Because if you can see your car, you're seeing less of the road. You can see from the driver side mirror where those two Dodge trucks are, and how the blindspot mirror reflects more beyond that point.

Get a code reader, and "google" the codes. These days, you can get a OBD II device with Bluetooth or WiFi, and use your phone with a free app. I bought one from Amazon for somewhere around $6 or $8.

You have no idea what you're missing out on. Disco balls, mood rings, and lava lamps rule.

If you have all the space in the world, and don't worry about oncoming traffic that will not yield, then pulling straight into a space and backing out is fine. Here in The City, we just don't have the luxury of big parking lots. Turns are tight. Space is limited. And nobody cares that you're backing out. They keep coming, and if you back into them, it's your fault. And in today's world where you're parked between a couple of SUV, trucks, or vans.....well, you can't see anything trying to look over both shoulders at the same time. Even if you have a backup camera, the view angle is only so wide.

I'm at about the same amount of miles in my van. I don't like the throttle response. This van really does not have any power. Kind of weird also to be going downhill, foot off the accelerator, and the RPMs are at 3500. But I knew that going in. I experienced all of those conditions on my test drive. I took the dealership vehicle up & down hills, onto the freeway, and into downtown traffic. The salesman and I both got a good laugh as I tried entering freeway traffic flow from an onramp, accelerating to match 70 MPH, then passing a tractor trailer.......pedal to the metal, wide open throttle, tach surging 4000-5000 RPMS, engine whining.......and some girl in a Smart For Two went around me because the van was so slow. But I'm happy. I'm getting my money's worth out of it. It is still the most economical 7 passenger vehicle. Much nicer cars are out there.....at double the price. And this vehicle is really easy to back into parking spaces. Yes, I'm one of those annoying people who insist on reversing into spaces, so that I can pull out head first. Just use to it from backing trucks into loading docks. Besides, when I'm backing into the space, there is no live traffic in the space. If you pull into a parking space head first, you have to back out blind into live traffic; which is a lot more dangerous. Here in The City, civic engineers are reconfiguring parking spaces so that you are suppose to back in, then pull straight out when you leave. Now all that they have to worry about is people backing into parking meters, trees, and street signs.

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Your van doesn't have the little blindspot mirror built into the regular mirror? These work great on trucks. Just bolt it onto your door or front fender.