lightbulb and LED woes

[agp423]

Question 1: My car came with stock HID low beams, which produce a white light with a slight hint of blue (4800K-5000K), but the fog lights are the regular yellowish lights. I know yellow works better in fog, but 99% of the time I'm not driving when it's foggy (I put on 3000 miles on my car in the past 7 or 8 months, 2500 of which were from the summer, so you know how much I drive). According to Sylvania, my fog lights are 9145, and they offer 9145ST, which are whiter ones. I googled 9145ST, and Bulbman.com says that it's 4000K, can anyone confirm this? If it's 4000K, will the human eye be able to tell the difference when it's put next to a 4800K bulb?

Question 2: I'm trying to put two strips of LED. I know LEDs have polarity and have tried reversing the two ends of the wire. I put the hot in the fusebox in an spare slot, and the ground on another part of the car - no light. Hot in the spare slot and ground on negative of battery - no light. I used an ammeter to the negative of the battery - there is current. LED hooked directly to a DC battery - LED lights up. LEDs are 12V, and worked on my friend's car. Anyone know how to fix this?

[kimchiyuk]

Re: lightbulb and LED woes

No answer for question one.
Question two though, since you have a known good LED strip, and you are connecting directly to power, I would assume it's a ground problem, maybe try a different ground, or area for a ground. It's can be very difficult to find a good ground on some newer vehicles. Also, you say you are connecting to a fuse box. Make sure you are connecting to something that has power when you need it, not just key on, for instance. And, you say you are putting hot wire in SPARE slot of fuse box, if you are going by your manual, spare is just an extra fuse holder, no power to it. Hope that helps, best I can do without being there and seeing the setup.

[roushstage2]

Re: lightbulb and LED woes

The "ST" bulbs are the Silverstars. Performance halogens do not last as long as regular ones, but they are generally brighter. You can't honestly compare a "4000K" halogen bulb to a 4800K HID bulb. My opinion, save your money. If you had the money to burn and wanted to replace regular, driving halogen light bulbs with 'em, fine.

Check the ground. Sometimes they aren't as good as we think they are.

[agp423]

Re: lightbulb and LED woes

I tried ground on the inside of the hood as well, but that didn't work either... And I tried hooking one end of the LED to the foglight fuse, and it didn't work either even when I turned on my foglights.

And as of headlights, I'm don't care if they're equally bright, Just if they're the same shade color. Also, what's the process of converting halogen to HID bulbs? Do I have to install a separate thing like with Xenons?

[Fischer]

Re: lightbulb and LED woes

Question 2: I'm trying to put two strips of LED. I know LEDs have polarity and have tried reversing the two ends of the wire. I put the hot in the fusebox in an spare slot, and the ground on another part of the car - no light. Hot in the spare slot and ground on negative of battery - no light. I used an ammeter to the negative of the battery - there is current. LED hooked directly to a DC battery - LED lights up. LEDs are 12V, and worked on my friend's car. Anyone know how to fix this?

What I did was took out a fuse, put the wire in the fuse spot and then put the fuse back it. Obviously you want to make sure whatever slot you put it in, its a always running fuse. Then the ground wire I put on the top of the strut tower. On my car there is a bolt running up to attach ground wires.

sorry in bit of a hurry.

Edit, if youre running it inside of the car there should still be a ground wire bolt, I will try to take a picture of how I have mine set up.

[Fischer]

Re: lightbulb and LED woes



Here is how mine is set up.

[agp423]

Re: lightbulb and LED woes

Does it matter if there are two wires on both ends of that 10A fuse?

[noobhax0r]

Re: lightbulb and LED woes

Just a tip in regards to your new lights - I just went through a thread on a different site, and people hate/are blinded by DIY lights, so point them so they are not blinding oncoming drivers..

[kimchiyuk]

Re: lightbulb and LED woes

When putting any aftermarket electronics in your vehicle, connected to a factory fuse, be careful which system you are splicing into. If it causes trouble down the road it can void factory warranties. Especially cadillacs, they can be electrical nightmares!

[agp423]

Re: lightbulb and LED woes

When putting any aftermarket electronics in your vehicle, connected to a factory fuse, be careful which system you are splicing into. If it causes trouble down the road it can void factory warranties. Especially cadillacs, they can be electrical nightmares!

If I splice into something like the radio or foglight fuse, if troubles do occur, would swapping into a new fuse simply solve the problem?

[Megafast13]

Re: lightbulb and LED woes

First of all, Why are you messing with the fuse boxes and wiring?

Your HID Low Beams are standard OEM 4300K Temperature HID Bulbs. They often seem to look blue because of the cutoff and overall design of your projectors.

Your foglights are probably standard halogen bulbs. Halogens obviously look much different than HID Bulbs. They burn at about 4000K temperature.

9145 Bulb Type in HID Lingo is H10 Bulb Type.

Their are many aftermarket HID kits available and I think that this is your best option. A simple Plug N' Play HID Kit will look great. I suggest going with a 6000K Kit so it will match your low beams.

As for the LED's just splice/tap into your Headlight or DRL wiring. This way they will turn on when you turn on your lights. If you don't want that there are other options. For Mods, I find it best to search around on other auto forums. Especially a Cadillac one if you can find one.

<<<<<
If you have any questions just PM me.

Here are some sites that I highly recommend for more info on HIDs and LEDs.

https://www.hidplanet.com

https://www.vleds.com

And purchase Your HID Kit here for $60 bucks shipped:

https://www.hidextra.com

[kimchiyuk]

Re: lightbulb and LED woes

If I splice into something like the radio or foglight fuse, if troubles do occur, would swapping into a new fuse simply solve the problem?

Not neccasarily, if the circuit you add causes an overload, for instance, it could burn out wiring, modules etc. I was not trying to scare you, just giving you a heads up as I have been a dealership technician for over eight years, and have seen my share of problems created by "splicing" in a non-factory circuit. Fuses are designed to carry the load of the intended circuit, not the addition of others.

[Fischer]

Re: lightbulb and LED woes

Does it matter if there are two wires on both ends of that 10A fuse?

Im doing it right now, one for the underglow for the seats and another one for my radar detector... no problem so far.

I think im tapping into my radio fuse, its constantly powered and shuts off when the car isnt on.

[agp423]

Re: lightbulb and LED woes

First of all, Why are you messing with the fuse boxes and wiring?

Your HID Low Beams are standard OEM 4300K Temperature HID Bulbs. They often seem to look blue because of the cutoff and overall design of your projectors.

Your foglights are probably standard halogen bulbs. Halogens obviously look much different than HID Bulbs. They burn at about 4000K temperature.

9145 Bulb Type in HID Lingo is H10 Bulb Type.

Their are many aftermarket HID kits available and I think that this is your best option. A simple Plug N' Play HID Kit will look great. I suggest going with a 6000K Kit so it will match your low beams.

As for the LED's just splice/tap into your Headlight or DRL wiring. This way they will turn on when you turn on your lights. If you don't want that there are other options. For Mods, I find it best to search around on other auto forums. Especially a Cadillac one if you can find one.

<<<<<
If you have any questions just PM me.

Here are some sites that I highly recommend for more info on HIDs and LEDs.

https://www.hidplanet.com

https://www.vleds.com

And purchase Your HID Kit here for $60 bucks shipped:

www.hidextra.com

It's next to impossible to tap into any light wiring... Cadillacs hide their wires so well, and what's even the simplest mods for other cars will take ours for Cadillac.

For the fog, I just want regular bulbs. If the stock HID lowbeam is 4300K, will a 4000K-4500K 9145 match the lowbeam??

[Megafast13]

Re: lightbulb and LED woes

If I can wire up a Lexus, then you can do a Cadillac

It doesn't matter what the Kelvin is for a halogen bulb, it will not match the look of your HID Low beams.

You can find Performance Halogens with blue coating on them but they are very weak and won't perform as well as what you currently have.

I think you should take my above post into consideration with the HID's and other wiring.

Good Luck