Jaycar 31mm Festoon Replacement Interior Light Kit

Hi all,

As mentioned in another thread, I've just bought the 31mm festoon replacement interior light kit from Jaycar Electronics (Cat#KC-5354).

Total cost of the kit plus extra required components (LED's, resistor, diode, Festoon end caps) is $13,63 AU ready to go - and it took me no more than tenminutes to build.

Installed it tonight - and must say it's not as good as I might have hoped. The LED's I bought were white 7000's (the brightest white LED Jaycar stocks), and I used a resistor slightly lower than the required 220ohm (I chose 200ohms to squeeze a touch of extra brightness - as the LED's I bought needed actually 206ohms and 220 was entirely unnecessary and would have made the light even dimmer).

The white light of the LED's is quite pleasant - nicer than the yellow light of the normal incadescent globe - but I must admit that the stcok 12V 10W festoon globe IS brighter - albeit somewhat yellow.

Add to this the narrow angle of the LED's when compared to the wide angle festoon globe, and my preference is for the stock unit.

After all of this I decided to chuck the old festoon globe I was using (remember it was significantly brighter than the LED kit) and buy a new one just for fun.

I bought a Narva 12v 10w 31mm festoon globe and installed it - hey presto - brighter than both the LED kit and the old festoon globe of the same specifications.

Moral of the story - if you want to retain the stock lighting system and get acceptable illumination - fork out a whole 85cents and buy a new Narva 12V 10W 31mm festoon globe (or whatever specs your vehicle requires) and be done with it.

If you are happy to spend a few buck (around $30-$40) and don't mind modifying the light a little - get a 12v flouro cabin lamp from Jaycar (cat# ST-3007). We installed one of these in Trucksters GQ in the rear - wired in to his cabin light circuit and it works a treat!

Cheers,

Luke.