Classic Impreza bulb upgrades

[Scoobyghost]

After slightly falling out of love with the old girl I've decide to spice up the love life by introducing some new toys.

My idea is to change the dash bulbs to blue and get some bright white headlights. Just a few little things.

I'm never sure which headlight bulbs to go for because despite being advertised as bright white, previous bulbs I've bought have ended up looking exactly the same. Does anyone have a link or advice to get guaranteed white light bulbs?

The second plan is to change all the dash bulbs to blue. I've had a quick Google and doing the job seems easy enough. I just need to make sure I get the right bulbs. There seems to be so many and I don't want to pull the dash out only to find only to find I've ordered the wrong ones. The bulbs I've come across are LED so look to be a different shape and my worry is they are a different bulb size, not how they fit in the connector but actual bulb length. Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

[stants]

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[Mark D]

Don't get LED headlight bulbs, the ones I got had 20 leds going round the bulb etc they are really just for foglights as they don't focus on the horizon by the headlights, a little bit goes everywhere and you end up with the tiniest bit of light on the road.

For £16 got a white hid kit (mine are H7) , just needed a round hole saw bit for a drill (or you could be messy and cut a hole in the headlight cover) for the wires to go through, then everything just plugs up.

Really is an upgrade compared to my old halogens.

[Scoobyghost]

Do you have a link to where you got the kit?

[Mark D]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/391000701362

It is H7 bulbs for my legacy which are low beams only, if you have H4 lights which are high and low beams then I would think it would cost more, so far everything is working alright, a lot nicer driving with these I think even reflective signs/cats eyes seem to be brighter

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[Mark D]

Oh and if you get that kit, after plugging it up to old headlight connectors they didn't work. (Did red wire to red wire assuming both are positive and black to blue). Read online on some cars the polarity is reversed (guess it doesn't really matter with halogen lights which end is + or -) so swapped the wires round and they started working

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[Scoobyghost]

I'll have a look at that. I grabbed a collection of new bulbs this morning so I'll see how they go but that kit looks appealing.

[Mark D]

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[Scoobyghost]

How did you find fitting them?

[Scoobyghost]

Attempted the dash bulbs tonight. Turns out I need only 1 501 bulb and 3 others that I don't know of.

Any ideas what these bulbs are?

This was the blue and to be honest I didn't like it.

I then stuck a white LED bulb in it and was rather impressed.

The blue bulb seemed to aim it's light directly out so didn't light the rest of the dash up well.

On top of that, I've now lost half my speedo light and my clock stops working when headlights are on but it's fine with sidelights [emoji36]

[Mark D]

Yeah the blue seems to light up the outer plastic cover whereas the white ones make it look like a digital display looking at the picture.

Fitting for that kit wasn't bad, worth getting a round hole cutter (25mm I believe) and when the headlight is pulled out, there is a flat bit of metal I cleaned off then stuck the ballast box to with double sided tape

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[Scoobyghost]

Problem is I have to pull the clocks out, fit the bulbs and get it all back in to reconnect the loom just to test it. Right pita. Off to halfrauds this morning to buy a few other bulbs to see how we go. Can't do a full test till tonight

[Scoobyghost]

Got some bulbs from halfrauds. Plugged it all in now. Looks blue but very dim. Hopefully when it's dark they'll be clearer. Randomly my clock no longer works at all. Any ideas on that one? Not the end of the world but I have no idea why it worked before removal, worked after refit but only on no lights and sidelights. Now nothing on any switch [emoji36]

[Mark D]

If it's easy to get to the bulbs does it work again when they are out? Not good on electrics but maybe some of the bulbs drawing too much electric away from the clock

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Ooo just saw the post before, looks like you're going to be very busy! Hope the heaters work alright :)

[Scoobyghost]

I've plugged it all back in ready for tonight's test but I'll certainly try to pull all the bulbs out to see if the clock comes back on. All voltage and wattage seemed to be similar across all replacement bulbs and no part of the rest of the dash is different.

[Mark D]

These regular bulbs or LED again? Did a quick read up and people who have changed to LEDs were doing things like comparing voltages with bulbs vs LED and adding a resistor to the LED to be able to detect there is something there, then it switches from 4V to 12V (don't know if that's how it works on all cars)

Just checking, the BRIGHT switch is on?

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[Scoobyghost]

Ha the bright switch it the most useless button ever. It only operates the clock. The halfrauds bulbs are LED.

[Scoobyghost]

Here's where we are at. No clock but all dash lights work. I still think the bright white is better than the blue [emoji16] Maybe I should've just gone all blue. I'll see again when it's fully dark but I'm happy enough so far.

[Scoobyghost]

Prefer these headlight bulbs too!

[Scoobyghost]

Seeing it in full darkness I prefer the blue now. Gonna swap the white light out tomorrow.

For anyone in the future looking to swap the bulbs in a v5 or v6 dash you need one 501 bulb and three 286 bulbs.