fdesalvo

Incandescent lights have been around for ages. You’ve essentially got a thin metallic filament in series with your power source and set within a vacuum-sealed glass envelope. There’s not much technology in play here. What you get with all of those electrons flowing through the filament is a nice warm glow, akin to a few candles strapped to the back of your car or interior headliner. Since we are no longer rolling around in carriages or primitive vehicles propelled by steam or started by hand-cranked magnetos, wouldn’t it be nice for your car’s lighting to reflect the same?

That’s what got me thinking about updating these lights on the 13+ Mustangs. Maybe it was cost cutting, or maybe it was part of the Neuvo-Retro theme that FoMoCo was adhering to, but I didn’t dig the mix of incandescent and LED lighting on the same areas of the car. I went ahead and ordered from American Muscle. These go like hotcakes - so, you might have to setup an email alert to notify you when these are back in stock.

One thing that almost prevented me from doing this was the constant stream of cars on the road today that shouldn’t be using these lights from a consistency standpoint. There’s something that rubs me the wrong way about seeing a car of the 80s vintage rolling around with LED bulbs wherever they could be fitted. As I grow older and more irrelevant to the younger generation on this Earth, I wonder if I’m going to end up being like one of these cars; am I going to be that old guy rocking red converse or that fauxhawk? Not to worry, though, because these lights actually blend right in!

These aren’t the first bulbs I’ve seen constructed this way, but they just might be among the best engineered. I’m looking at high quality surface mount LEDs with wide viewing angles and thick, corrosion resistant traces. The circuit boards are almost 1/8” thick, more than adequate for their intended purpose. There’s no need for a vacuum-sealed glass envelope here, as there are no filaments to consider and consequently, less power is drawn to operate these.

The color emitted by these LEDs is in the 6000K range, so they mate extremely well with the other LEDs in the tails and interior. There are no hot spots = very even light distribution.

Words of Caution, Map Lights
1. Do not force these in. I didn’t have the base oriented correctly and put a little too much pressure on the bulb. Suddenly, the socket disappeared into the map light dome. Assuming the dome was held on by clips, I gently, but firmly pulled it down and unfastened it. While it’s dangling from the harness, you will have enough room to pop the socket back in place. If you have a preexisting (or develop) rattle in this area, there's a wire harness that is up against the roof of the car. You can insert a little material here to stop that.

2. LEDs are polarity sensitive. If they do not turn on when you insert them into the socket, pull it back out and reinsert.

3. When prying the lenses off, look at them straight on – an awkward angle, but look for evidence of the three tabs that secure them into the base. Insert a small flat blade here and gently apply leverage against the base. As soon as it starts to unseat, move ofer a few mm and repeat. When reinstalling, insert the larger of the 3 tabs first.

Words of Caution, License Plate Lights
Not much to report here, really. The LEDs are mounted on one side of the board only, and the mount is easy to maneuver around. Use your thumb to push the mounting tab outward, freeing the conical end of the “bulb”. Do the opposite to reinstall. Now, if you wanted to be OCD about things, you could actually rotate the assembly in-socket to better orient the light pattern. I just set mine parallel with the mount. No need to adjust from here.

Here are some pics.



From the outside..looking in. There is nary a dark corner for some would-be axe murderer to hide in the car. Thanks to the Recaro seats, no disgruntled Italian is able to use the ol' "cord around the neck" technique to subdue the driver.

Hadtohaveit'13

I just recently did the exact same thing. So happy with the way they both turned out. Car Should have came like that.

Whoops wrong pic and now it's being stupid.

03geetee

Lololol

fdesalvo

Man I haven't lol'd in a while haha! Awesome pup!

mustang_2011

Looks good! Got my license plate Led's off amazon and the map lights off retro-solutions (with Hid's) mine glow even when they are off!!

Rando

I installed Raxiom map lights and they're a huge improvement over stock. It's so bright, maybe a little too bright but it's still way better. It's easier to install them by just pulling down the fixture. It may seem unnatural at first but it's just two metal clips. Keep pulling and eventually it'll come down.

Word of advice on the LED license plate lights - Don't go with anything other than white. I ordered blue because I thought it would look great against my Grabber Blue. It turned out terrible and looked like an autozone mod. It was super bright and unappealing.

VidPro

I've been trying all morning to pop the **** thing but was afraid of breaking it until I read your advice. Thanks! They look great.

mustangfan410

I just installed the license plate LEDs and they look sooooo much better than the stock ones. It was an easy install once I figured out how to pry out the bulb assemblies.

Matt's 95 Stang

Thanks. I am doing the interior lights soon and the insight helps. And like others have said upgrading the licence plate bulbs should be a top mod. I installed mine not to long ago and Holy Bat crap Batman what a difference.

Matthew

CFOR

superbrightleds.com has leds to fit every nook and cranny of your stang for much cheaper, check it out!