[urq] Maintaining an old Urq

[Eric J. Fluhr]

I've had several requests for more info on the LED lights.

I used these 18-LED towers for the brake light and front and rear blinkers:
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/index.cgi?action=DispPage&Page2Disp=%2Fspecs%2F1156-x18-T.htm

They cost $18 each and I was skeptical, but I now believe it was worth the 
cost.
I also tried the 45-LED tower, but was hard pressed to see a major 
difference in brightness.
The website claims the 45-LED bulbs produce 120 lumens vs. 90 lumens for the 
18-LED tower.
Perhaps theye work better as the rear driving lights than brake lights 
because more light goes out
the sides, but I think I would need to follow my car to know for sure.  In 
the future I would
probably spend the extra $5 just in case they are a little brighter.

I have the old rear taillight cluster, so I used 1156 red versions of these 
for both brake and rear driving
lights.  I used 1156 Amber for rear blinker and 1157 Amber for the front 
blinker/driving light.

I also bought the LED blinker relay for European cars.  The problem I had is 
that current leakage
thru the dash light was confusing the relay and causing it to click crazily, 
as well as powering the
rear blinker LEDs in a "half-on" state when the relay was in the "off" 
position during its blinking
cycle (that is how little current the bulbs need!).  For now I have removed 
the bulb in the dash and
everything works great.  Long term I will rewire the dash indicator bulb 
like the hazard, such that
the terminal not connected to the blinker circuit is ground and not 12v 
instrument cluster power.
I am also going to use a green LED instead of a bulb.

BTW, I tried a set of the non-SMD "high-power" 4W 3-LED bulbs as brake 
lights and didn't like
the results.  The beam was too focused and not distinct enough for my taste. 
These claim 140
lumens but I really didn't like them.   Those bulbs look like this:
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/index.cgi?action=DispPage&Page2Disp=%2Fspecs%2F115x-x3X1W.htm

For the instrument cluster so far, I used various colors of this bulb:
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/index.cgi?action=DispPage&Page2Disp=%2Fspecs%2F74-x.html
I put the white in the high beam and red in several other positions (e.g. 
brake warning).  For some
reason the red didn't work in the hazard location; I didn't have time to 
troubleshoot why.  I like
what I have seen so far, but haven't really driven the car since I put them 
in, so I cannot affirm
them like the 1156 bulbs.


Later,
Eric