# Swapped some bulbs today with some difficultly.



## ALBERTA (Mar 29, 2014)

I bought six Phillips LED 6000K bulbs today to replace the interior bulbs and the license plate bulbs. The interior bulbs went in without a problem but the license plate bulbs were a whole other story.







Since the 194 bulbs shine in every direction, GM installed the two bulb housings to hold the bulb pointing to the left side of the car. This doesn't work when you swap them for LEDs with a very narrow directional beam as one will be pointing on the plate, and the other would be lighting up the space to the left of the plate. I thought, "Oh, simple fix. I will just turn the housing around". Well the wiring is pulled tight so I had to cut back a bit of the heat shrink tubing to allow that little bit extra slack in the wires. :icon_scratch:













Next issue I ran into was the housing doesn't line up with the hole in the chrome trunk trim. I had to actually shave down about a millimeter of plastic in order for it to sit properly in the other direction. The holes for the screws were off ever so slightly but I was still able to put them back in and now it looks great.













Was about an hour of work to install just the license plate bulbs.:disgust:


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## trevor_geiger (Nov 29, 2012)

Nice job on the little upgrade!


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## MassCruzeLTZ (Mar 30, 2014)

Wow! I replaced my license plate bulbs with superbrightleds.com cool whites and it took me about 5 minutes!!


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## chevycruze2012 (Nov 13, 2012)

*Those license plate lights can be a complete pain in the ass lol. I got my leds from lexenauto.com. I have blue ones in mine now. They are a darker blue but im considering on changing them out to a lighter blue to match my car.*


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## ALBERTA (Mar 29, 2014)

trevor_geiger said:


> Nice job on the little upgrade!


Thanks!

Yeah I just checked them in the dark and it is so bright I might have to find some way to dim them down as my plate looks like its glowing. Darn cops will be able to read it from a mile away.


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## chevycruze2012 (Nov 13, 2012)

ALBERTA said:


> Thanks!
> 
> Yeah I just checked them in the dark and it is so bright I might have to find some way to dim them down as my plate looks like its glowing. Darn cops will be able to read it from a mile away.


 *That or they wont be able to see it due to it being so bright LOL.*


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## ALBERTA (Mar 29, 2014)

chevycruze2012 said:


> *That or they wont be able to see it due to it being so bright LOL.*


Yeah, might be good for photo radar. Over exposed photos.


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## chevycruze2012 (Nov 13, 2012)

I get pulled over all the time for my blue leds on my license plates. Haven't gotten any tickets.

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## Merc6 (Jun 8, 2013)

chevycruze2012 said:


> I get pulled over all the time for my blue leds on my license plates. Haven't gotten any tickets.
> 
> Sent from AutoGuide.com Free App


I had blue on my Mazda 6 but it was almost the same blue as my car so it wasn't bad. 


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## ChrisWorldPeace (Jun 24, 2013)

Chevycruze2012 get some aqua blue blue leds on eBay would look cool w/ your paint Color 

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## chevycruze2012 (Nov 13, 2012)

ChrisWorldPeace said:


> Chevycruze2012 get some aqua blue blue leds on eBay would look cool w/ your paint Color
> 
> Sent from AutoGuide.com Free App


I actually just bought em yesterday lol. 

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## chevycruze2012 (Nov 13, 2012)

Hey u will have to send me pics when u get ur vent visors installed.

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## ChrisWorldPeace (Jun 24, 2013)

Just did this little mod worked perfect nice write up I actually had the same problem the plate is illuminated evenly with light  

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## ChrisWorldPeace (Jun 24, 2013)

Chevycruze2013 defiantly man I just need to wait for the wind to stop!!

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## chevycruze2012 (Nov 13, 2012)

ChrisWorldPeace said:


> Chevycruze2013 defiantly man I just need to wait for the wind to stop!!
> 
> Sent from AutoGuide.com Free App



*Yeah...**** wind lol. Im glad I have a garage where my cruze is stored all the time around the clock, day and night to do anything I wanted to and not having to worry about **** like that lol. I get my aqua blue leds tomorrow as well as my new hids =].*


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## ALBERTA (Mar 29, 2014)

ChrisWorldPeace said:


> Just did this little mod worked perfect nice write up I actually had the same problem the plate is illuminated evenly with light
> 
> Sent from AutoGuide.com Free App


You had to file yours down too to get it to fit in the reverse way?


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## ChrisWorldPeace (Jun 24, 2013)

ALBERTA said:


> You had to file yours down too to get it to fit in the reverse way?


Yea I had to file it down a little and cut back some of the black tube thingy 

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## CHEVYCRUZE RS (Mar 29, 2011)

loving the new look, wow!


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## iTz SADISTIK (Apr 6, 2014)

chevycruze2012 said:


> I get pulled over all the time for my blue leds on my license plates. Haven't gotten any tickets.
> 
> Sent from AutoGuide.com Free App


Hilarious!!! I just installed Blue LED bulbs all around and was wondering about that as well O_O

What I can tell OP is that unless the LEDs are on all sides of the "bulb" then you may have issues. But if they're like mine and have SMDs on the top and sides of the "bulb" then you won't have an issue.


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## chevycruze2012 (Nov 13, 2012)

iTz SADISTIK said:


> Hilarious!!! I just installed Blue LED bulbs all around and was wondering about that as well O_O
> 
> What I can tell OP is that unless the LEDs are on all sides of the "bulb" then you may have issues. But if they're like mine and have SMDs on the top and sides of the "bulb" then you won't have an issue.


Yeah. I just installed some aqua blue leds on mine. I'm going after that true blue badge lol. I'll update my build thread now so everyone can see.

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## ALBERTA (Mar 29, 2014)

iTz SADISTIK said:


> Hilarious!!! I just installed Blue LED bulbs all around and was wondering about that as well O_O
> 
> What I can tell OP is that unless the LEDs are on all sides of the "bulb" then you may have issues. But if they're like mine and have SMDs on the top and sides of the "bulb" then you won't have an issue.


Yeah I know. Originally I thought they were straight down so I thought the directional beam would be alright. Ehhh all the effort put in aside I actually like the look. The bulb on the left shines to the right, and the right to the left lighting up just the plate.


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## iTz SADISTIK (Apr 6, 2014)

That's all that matters, what you like, not someone else!


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