Pictures and Story by Josh Mackey
Installation by Jake York, David Fotheringham and Josh Mackey

We introduced our project car late last year and for those of you that don’t remember we picked up an entry level 2010 Mazda 3i Sedan.  We felt for all the mid range compacts on the market, Mazda really set the standard with both price and quality. Our main goal behind the car is take this entry level compact car and give it a luxury spin. Not everyone can afford the amenities of a Lexus, Acura or Mercedes, but you can certainly install parts afterwards to get pretty damn close.

Before & After - Pictures don't do these lights justice

Turn Signal Light - Off and On w/ Blinking

Our first project install comes via V-LEDS.com which also runs the V-HIDS brand. They came through and wanted to redo the entire lighting on the car, top to bottom, inside and out. Lighting is serious business for the V-LEDs team, brighter is better in their world and we agree. We featured V-LEDS last year with their involvement with Formula Drift and the always transitioning tuner scene.

We will save the how-to parts of this installation for another day, we’re here to focus on the product and how easy it is to install. We opted for the 3i model which does not come with fog lights but has the proper grill inserts to accommodate them. Just like almost any factory product, we highly suggest purchasing your parts from the internet. We picked up stock fog light housings via Mazda-parts.com which does 20-40% off retail counter prices and if you take a closer look, you’ll notice that most online parts stores are ran by actual parts departments direct from the dealers. We’re not sure if we agree with this business model, but apparently it seems to be working for them.

Left - Turn Signal Bulbs Right - Stock Headlights vs HID

Let us first compare the bulbs from the stock manufacturer to the new V-LEDS brand HID and Platinum LED bulbs. The platinum series bulbs just hit the market and feature an amazing display of light along with a very well thought out design. The bulbs are incased with a screw top, which can be removed for more clearance inside the housings.

One thing you have to remember when installing new LED bulbs, especially turn signals, is that they use less power, which will trick the system into thinking you have a bulb out, so your lights will flash faster. This usually only happens with most newer cars however, but if this happens, then you’ll need to buy resisters, this isn’t such a big deal, but I would definitely consult with the staff prior to your purchase if you have any questions.

Map Interior Lights - Before and After

For the headlights, there was some debate on the color temperature we wanted to use, since there is always concern from the legal end of things going too blue or purple. We opted for a 6000k temp for both headlights and high beams, which would also match the Platinum LED color output. For the fog lights, we wanted something a little more aggressive, so we opted for the 3000k temp, which is on the yellow spectrum. For all the turn signals, we used amber colored Platinum Series LED’s. For the brake lights, Jake insisted we do red LED’s as using something else like a platinum white behind a red tinted housing would only cause it to look pink and not bright red. However, for the reverse lights and all additional lighting on the car, we opted for the Platinum White lights; this also includes the interior lights, license plate and trunk lighting.

Third Brake Light Mod - During and After Installation

After that we removed the third brake light housing from the trunk, Jake insisted upon doing something custom. At first thought, we were going to remove the internal cap to give the bulb more room to shine, but then we thought of something else, an LED strip. This strip, which is readily available on their website, was fastened to the inner lens with some industrial strength glue. We did it this way so we weren’t removing or cutting anything, which makes turning back to stock that much easier.

We also applied this same method with the trunk, which came with a very tiny bulb. The trunk space on the Mazda is fairly large, and that tiny blub was not cutting it. We took two of the same LED stripes we had used on the third brake light and installed them on the top side of the trunk, facing down. So much better!

Dual LED Light Strip in the trunk

Final Review:
Installing everything was much easier than we thought it would be. Granted, we replaced every light on the car, so it took most of a standard working day, but the outcome is so worth it. V-LEDs really sets their parts apart from the competition you might be able to get at a cheaper price. They’re local, they have CUSTOMER SERVICE and a very dedicated, experience technical staff to help you in case something goes wrong. You can’t really say that about the competition, everything from the packaging, bulb construction, wiring and electrical components are all high end and worth every penny.

Visit http://www.v-leds.com and let them know NWMotiv.com sent you!

More pictures & videos of this project to come when the weather gets a little better! Stay tuned!

Here is a complete list of all the products we used:

Headlight Low Beams | Headlight High Beams|Fogs|Front Turns|Rear Turns|Resistor|Brake|3rd Brake light|Back-Up|License Plate|Map Lights|Dome Lights|Trunk

[Show as slideshow]

123►