The interior light in my ride partially stopped working. While the light would turn on if the switches is turned to the ON position, it would off in the AUTO position, when any door is opened. I knew it would be due to a dry joint and after prying the cover open and cleaning the tiny metal ball and the contact points, the light worked as it was supposed to work.

However, it got be thinking of installing a led light bar since the light is quite dark especially when rummaging to find things that have fallen on to the car floor. Having dark colored carpets did not make the situation any better. While having a led light bar or two won’t hurt, after some thought, common sense took hold. First, I did not want to hurt night vision due to sudden bright lights turning on in the car and second, I did not want other people having too good a view inside the car when the light is on. Lastly, I didn’t want pimp out my ride aka Fast & Furious, so I scrapped the idea of having a led light bar.

But I was still interested to replace the interior bulb with a LED light bulb. The reason is to have less heat and less energy wasted. You see, I sit in the car quite often waiting for my better half with doors opened on hot days. And switching the light too often from AUTO to OFF is the reason there is heavy wear on the switch contact points. Plus after some time, your dome light cover might be damaged from the heat of a normal light bulb.

I headed over to Amazon and finally decided to get a direct LED replacement bulb which looks like the picture below.

It is a festoon LED light bulb. This is an easy replacement. All you need to do is to measure the length of the original bulb, pop it in and you are set to go. I don’t suggest you get the blue light unless you really want to re-create Fast and Furious. You also have to be careful about local laws which might get you in trouble.

Since I got the interior light done, I thought about replacing the brake light bulbs to LED as well. Since LED bulbs lights up faster, they increase safety especially drivers at the back can react and start braking earlier. This could mean the difference between having an accident or just a close call. More and more cars today comes with LED brake lights as an option. They tend to be expensive but you don’t need to spend so much to get the same benefits. Just a few dollars and a few minutes and you are done.

Again, there are a number of bulbs to choose from. I advise you to stay away from those fancy blinking ones.

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