First off I want to say that Jeff@TopGear and the folks at HPB have top notch service. I received my kit last night and figured out that I was missing the maplights. Sent a PM from Jeff around 6PM, and got a reply a few minutes later. Before I could even respond to his PM, I got a call from HPB saying Jeff had called and told them about the situation. End story they are shipping me the maplights and the problem was resolved within less than 30 minutes. Great service!
Anyways, after having a few ebay bulbs burn out on me recently, I decided to go ahead and get a full kit to see if the ebay bulbs I had were that much different than some of the kits sold by the vendors here. Jeff and TopGear were awesome and the kit was sent out quickly. Since I had other bulbs before...I wanted to do a comparison between my ebay vs HPB.
Comparison:
2 HPB Dome Light modules VS ebay Domes
- HPB - No comparison - HPB wins hands down and is way brighter. My one suggestion here is to add a piece of mounting tape to the back. They have 2 small strips of mounting tape on the back of the light, but the tape doesn't work well because the housing is not flat and has sloped sides. I ended up adding a piece of mounting tape over theirs in order for it to stay. I probably should have taken a picture.
4 HPB Map Light bulbs vs ebay Map Lights
- HPB - I'll have to update this afterwards once I get them in, but I put HPB since it's supposed to be error free. My ebay map lights turn off intermittently when used while I'm driving. No rhyme or reason why, but they usually work for about 30 seconds before it turns off. It works again after a few minutes. UPDATE: Map lights are about the same brightness as my ebay lights, however they don't turn off and stay on forever!
2 HPB Foot Well bulbs vs ebay Foot Well
- HPB barely - These were really close. HPB appeared to be a little bit brighter, but I could probably not tell the difference if I would have left them in.
2 HPB Door Splash bulbs vs R-Dash Door LEDs
- EDIT: R-Dash - So I'm changing my answer on this one - simply because the HPB uses the OEM housing for their bulbs. I think the bulb itself is the same brightness, but the R-dash housing is CLEAR which makes the light shine through more. OEM housing is a matted kind of housing and it diffuses the light a bit more. I found this out last night when I went to plug in the R-Dash for someone that was going to purchase them. Noticed that they are near the same brightness outside the housing, but b/c of the OEM housing it affects the light output.
4 HPB Center Console bulbs vs ebay bulbs
- HPB barely - These LED's are so tiny anyways, it's hard to tell much of a difference. I could tell that the HPB's were a bit brighter or whiter, but it's really close.
I didn't have LED vanity, glove box or trunk so those were all new to me, but they were really bright.
Overall, I think the kit is excellent and I'm very satisfied. The dome lights are just
everytime I unlock the car at night and see the interior light up
.
Link to groupbuy:
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=518375