NAPA Know How: How To Choose Car Interior Light BulbsNAPA Know How Blog

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Are things starting to look a bit dim inside your car? It could be time to replace or upgrade your car interior light bulbs. The good news is this is easy — even for a first-timer.

Locate Your Lights

Step one is to find out just how many interior light bulbs your vehicle has and where they are located. Probably best to do this in the evening, early morning or, at the very least, someplace shady. Once you’ve got that dealt with, open the passenger door, see the lights come on, and start looking and counting.

Most newer vehicles have at least a dome light located somewhere in the headliner of the interior roof and a couple of map lights usually mounted close to where the rearview mirror is. But many newer and higher-optioned cars also have map lights for the rear seat passengers, as well as lights in the lower part of the inside of the doors, so that could be four or six more bulbs. And an increasing number of cars the past few years have stepped up their style game by including accent or ambient lighting that illuminates the footwells or the console in between the front seats.

You might have a dozen or more car interior light bulbs. It’s probably best to have a piece of paper and a pencil, or maybe use the “notes” feature on your phone, to keep track of how many you have and where they are. Once you’ve done that, you need to find out what kind of bulb you’re dealing with in each case.

Wedge Base vs. Festoon Bulbs

There are two basic types. The type with a silver cap on both ends, like the one pictured above, is called a “festoon” bulb. The other type only has metal at the bottom — looking kind of like the tip of a knife or of a pair of closed scissors. That’s a “wedge base” bulb. To find out what you have, you need to get a look at the bulbs themselves, so use your electrical hand tools to remove any covers, maybe use a flashlight for the under-dash lights and see which you have (you may have some of both — but in different places) — and then add those to your notes. You’ll need to know which is which and how many of which you need when you go shopping. They’re not interchangeable.

If your car has incandescent bulbs (and most older cars do), you’ll probably notice an improvement just by switching to new bulbs of the same type. But — this can also be an opportunity to upgrade to LED bulbs. They give brighter light and last longer. Knowing what interior light bulbs your car uses will also be helpful if you run into a problem with your car’s interior lights.

Check out all the electrical system products available on NAPA Online or trust one of our 17,000 NAPA AutoCare locations for routine maintenance and repairs. For more information on your vehicle’s interior lighting needs, chat with a knowledgeable expert at your local NAPA AUTO PARTS store.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

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NAPA Know How: Should You Consider LED Interior Lights?NAPA Know How Blog

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A lot of new cars are showing up with LED interior lights instead of incandescent bulbs. Should you upgrade your existing vehicles’ interior lighting?

Retrofitting certain components is a great way to bring an older vehicle into the modern age. And the fewer things you envy in newer vehicles, the less likely you are to give in to that envy and start committing to a new round of car payments. So spiffing up what you already have makes economic sense beyond the upgrade itself.

It’s Up to You!

For some, this is going to be strictly a matter of personal taste and it will come down to that cool yet intense bluish light that LEDs give. If you love the look and just have to have it, good news! It’s an easy upgrade. If you prefer the warmer, more yellowish light from incandescent bulbs, also good news! You don’t have to change.

That leaves you — on the fence. You could go either way. You don’t hate either type. You don’t love either type. You’re practical. In fact, you’d like some facts to back up all of this emotion.

Again, good news! We just happen to have some.

LEDs vs. Incandescent Bulbs

The biggest advantage of LED interior lights is a long life. Some studies show LEDs last as much as 25 times longer than incandescent bulbs. It’s a myth that they don’t dim over time as incandescent bulbs do, but that happens a lot further down the road — we’re measuring that in decades.

Since we’re talking about the long term here, this is a good time to note that, yes, LEDs cost more than incandescent bulbs do. But remember — they last up to 25 times longer. Especially if you plan on keeping your car for a long time, LEDs are less expensive in the long run.

Compared to other types of bulbs, LEDs are efficient. As much as 90% of the energy an incandescent bulb uses is wasted as heat. The vast majority of the energy fed into an LED produces just one thing — light. That’s because, in an LED, electrons flow to create photons and very little heat is generated by photons.

And LEDs are configurable. Don’t like that bright, bluish light? The very nature of LEDs makes it possible to change the type of light they emit. So you can buy LEDs that will reproduce the warmer light you’re used to from incandescent bulbs, if that’s what you want — or a virtually limitless range of colors and intensities (which can be great for accent and ambient lighting in your car).

A Modern Touch

If it sounds like the facts stack up in favor of LEDs, it helps to remember that the incandescent bulb is a 140-year-old technology. It took a while to top it, but LEDs have. Changing out your old incandescent courtesy bulb for an LED one will go a long way to not only making things brighter on the inside, but also giving your old car a modern feel.

Check out all the electrical system products available on NAPA Online or trust one of our 17,000 NAPA AutoCare locations for routine maintenance and repairs. For more information on LED interior lights, chat with a knowledgeable expert at your local NAPA AUTO PARTS store.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

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