The LED THREAD for Exterior and Interior lighting

I think I must have been a Moth in a previous life

So rather than have dribs and drabs of LED chat dotted around the forum lets have a thread, for those who are genuinely interested, dedicated to nothing but LEDs.

I will post Topic Links to all other threads I can find, in time, which refer to LEDs so they can be all under one roof. If you find one too, then please post a link in here too, cheers.

So to get the ball rolling, INTERIOR LIGHTING.

Done some poking around and found that the interior lighting of our cars has 3 types of bulbs.

4 x 36mm Festoon Type (C Pillars and Lower Front Door)
5 x 42mm Festoon Type (Vaniy Mirrors and Center Top light)
2 X BA9S T4W 10mm Type (Map Reading light)

I am in possession or currently awaiting arrival of ALL these types of interior LED bulbs.

Firstly, 36mm & 42mm FESTOON TYPES











Secondly, the T4W TYPE





and thirdly, PCB board with FESTOON fitments







Not definitive by any stretch of the imagination (and mine is rampant/misguided) but a good start. The best ones will stay in my car, and the others will find a home in my Van

Why am I doing this ?? I don't exactly know really but it's a laugh and will make a real difference to the 'feel' of the car at night - in a non-horsepower/handling way. Might even save your bacon if you ever leave your interior lights on for a few days !! (joke)

Enjoy

Zitat von schnitz850

Either that or you are off your trolley

all for the greater good Schnitz but I do worry about myself from time to time......

Pasted this from my other TT01 thread, since it is related.....

Zitat von wayneblackwell1000

Any chance you can put up a step by step for lighting up the HVAC and I will do the vents at the same time.

Cheers.

these should do the trick,

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors…ihZ011QQitemZ320085184160

just replace the existing bulbs with these, and refit HVAC. Resistors pre-wired so no need for head scratching. Available in myriad sizes, brightness, colours and angle. Search this seller's shop for the ones you want, or do what I did and buy a selection of them, from 3mm > 10mm in diameter.

When they arrive I'll post a step by step with photos of 'what Tony did' and you can see for yourself the improvement.

There are so many lights in the e31, it's gonna be a while till I get bored

(though for you it may be sooner!)

So here are the first pictures with the altered interior lights.

C Pillar lamp housings now have the 10 LED PCB board, and the door lamps have the 36mm Festoon type (6 LED). Obvioulsy difficult to know what it will look like at night, since it is daytime , but you can see that the LEDs are plenty bright enough, and white enough !!

Still more to arrive in post, so not decided what's staying where yet.

And now for a pictorial walk through of how install resistors in the FTP lamp clusters, to fool the OBC into not giving an Side Light Failure bong every time you start the car.

The issue of LED in FTP Clusters was done to death here :

http://www.clube31.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3731

but one thing I didnt put in was pictures of how I installed the resistors.
I have had this set up in for almost 12 months now with no problems, so below is series of pics of I did..... self explanatory really. 22ohm 10W ceramic resistors wired IN PARALLEL to sidelights, and mounted on metal heatsinks with silicone.

Contain yourselves chaps

Here's a few more pics that show how I made the LED PCB look OEM in the C Pillar lamp housings.

See the difference here. Top one was how I originally fitted them. Looked great at night, but too obvious that the LEDs were in there. Bottom one is how they are fitted now.



So, here is what I did. Note that LEDs are polar specific so you need to know which contact is +ve and which -ve. BMW in their infinite wisdom have switched the polarity of left and right Lamp Housings, in that the long contact is +ve in the NS housing, and -ve in the OS housing !





Brasso the inner lining for extra shine









refit and away you go

These lights are so good that I'm fitting similar into the Centre Top light housing. Only in these will be 2 x 12LED PCB side by side to fill the case and provide even light distribution.

See the effect of the rear ones here.... though a camera doesnt bring out the whiteness particularly well.



These are going in the Centre Top Housing.



you may scoff, but it does feel completely different getting into/out of the car at night now

These arrived today. 12V resistor Pre Wired LEDs. Plug and Play, anywhere you like...... Air Vent, HVAC, Electric Window Switches etc and etc...



From left to right (all WHITE):

10mm 265Kmcd 5 Chips 40 degree (biblical brightness)
10mm 130Kmcd
8mm 70Kmcd 40 degree
5mm 30Kmcd
3mm 18Kmcd

for HVAC and vents I'd say the 5mm or 3mm ones would be fine. I'll post a pictorial as and when I do it

Zitat von wayneblackwell1000

Nice one Tony, now I notice you are bidding on the centre vent on ebay, I think its my turn to win the auction as you won the HVAC a few months ago.

yeah but at least I'll do something with it when I win rather than horde it in my garage along with all your other e31 parts you have scooped up of late

The HVAC led conversion (pasted in from my PC Thread)

today I transfered the inner gubbins from the HVAC in my car, to the modified housing in my new centre partition. At the same time I added 3x 5mm leds to illuminate the three dials, which despite BMW's efforts never actually worked.

You will see that the light given off by the dials now is perfect. And the LEDs are dim-able

5mm 12v pre wired White LED.



remove back of HVAC



this is the culprit. A puny filament dash bulb, expected to illuminate all three dials via a 'light bar'...... pathetic.



Undo screws at rear securing the two PCBs inside the HVAC, and then carefully prise out the buttons from the front of the unit. If you dont do this, you WILL break the PCB when trying to disassemble the insides of it.





remove this 'night bar' and the bulb. I even tried replacing the original bulb with a LED Dash bulb but it still proved useless - guess where the other LED dash bulbs are going .......







I then placed the 3 LEDs in the hole by each of the dials. Forgot to take pictures at this point, but I secured the LEDs with a dab of hot glue, and then wired them in parallel to the dash bulb source so they each receive the same amount of current.







screw everything back together and replace the buttons. I lined them all up in the order I took them out so as not to forget which one went where. Saved time looking at old photos and pile of jumbled up bits !



the end result (actually taken before I reassembled it, whilst testing the connections, and in the darkness under my desk). Pretty good eh ?



put unit back in the centre partition and it starts to look more impressive. Now I have to extend those wires in the HVAC harness, so the plug will reach it's new location under my armrest.



And a bonus picture of how your office will look during such exploits

cheers

Lloyd, yes I would use the 5mm ones for the HVAC. They are the biggest ones that will fit between inner diameter and the centre axle of the dial.

Wayne, you only need 3 The 3mm ones will prob be best for the centre vent though. The 5mm ones I have in mine at the moment from the original time I put LEDs in the vent are too bright, so when I re-do it I'll be using the 3mm ones instead.

Be warned, because you cannot remove the HVAC without removing the centre console, it is a PITA to do just to place 3 x leds in there I only did it because I was 'in there' anyway. The results are great, but I couldn't be bothered if it was the only thing I was going to do.

There, I said it

I will be brightening up the electric window switches one day. So that's a post for the future......