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LED interior lighting - weird problem

16K views 21 replies 5 participants last post by  witeshark 
#1 ·
So I've been on this quest to get the best looking blue interior lights. I am crazy about the color blue and I wanted blue lighting inside my car. I first bought the crappy blue colored bulbs from Lightlens.com which sucked. Then I ordered these LED bulbs from Ebay which shipped from Hong Kong. I got these over the weekend and installed them and here's what happened:

First, the "festoon" bulbs that go under the dash (by your feet) worked fine, but were a little short. This was easily handled by simply bending the metal contact inwards and making it a tighter fit. The bulb only works in one direction, so I had to turn them around until the light came on. These are 36mm with 6 LEDs. They look real nice.

Then, I installed the wedge bulbs in the overhead dome light and the two dome lights in the back seat. Now these bulbs have 4 LEDs and are wider than the OEM filiment bulbs, so I had to file down the plastic around the outer edge of the bulb to make them fit. When I plugged them all in, nothing worked. I was stumped and thought that I must have broken something so I spent hours trying to swap bulbs, test current with a tester, etc. Finally I gave up and put all the OEM bulbs back in, except for the floor bulbs and now it works.

NOTE: when I tested the current of the wedge bulbs, they didn't read. But, when I pluggen one of them into the reading lamp, it turned on briefly.

I am stumped. Why don't these LED lights work in the overhead dome lights? I thought maybe it was due to the dimmer, but then I looked at the floor lights last night and they dim, just like the filiment bulbs!

Any ideas? If LEDs simply won't work in the overhead lights, then what bulbs can I get that give off a true blue hue and are bright and actually work and are safe?

Mucho thanks.
 
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#2 ·
I'm going to be honest. Your best bet is to get OEM period. If you want that blue-tone, possibly try another car company that offers the blue-lighting on the interior; see how they do it. I don't know if the outside of the bulb (the housing) is blue or if the bulb is actually blue. Achieving a blue color is hard on regular bulbs because it is such a high temperature color that it will burn out easily (I think). I'd go for the ghetto paint-the-housing-blue feature if I was all into making everything blue without hassle. Also, in order to do this correctly, you would need to buy the Xenon Interior lighting from Jlevi, Umnitza, etc, then proceed with painting the housing blue.

I'm not too familiar with interior lighting, but that's all I have to offer. Hope it helps (ps: ebay for aftermarket stuff is risky, especially when it comes to things that not many people would buy: ie. blue bulbs, red bulbs, blah blah)
 
#3 ·
Once again, the man speeks wise words. You're gonna laugh, but I did get some transparent blue paint and I painted some clear thin plastic that I cut to size and inserted into the housings. It worked, but of course it greatly diminished the intensity of the light output.

I agree with everything you said in the above post. I will probably go for the Xenon kit from Jlevi, but I previously emailed that site to see if they could sell me a couple of bulbs (I only need 3 little wedge bulbs) rather than a $60 kit for 16 bulbs. I never got a reply, so I assume they don't want my business.

But hey, part of the fun of this car so far is trying things that I have never done before. I'm learning a lot and when all else fails, I chalk it up to learning experience. (I'm trying to be a "The glass is half-full" kind of guy)
 
#4 ·
Ocean02 said:
Once again, the man speeks wise words. You're gonna laugh, but I did get some transparent blue paint and I painted some clear thin plastic that I cut to size and inserted into the housings. It worked, but of course it greatly diminished the intensity of the light output.

I agree with everything you said in the above post. I will probably go for the Xenon kit from Jlevi, but I previously emailed that site to see if they could sell me a couple of bulbs (I only need 3 little wedge bulbs) rather than a $60 kit for 16 bulbs. I never got a reply, so I assume they don't want my business.

But hey, part of the fun of this car so far is trying things that I have never done before. I'm learning a lot and when all else fails, I chalk it up to learning experience. (I'm trying to be a "The glass is half-full" kind of guy)
If they didn't respond, they possibly didn't get it. Jlevi usually responds with haste. Re-send it.
 
#5 ·
I shall do so.

Check this out, during lunch I go to my car and tried two of the LED bulbs in the overhead dome light for kicks. The first one didn't work, but the second one worked! That's the first time any of them worked in that socket. I checked and all the lights are working with this wedge bulb and the two festoon bulbs on the floor.

Perhaps it was just a bad connection with the other bulbs. Perhaps some work and some don't. Anyway, I don't understand and I don't care anymore. All I know is that 3 of the 6 bulbs I ordered are now working.
 
#7 ·
LOL. Yeah, "Hey guys? I purchased these bulbs from you and then filed them down so they'd fit in my lights and they don't work. Can you hook me up?"

Don't think so. I'll just bite the bullet and live with three working bulbs (that look sweet by the way). Hell, maybe the other ones will just magically start working too!
 
#8 ·
Well, so much for that lame-ass theory. I tried to re-install the other LEDs in the rear last night and I got one to work. When I was installing the final one, all the lights shut off again and now nothing works....again.....(sigh).

I give up. I did just find this Xenon light set on Ebay for a really good price (about $40 LESS than Bimmerwerks). And it's actually meant for an E46. Only question is will these blue colored glass bulbs burn like the ones I purchased from Lightlens.com? Those weren't Xenon, but doesn't Xenon burn even hotter than regular halogen?
 
#9 ·
It's fun talking to myself. I can have entire conversations! (kidding)

But I thought I would update anyone who cares to read my lame posts:

Last night after work I opened the door to my car and the lights came back on, except for the above-console dome light. I took that LED out and turned it around 180 degrees and put it back in and it worked again. Go figure.

There is no pattern to this working / not working. It's like the car is trying to compensate for the lost voltage or something and when I mess with the bulbs, it will shut down the whole circuit and then after several hours reset itself or something (like a circuit breaker). Anyway, I'm back to where I was on Sunday when the two floor LED lights and the above-console LED are working and the rest of the lights are standard filiment bulbs. Works fine and looks cool, but man I wish I knew what was going on. Don't other people install LEDs?

Jlevi, are you going to sell me some Xenon interior lights? I emailed you yesterday. Thanks!
 
#10 ·
I wouldn't purchase bulbs from eBay.. do so from a trusted vendor (Jlevi, Umnitza) because they will not only send you the instructions, but every single piece that you need to make it work. If the Xenon bulbs burn hotter, clearly they will short out your current fuses. If they do not, no problem. Does the eBay guy deliver this message?

A guy from Bimmerforums bought LED tail lights from eBay.. 5 days after he put them in he put them back in his garage. Why? They shorted his fuses. Do your research first! After buying all these "cheap" options, you woulda saved more money buying it from the vendor!
 
#11 ·
See, you have all this experience. I'm learning the same mistakes you have learned. Hard knocks and all.

But I have purchased some goodies on Ebay that work and I like (and saved money on). Such as my clear corners, cabin filter, etc. So Ebay isn't all bad. But sponsors are better and true BMW sites are better. And they know it---that's why they charge you more dough!
 
#13 ·
Yeah, it's pretty hit-and-miss on that site. But it's still kinda fun.

I f*cked around with the rear interior lights again and got one of them to work with the LED bulb. I have one more to mess with tonight and if it works I'll take a pic. Looks pretty crazy, like a friggin' space ship!
 
#14 ·
Well, I tried my theory of turning off the lights then plugging the last LED light in over the rear seat and then turning them back on. It worked (once I finally got the bulb to turn on---had a bad connection at the base, which I fixed with a dab of solder) but the lights immediately turn off when that bulb is in there. This tells me that the circiut doesn't like the LEDs all the way around. For some reason I have to have at least one filiment bulb in there. So I will try putting a filiment bulb on the floor light and putting the LED over the rear seat, so at least all the visible lights are LED.

Here's a couple dark photos of the lighting with the blue LEDs. It looks much better in person.
 

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#21 · (Edited)
This is my first and probably only post but I have the same problem as u but I figured something out.

From the start: bought eBay blue led (there are 5 leds in them each) for my 01. had them all working until I went to put in the last bulb, passenger rear, when i pulled out the clear oem bulb out, had the lights on in the car while doing this like an idiot, bam all the lights went out. insert curse words loud enough my neighbor came out. first thought fuses, wrong, not the fuses. took me months of a dark car at night or in the morning, plus some harassment from my friends, so I investigated. What I got for leds bulbs are ones in both foot wells, both map light, and all four in the backseat area and also for both make-up mirrors. I think I went a lil overboard with blue. Anyways, if I put the blue led in the middle of the dome light assembly I get a flicker of blue and then nothing. So, I put the oem in the middle and all the lights light up!!!! for some reason my problem is with the middle dome light bulb being a led blue instead of oem clear. idk why but fuckin germans. see if this works for u. u got 3 out of 6, i got 10 out of 11. cant hurt to try right? HMU when u do tho to see if it jus me being polish or my car being german!
 
#17 ·
Good advice dude! How do I do this? I'm not super electrical savvy so if you could give me detailed instructions, or tell me where to get them, that would be great.

the LED lights do have resistors in them, but I had a feeling it had something to do with this. Could I just put a resistor in the wiring behind the rear light that is giving me trouble? which wire? What type of resister? Etc.

Thanks! That would be awesome if I can get all of them to work. I personnally really like this look!
 
#18 ·
im not an electrician either..

but i would guess that the lights are not "constantly on" meaning that they flicker exstremely quickly

therefore you would need a resistor just b4 the led's and probably for between 9v and 12v.. i think this would fool the bmw bus bar that there was a light there,,,

go and see an auto electrician....dont be charged for more than 15 mins work!!
 
#19 ·
Good advice, but I'm gonna keep it as is for now unless anyone out there knows how to install a resister or where or if...

I got it looking pretty sick now. I put the last LED over the rear seat (so all of the interior is LED, minus the driver's floor light). For this floor light, I just colored the plastic cover blue so it pretty much matches (just dimmer) the rest.

I'm damn happy with the result. And happier that I made it work without paying someone to do it for me!
 

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