Interior / dome lights LED upgrade. - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)

whatheheck · 13th January 2007, 22:50

So here comes another LED upgrade.

The stock bulb is too dim for most of us. The Xenon is an improvement but still not good enough.

I upraded to the plug and play festoon LED bulbs but still not bright enough for me.
So, now, autolumination has new Superstar Superbright festoon LED's. The same bulbs I used on Trunk and footwell LED bulb uprade.

One LED is still not bright enough for me so I put two of them side by side.

Summary: Now I am happy! Please see below:

So, just got done upgrading the dome/interior lights to two side by side Superstar LED's. Here are some info and photos for sharing.

Important notes:
1) LED's have polarity so make sure you mark the LED's with red for positive and black for negative.

2) My first solder job, I attached the wires directly to metal end caps. Due to the heat of solder, the LED wire inside became a little lose, thus it would flicker when I move the bulbs. I dont want to deal with this issue later
so I decided to remove the metal end caps and solder it directly to the LED wire, now better connection. See solder 1 and solder 2 photo. Your choice of which solder job you want to do.

3) My tester for LED's: if you have an old 9 - 12 volt power adaptor from an old walkman, cut the end connector, strip the end wire, mark the positive and negative wires and you can now use this as an LED bulb tester. See photo named Solder & tester.

Front LED dome light:
1) Mark positive and negative, put them side by side and glue the LED bulbs together using a drop of superglue. See photos.

2) No need to attach any long wires. Just solder the wires together on the back side of the LED. Now you can install this directly to the front dome light housing. It fits perfectly.

3) To prevent the end caps from shorting inside the dome metal reflector, apply electrical tape to the back of the LED as shown.

I tell you, my interior light is the brightest & whitest it has ever been. This is bright & white! None of that incandescent yellow bulb effect.

Another worthy LED light upgrade for our beast.

Hope this DIY instructions will help some of you that is thinking of doing this upgrade.

Dan

mottati · 13th January 2007, 23:39

wow that is bright!
So does the 'fade out' of the interior lights still function normally with leds?
Mike

Vossen10 · 13th January 2007, 23:41

You're all about the LEDs lately!

Looks great (as do your previous LED upgrades). Thanks for the DIY writeup!

whatheheck · 14th January 2007, 00:10

Hi Mike. Good question.

LED's behave differently than incandescent bulbs. Similar to LED brake lights you see nowadays like on the M3, LED's are almost instant on and instant off. So the effects of the interior bulbs after the LED upgrade are now almost instant on, then from full bright, not a little dim, then instant off.

So if people love the dimming effect of the stock interior bulbs, they may not want to do this upgrade.

Vossen10 = thanks for the compliments.

I will post more photos tonight when its pitch dark.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mottati

wow that is bright!
So does the 'fade out' of the interior lights still function normally with leds?
Mike

whatheheck · 14th January 2007, 00:13

I meant "From Full Bright, to a little dim, then instant off."

Dan

What happened to post numbers? Guztav?

mottati · 14th January 2007, 00:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by whatheheck

I meant "From Full Bright, to a little dim, then instant off."

Dan

What happened to post numbers? Guztav?

thanks for the info, that was what i was thinking they would do.

Look in OT, there is a thread on the post counts!
Mike

ECB · 14th January 2007, 00:33

Hey Dan-
Looks great! How does the brightness of one LED bulb compare to a xenon bulb in the dome lights? Is it much brighter? I'd like brighter but I may not want to go the soldering route. Great job.

Edwin

gherardini · 14th January 2007, 00:33

great write up!! great pictures! i will definately be using these shortly. i like the one of the adapter having one wire tied. that's a lot easier than what i do... i usually just touch them to my tongue to see which one's live...

whatheheck · 14th January 2007, 00:55

THanks for the compliments, and great question Edwin.

Here's the progression of brightness.

Stock
Xenon
One superstar LED
Two Superstar LED's.

So to answer your question, yes, 1 superstar LED is definitely brighter than Xenon bulb, and the light is whiter too. So if you dont want to solder, just order the Superstar LED at Autolumination.com and it will be plug and play for you.

Dan

Quote:

Originally Posted by ECB

Hey Dan-
Looks great! How does the brightness of one LED bulb compare to a xenon bulb in the dome lights? Is it much brighter? I'd like brighter but I may not want to go the soldering route. Great job.

Edwin

whatheheck · 14th January 2007, 00:59

You have a very good eye!

Yes, on my power adapter / LED bulb tester, the positive is the one with the wire loop. I also painted that wire with a red mark but due to the smallness of the wire, it is not very visible so the wire loop works good, easy to spot, you'll know which one is live wire.

I know some people do the tongue test, I've seen it, but it is not a pleasant experience. One day it may actually light up your eyes when your tongue touches the wire!!!

Thanks for the compliments. You will be home soon with lots of upgrades to do! But first things first - drive the beast like you stole it!

Welcome home - soon.

Dan

Quote:

Originally Posted by gherardini

great write up!! great pictures! i will definately be using these shortly. i like the one of the adapter having one wire tied. that's a lot easier than what i do... i usually just touch them to my tongue to see which one's live...