Interior LED dome light conversion!

[rirc]

How many of them and how much you selling for?

[purduinaM3]

I have four of them. I paid a bit over $25, so $20 shipped??

[thehuntersworld]

Has anyone with with 96+ replaced the rear reading lights with LEDs? Do share what you used and where you got them!

[Itsa328]

www.autolumination.com

[jensklemp]

Has anyone with with 96+ replaced the rear reading lights with LEDs? Do share what you used and where you got them!

You Ba9s http://autolumination.com/otherleds.htm. For the front reading lights... it might take some work! VERY complicated. Oh and when you have the bulbs you have to switch the power around (negative positivie) I just did it by cutting the wires and swaping them around. But if you want it very clean you can remove the connectors with a special tool. Sorry that I cant be more discriptive!

You need the BMW/AMP 2.5 mm^2 contact removal tool

[thehuntersworld]

I've read this thread 100 times and am still confused...I've installed 39mms everwhere they'll go (dome/vanity/glove/trunk etc).

Could someone please clear up how to do the rear reading lights in 96+ cars (2bulbs each w/switch in middle)? Can I just buy the Ba9s from autolumination and install them? No mods necessary?

The front map reading lights seem to have funky wiring which require cutting and swapping the +/- in order to work.

If anyone has done this- please clarify. I would like to do at least the rears but don't care too much about the map lights unless its easy.

[jensklemp]

I've read this thread 100 times and am still confused...I've installed 39mms everwhere they'll go (dome/vanity/glove/trunk etc).

Could someone please clear up how to do the rear reading lights in 96+ cars (2bulbs each w/switch in middle)? Can I just buy the Ba9s from autolumination and install them? No mods necessary?

The front map reading lights seem to have funky wiring which require cutting and swapping the +/- in order to work.

If anyone has done this- please clarify. I would like to do at least the rears but don't care too much about the map lights unless its easy.

For Back: Ok here it is. LEDs NEED to have postive on positive and negative on negative. For some reason BMW wired it oppisite so you will need to switch the positive and negative terminals.
Front: I never figured out how it worked. It takes a lot of working with soldering and switching wires. I'd like to have a nice DIY on this.

Hope this has helped!

[BimwadM42]

Even after you correct the polarity issues for the bayonet-based bulbs used in the reading lamps, finding a good LED substitute that will work as well as the original bulb won't be easy. LEDs emit light mostly from the vertical axis, so the way they're oriented in the stock fixtures will have less than optimal results.

It's not as much of an issue for the festoon (fuse) style bulbs because the LEDs used in those are at least pointing in the right direction...speaking of which, has anybody tried the new style festoons with the single/double large-die LEDs instead of multiple small ones?

[johnf]

It looks like you could pull the E36 reading light bulbs and sockets
and have enough room for a couple 1W Luxeon star/c LEDs. You can
probably attach them to the PCB since they cast light over a broad
angle (110 deg). The only really tricky thing I can foresee is
removing the PCB from the E36 dome light: by now the plastic mounting
hooks are probably fairly brittle.

Finding a place to mount a couple current limiting power resistors
might be the other interesting bit. 47 ohm 5 watt resistors would
allow operation up to 18V, in case of a voltage regulator
failure. That would pump ca. 200 ma through an LED at normal voltages.
200 ma seems to make white Luxeons bright enough to read under. If it
doesn't, you can use Luxeon star/o LEDs with a 10 deg spread. You
would likely need to machine and add a couple mounting wedges to angle
them correctly, however. You may also need to add more heatsinking with
either to keep them from overheating, but you can figure that out from
the datasheet.

Now we just need someone with the will to do it. (I am done with my
dome light modding.)

[BimwadM42]

I've seen a project where somebody retrofitted a couple 1W Luxeon LEDs along with a driver circuit into a dome light. The setup seemed to require a fairly large heat sink, with about 10 sq in. of exposed surface.

I'm still curious about the retrofits with hi-flux LEDs, which apparently have six emitters on each die. I like to experiment, but my thing is reversibility. I'd like to see what they look like, but since I'm not entirely sold on the cold light that generally comes from white LEDs for general illumination, being able to going back is a must.

[johnf]

I'm still curious about the retrofits with hi-flux LEDs, which apparently have six emitters on each die. I like to experiment, but my thing is reversibility.

I am not sure six emitters on a die is going to yield many more lumens/watt. One way or another, you'll have to dissipate some heat.

I'd like to see what they look like, but since I'm not entirely sold on the cold light that generally comes from white LEDs for general illumination, being able to going back is a must.

That suggests you are either going to have to wait for someone to experiment, or take the plunge and experiment yourself. Buying another E36 dome light so that you can go back to stock should be a minor expenditure. If it isn't, your wish to experiment is there but not yet the will.

[BimwadM42]

I was able to find a guinea pig elsewhere. He even went a little nuts and doubled them up.

And I do have plans to buy an extra dome light to experiment on it.

If time and will permitted, I could even see a replacing the stock PCB with a strip board and Luxeons for all lamp positions. Trimming the center housing would probably free up space for proper heatsinking, too.

[johnf]

Good-o.

While you are at it, you could also add a timed shutoff that makes it impossible to flatten the battery. That would also be a good thing for a non-cabrio trunk light.

[thehuntersworld]

My experience upgrading to LEDs was painless and simple:

FRONTS: 39mm "super white" 9-LED lights from Autolumination. They replace the 6418 bulbs in the dome/2 footwells/glovebox/trunk/2 vanity. Here's the link:
http://autolumination.com/festoon.htm


REARS: My rear seat lights have 2 bulbs each with a push switch in between. I decided to just light the ones that come on with the dome light and not the reading lights on the switch. Bought 2ea Ba9s Bayonet Base Matrix 5 Led Bulbs from Autolumination and installed. No special rewiring necessary as indicated above. Maybe there are different bulbs or something but they went in painlessly. Here's the link:
http://autolumination.com/otherleds.htm

Easy install, look great!!!

[Hellrot Sachin]

thehunterworld - those look nice. So just plug and play? Any problems with the LED burning the housings? Did you go superwhite? got pics?

Sachin

[thehuntersworld]

Completely plug and play. Need only a small flathead screwdriver for removing the various bulb housings. Yes I put superwhite in all around, check out the first post for pics of them. No issues with heat as the bulb run cooler than incandescent. Probably cost $80 total.

[purduinaM3]

I've got 4 of these for sale if anyone wants them, just PM me...

[99E36M]

I was hoping to get a nice red LED setup like the E38 740iL my buddy used to have! I'd really love to have a switched light that could glow and bath the interior in that same red light. Do you guys know what I'm talking about? Any idea how I could do this?

[tEckniks]

i replaced the dome light in the middle..

now my windows wont work!!! HELP!

edit..

nvm .. fuse 43 blown.. fixed

[clumpymold]

i replaced the dome light in the middle..

now my windows wont work!!! HELP!

edit..

nvm .. fuse 43 blown.. fixed

Yeah, I was gonna say you blew a fuse.

[JordanGrey]

ya there are a bunch of places to get them, they have them in other colors too but i still wanted to keep a OEM non ricey look so i went with bright white 9 LEDs.

the bulbs are 39mm 9LED-bulbs and they are on ebay as well as all over the internet. they are like twice to three times as much as a regular bulb but these have so many more advantages in my eyes so i think they were well worth it but to some it may be overkill.

I will take full night shots of the entire setup later tonight but those are just daytime shots. hope that helps

Do you have a link to the e-bay auctions for these lights. Thanks.

[BDGolfM3]

so guys this might be slightly off topic, but has anyone tried putting these same bulbs into the license plate lights on the back of the car? I did this conversion for the interior lights and its great, and I had 2 more bulbs so I put them in the rear license plate lights....it looked incredible but it threw a code on the OBC. After 2 nights of this code popping up I got tired of it and put the regular bulbs back in. Is there any simple way to remove this code or to trick the computer so that the code doesn;t get thrown???? I would love to put them back in because its such an updated and fresh look without being ricey....

[Itsa328]

so guys this might be slightly off topic, but has anyone tried putting these same bulbs into the license plate lights on the back of the car? I did this conversion for the interior lights and its great, and I had 2 more bulbs so I put them in the rear license plate lights....it looked incredible but it threw a code on the OBC. After 2 nights of this code popping up I got tired of it and put the regular bulbs back in. Is there any simple way to remove this code or to trick the computer so that the code doesn;t get thrown???? I would love to put them back in because its such an updated and fresh look without being ricey....

I think it would look very nice as well. I suppose there would need to be some resistors put in line so the OBC would think that there were regular bulbs installed... Has anyone tried this?

[BDGolfM3]

yeah trust me it looks great...it is the same updated look as comparing the old yellowish interior lights to that of the new led conversion lights....hands down its great, just pure white light for the license plate lights. I just have slight OCD with the OBC and I hate seeing the warning. I couldn't take it after 2 nights, like I said, so I switched it back to the original bulbs....I would guess there is some way to do this, but I am not sure how. I am sure someone might have some ideas or even a resolution to this....

[Ftougmt]

Hi ppl,I just replaced my three dome lights with led ones and i have a strange situation.When replacing only the front one everything worked fine,light and dimmer.When i replaced the 2 passenger lights,all three of them stopped going completely off after the dimmer.What may be going on?Any idea to solve it?
And something else...I used in all three of them 42mm leds and not 39mm.42mm fitted just fine and all of them are for use in 12v so i don't think there might be a problem there.Now i read that you used 39mm and it seems strange.I got a '92 4D E36.