LED Tails cause dash lights to illuminate

[aharper]

Seems like it's hit and miss when doing searches... some folks seem to have problems and others don't. I thought that the dealer could program my 98 528i not to illuminate the dash lights after reading some threads on the subject. Apparently that's not the case... they don't want a bulb to really burn out and then be held liable should I get in an accident. Is there any way to turn the dash lights out on my own? I thought the resistence was supposed to be the same... ugh.

Oh... these aren't the factory default lights... several hundred on ebay. If it's a "you get what you pay for and you're out of luck" thing then I guess I'll just try to get rid of them. Help... !! TIA.

[colombobeat]

Brakes or turn signals? Brakes can be fixed in a couple of ways, put a load resistor with a heatsink or try to change the sensor (not sure how to do this but we can figure it out)

I have worked with similar issues on other makes/models but cant be too hard to figure out the bimmer's

[aharper]

Brake lights. There is a resistor of some sort already on the lights, just appears not to be doing the job it's supposed to. Any help or insight you can provide would be great!!!

[colombobeat]

usual brake light is about 12V, 5W therefore i=5/12=0.4167Amps .: R=12/0.4167 = 28.8 Ohms

this is roughly what the resulting reststance should be (i will confirm, by actually looking at the bulb wattage rating). LEDs would use much higher resitance, now u have to place another resistor parallel to the light to bring the resuslting resistance down to about 30 Ohms. Can u read the resistor(color-code) value? or put an Ohm meter across it? if so I can tell u what value Resistor to get....

all info is in good faith, dont hold me liable, if the resistor gets too hot!!

[benny05]

I Tried Also To Put Led Taillights For The Brake Lights Didnt Work, I Just Put The Old Lights Back On,

[thejlevie]

They canbe made to work and not set off the warning light. As colombobeat says it is just a matter of adding a parallel resistor of the appropriate value to match the normal resistance of the bulb. You could do that by meausring the current draw with a bulb and then with the LED light. From that you could compute the effecive resistance of each and then the value of a parallel resistor and the required power rating. Simple electrical stuff really.