yep, thats what I needed

 

My LEDs came in yesterday. Just to avoid putting them in backwards I sent a pm to 719C6 asking for clarification on which side of the pcb was the +.

He sent me this pic which helped a lot.

Job done.

 

I'm still a little confused about what bulb I need. If I use a regular 12V LED, do I still need resistors? If so, which ones?

I want to end up with red lights.... Is there a bulb with everything built in like some people have mentioned, but red?

 

Look on first page there is a post showing which LEDs they used. Search for that bulb in red on ebay. These have the resistors built in on one side, not both like in the OP pic, but they work just fine so far.

For the pods you will need to cut the blue rubber cover that goes over the bulbs. Should be very easy to do.

I wonder if anyone has changed out other bulbs to LEDs and if they also had the blue rubber cover? If so I might change more of mine.

 

Ha. I guess I just assumed the T5 was only colorless. Adding red to the search got them to pop up. Thanks!

 

Anyway to increase the brightness of the gauges themselves? I put in LMB faceplates that look great in daylight but barely show through the numbers at night.

 

Very strange thing just happened. My option led burned out and 3 others are hyperflashing. Used the LEDs mentioned on this thread.

Going back to stock bulbs. Just ordered 10 from ebay for 10.99 shipped. Thank goodness it is an easy fix.

 

LED's are nice, but if and when any bulbs burn out, then I'll also be going with original bulbs. I found some on e-bay. Are the ones you ordered 7219 bulbs? If not, can you PM me the e-bay listing please?

Thanks

 

Yes they were 7219 bulbs, 10 for 10.99 shipped.

 

Damn. I was just about to trying doing mine. Now i'm scared.

 

Thanks

 

To tell you the truth I feel the resistors were to small. The OP shows LEDs with 2 resistors but the link he posted went to ones with only one.

Lights were white but showed up blue going through the stock rubber. Kinda liked the blue but I am going back to stock. Hope the last longer.

 

Very good info to store away

 

I got the red ones but like yours, only one resistor. I'll probably do the install anyway and see what happens. Did you always have issues or did they work ok for a while? I recall the OP saying he'd go with a smaller resistor cause they were too bright.

 

They worked for a month or two. Not very long at all. But like I said pretty easy job. Took me about an hour total.

 

I missed this the first time around. ARGH!!! T5 only defines the physical size of the lamp. It is Tubular and 5/8" in diameter. T5 tells you nothing about the electrical characteristics. ALL LEDs are low voltage devices that hold a fixed voltage across their terminals just like a zener diode. They operate at 1 to 4 volts depending on color. If you put less voltage than that across their terminals they don't light at all. As soon as you try to put more they pass as much current as necessary to put the supply voltage down to the 1 to 4 volts they require. That is why ALL LEDs require resistors. Some LED designs will include the resistors needed for a particular light output/current at a particular voltage but most are designed for the user to decide what voltage and light output they want and supply their own resistors to hold the current that will do that.

The C6 interior lighting that dims is all supplied with a square wave AC voltage by the BCM. As I recall it runs about 9V when the lights are full bright and with shorter and shorter pulses as the lights dim but, because the BCM voltage converter is expecting an incandescent that would not light, the BCM keeps supplying very short 9 volt pulses even when "off". This is why people who have installed LEDs report a dim glow even after the car has been off for some time.

Bottom line. The ONLY thing that is really important about LED design is the current they need, not the voltage. If an LED is speced for a voltage that means it has some resistance built in to give a specific light output. In ALL cases, you want to stay well below the rated current if you want them to last in a confined space. The resistors will get hot and semiconductors do not like heat. This is why some manufacturers who design built in resistors use multiple resistors to distribute the heat and use both leads as heat sinks instead of only one.

To size the resistors you need to consider both the LED and the BCM voltage converter design. If you have no resistor you are depending on the impedance and heat dissipation capacity of the BCM electronics to protect the LED. (Ain't gonna' happen.) If you pick a resistor that is too high you will protect the BCM computer but you won't get the light output you desire. Get the resistance just right and it will work as long as you can dissipate the heat from the resistor and not "melt" the LED.

Just like diesel fuel and gasoline are not the same, LEDs and incandescents are very different. You can design for either but you can not just randomly swap one for the other.

 

Today the options light is working but the trip went out. Strange.

Thanks for the info above. Would be more helpful if you could post exactly which LEDs are suited for the cluster pods.

Anyway my stock type lights have shipped so I will convert back soon.

 

I ordered these..

Mistake?

 

Any LED could be made to work with the right resistor if it was physically small enough to fit in the area and make enough light but not so much that you burn up the BCM computer. You just have to get the right resistor(s). An LED that says 12V will have the right resistance built in to not immediately pop. Will it have the right brightness, fit in the location, not overheat, and not overload the BCM? Maybe.

The OEM bulbs were not designed to be replaced individually. The voltage is low enough that they should last the life of the car. If they did burn out the factory expected you to replace the entire unit. Therefore I find no information in the manuals about the factory bulbs to be able to design a replacement.

Without specs on the OEM bulbs I would just have to take it apart to find the space available, figure out how to mount LEDs, wire out a test rig to measure what the BCM is supplying to the existing bulbs, hook up a test LED and variable resistor to adjust the brightness to determine the correct resistance, add a wiring harness to move the resistors away from the LED mounting locations to dissipate heat, and put it all together. It isn't at all impossible. It is just that LEDs and incandescent bulbs have VERY different requirements to operate reliably. An LED is a constant voltage variable current and resistance device and an incandescent bulb is a constant resistance variable voltage and current device. They are not interchangeable.

 

I'm kinda reviving an old thread here but has anyone had anymore experiences with this project? I didn't do mine yet and I'm curious as to how everyone else's is working..