Interior and Exterior LED's

[shaunmc]

Im interested in changing the interior lights (such as, the lights on the roof, in the footwells, under the doors etc.) for LED's, and also the rear numberplate ones. Just white ones, nothing fancy. Plus ive heard some numberplate lights show up a warning/error message, how do i find one that wont cause this problem?
How easy a job is this and how long would you expect it to take? Is there any soldering involved? (as im useless at soldering!)
Is it an expensive thing to do? Just interested in freshening things up a bit really!
And one final thing, painting the inside of headlights black, is that an easy job? Do they pop apart or is a dremel or similar needed?

Any advice or recommendations welcome

Thanks
Shaun

 

[Az]

You need to buy canbus led bulbs for the rear number plate, there are loads on eBay, I bought a set on there and have had no issues at all, no errors, and no problems with the bulbs themselves. There are seriously ****** bright as well! Light up my plate really well, back bumper, and the floor! As long as they are canbus LEDs they won't throw up any errors.

There is no soldering involved for them, just plug and play.

The front headlights are a bit of a ball ache to do. You'll need to remove the headlights fully, unclip all the clips around the casing and place the headlight into a warm, not hot! oven, to soften the silicone glue which bonds the clear plastic lense to the headlight housing itself. It's a messy job as once the silicone glue has melted you'll have to pull the plastic lense away from the housing, just wipe most of the stringy bits of silicone up but dont wipe all of it away as you can re-use it to bond it all back together.
Once the two pieces are apart you'll be able to pull out the chrome part that you want to spray black. Putting back together is literally just the reverse, but put both parts into the oven to warm up the silicone glue again before bonding back together. To finish it off and to make it extra water tight, I'd use some clear dying silicone to run around the edges of the two parts you've just bonded together, this should stop the lenses from steaming up in cold weather etc.

HTH's

Az

 

[LandSpeed]

these are the ones that i have got for the number plate, had them in for a couple of weeks and had no problems at all, good brightness to, not too bright at all but do the job perfectly

2x WHITE 36mm SMD LED Festoon Bulb Light BMW No ERROR K on eBay (end time 14-Feb-11 14:38:42 GMT)

 

[quattrojames]

Joey mod here:

:: a4mods.com :: - The Premiere Audi A4 Modification Guide and Pictures Library

 

[shaunmc]

Got some numberplate ones on order.
Would someone be able to point me in the direction of the interior lights?
As im not 100% sure which ones i need to order, do i need to order canbus ones to stop errors showing? or does it not matter for interior ones?

 

[Az]

Yeah no problem for taking the time to write out a step by step guide for you etc.... :thumbsup:

 

[shaunmc]

Apologies Az, thanks for the guide.
I went on that website that quattrojames linked to aswel and prefered seeing pictures, im not very good with reading, prefer pictures.

 

[Az]

No probs, apology accepted! I haven't ever done it myself otherwise I would of taken pics, but just something I've read about a few times in the past and know how to do if I ever want to do it.

 

[JimLoskot]

just been looking at some bulbs, here is some info from my B6 A4 avant:
front main interior bulbs are 42mm festoon 264
4 map lights are BA9/BA9s
2 boot lights are 36mm festoon 239 as are the 2 numberplate lights

 

[Q5 TRS]

Just done this myself. bought some LEDs from china off ebay, didnt arrive, seller sent out some more from hong kong then got both delivered in a week of eachother! got double the amount needed now. do for other cars and spares i suppose!

Ill take some pics when i can and post them here for you.

i did all the lights apart from the doors and footwells as those require resistors in order to work properly. im waiting for warmer weather when i can comfortably take off the door cards and hook up the resistors in the warm without my fingertips freezing!

i did the boot lid (got an avant), boot lights, rear seat lights, front mirror lights, and the front map reading lights along with the main front lights that sit just behind those.

The result is great, since there are so many lights in these cars it really makes a difference. each LED for the roof of the car has at least 6 SMD leds which are super bright. i really like them compared to the xenon gas filled interior bulbs i bought from the USA 3 years ago. LED wins every time i think!