Interior Lighting / LEDs

[Duffy]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3810610392...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I used these to do my jalopy yesterday, great difference for the money! Couldn't get into the glovebox one (between the AMI and CD it's crowded) and I discovered that the boot lid is leaking from the handle onto the bulb holder inside the lid but other than that very easy and rewarding.

Thanks for the guide

[ainarssems]

Those are error free bulbs and you can see resistors on them which draw extra current to avoid errors when fitted as sidelights. For interior lamps there is no error monitoring so there is no need for error free bulbs and I would strongly advice not to use error free bulbs as the resistors create large amount of extra heat and some people have reported them melting plastic holders/lenses. At least keep an eye of them and don't leave them on for long period s of time.

[tc4332]

Hi All,
Before you do any LED updates please take note of this:-
http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/showthread.php?t=9119

If you want to do any LED updates I strongly suggest that you contact Trups at:-
Sales@emtuning.co.uk

Trups lives in Wellingborough and can supply LEDs that are on a printed circuit board designed for our lamp holders. Slightly different ones to fit the various holders, all white except for the door sides which are red.
He has just done my front parking lights, and changed my dipped beams to HIDs.
Be warned that if you mention my name he will only charge you double

[tc4332]

Ooops!!
Forgot to clarify, my boot light problem was due to heat. It only took ten minutes. The so called CANBUS resistor became very hot and melted the lamp unit. The heat was conducted along the wires and damaged the insulation. In the end there was not a short (the lights had timed out) hence the fuse did not blow. I have replaced the lamp holder, rescued the plug and rewired it. Now working really well with Trups special LEDs.
Whilst experimenting with a test rig on the dining room table I have had another LED that became so hot the solder melted and the LED fell off the circuit board.

[Duffy]

All noted and I'll keep an eye on that!

[Johnmed]

M-A8, great write up. Could you or someone else who has done the mod provide a link to the specific 16 501 LEDs?

Looking on eBay there's a LOT of choice, all I want is white light and no resistors.

Are these ok?

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item...d=190929841243

Thanks in advance.

John.

[tc4332]

No, No, and No.
Please read my dire warnings of these LEDs overheating. I would not want you to have the scare that I had.
Non of the internal lights will give you a fault condition when they fail therefore they are not CANBUS. Use LEDs without the extra "CANBUS" resistor. All you are doing is drawing unneeded current that is transferred into heat. A lot of HOT.
The only "501" bulbs that are fault checked via CANBUS are the parking lights (that is side and tail).
The only reliable and safe method that I have found is to replace the 501 with a non "error free" LED but add a 501 in parallel.
Trups does a nice little loom that will do this for you. Contact him at:-
Sales@emtuning.co.uk
This loom is "plug & Play".
Please be safe.

[Johnmed]

Thanks for the advice. I had already read your thread. I believed that type of LED was being recommended earlier in this thread.

Anyway, I'm confused now. So, as I like to say, if in doubt, do nowt.

[tc4332]

Sorry if I have confused you.
I can only tell you what I have experienced. Some of the those LEDs seemed OK, but only as long as they were not switched on for more than a few minutes. I used them in all my door and boot lamps and had 50% failures, including the disatrous boot light.
I have now swapped them with the ones that Trups supplies and these are very good. No problems and really bright white light.

[Duffy]

It might be a sensible idea for this thread to be either amended or closed as I bought those LED's on the recommendation from here.

I'm going to wire up a holder and give it 12V later on and try to measure some temps to work out how serious a problem it is.