LED Interior Bulbs swap info details...

[B_Boy]

OK so i know everyone has been asking about my interior lights swap so finally here it is.

All the bulbs are from superbrightleds.com, I also used COOL WHITE color to match under seats lights.

Interior:


Front Dome Lights:

You need 2: WLED-x6 LED bulbs (for the circle front dome lights left and right lights)

You need 2: High Power 6-LED Festoon bulbs 37mm 3710-xWHP6 (center front dome light)


Visor Mirror Lights:

You need 2: High Power 6-LED Festoon bulbs 37mm 3710-xWHP6


Rear Dome Lights:

You need 2 Mini wedge blubs: 921-x9 Wedge Base LED bulbs


Ground Illumination Door Lights

You need 4: WLED-xHP6 Wedge Base Bulbs

AND Mirror or reflective tape so you can change the housing from this:

to this:


License Plate Light

You need 2: 3910-x6 LED Festoon bulbs

or High Power 3-LED Festoon bulb

[Banan]

Excellent info! Thanks a lot!

[B_Boy]

no problem, any questions feel free to pm me!

[fetus4cletus]

WOW, thanks a ton. How hard is it to change things/get to the bulbs? Any info on changing 'em out?

[homerg88]

Do I need to shut down anything more than the car to make this swap? Is it anything to think about? Can I use the High Power LED Festoon Bulbs ?

[B_Boy]

Do I need to shut down anything more than the car to make this swap? Is it anything to think about? Can I use the High Power LED Festoon Bulbs ?

No once the car is off ur good. yes u can use the High Power LED Festoon Bulbs where applicable.

[Ryan_T]

Do they still dim to off?

[B_Boy]

yes they do still dim off

[homerg88]

Ok, I just ordered everything you names. Waiting for it to come thursday or friday. Was it hard to change? How much does it take?

[B_Boy]

it is easy to change if u have general mod experience, takes about 30 mins for everything.

[scottyuk]

I can understand the interior lights not flagging up in the DIS but don't the number plate bulbs throw an error. Have you needed to add resistors?

[B_Boy]

no i have not had any problems with the number plate bulbs, i believe the resistors are built in the bulb.

[scottyuk]

Aha! Good news.

Which bulb holder did you silver up? Why? Does it make much difference?

Cheers

[B_Boy]

Aha! Good news.

Which bulb holder did you silver up? Why? Does it make much difference?

Cheers

I "silvered" the housing under the doors because when u put that bulb in it has like 6 leds, 2 pointing up, 2 pointing down and 2 point out. So the point in silvering the inside of the housing is that the light that doesnt point down toward the ground can be reflected down and making it brighter. If you dont silver it then the black housing will absorb most of the light making it a sucky mod.

[A4DK]

no i have not had any problems with the number plate bulbs, i believe the resistors are built in the bulb.

+1 here.
The actual bulb seemed a bit bigger than the stock. So one of my LEDs got its ends bent a tad.

[A4DK]

B-boy, what tools did you use to take the lights apart and complete the al the changes?

[B_Boy]

just a flat head screw driver

[astaikos10]

hey b-boy, sorry... its been a while since theres been a post on this thread, but i hope you see this, maybe you can help me out. I changed all the bulbs in my car to LEDs about a month ago (finally), using bulbs from superbrightleds.com just like you did, however did not use the same exact bulbs in the same locations, and am now just getting to fixing a slight problem i have. Everything worked out great for me and I got the results I desired with the exception of the big dome light in the front. I ended up using the 6 bulb, regular led festoon bulbs, rather than the high power LEDs like you used. Now i have to "hot" spots because the bulbs are not 360 degrees like the factory bulbs. From the pictures it doesn't seem like you have this problem, but it also seems like your bulbs are VERY VERY bright, do you think the 3 bulb high power LEDs that you used for the license plate would work up there? Also, I used the 194 wedge that you used in the front for all four map lights in cool white and it matches PERFECTLY now, how does it match up with the HP LEDs? Thanks in advance for any help that you can give me. I appreciate it more than you think.

[MiracleWhips]

B_Boy or astaikos10........In the front roof dome housing, does the whole plastic frame of the housing come down to access each bulb, or do you remove just the plastic panels for each individual light? Also, where is the best place to start wedging the flathead in safely?

[B8_Jim]

IIRC, there is a torx screw in the sunglasses holder. Then it's just sort of held in with spring clips. I didn't use a flathead -- just kind of wedged my fingers between the headliner and the plastic of the dome housing and it came out pretty easy.

astaikos10 -- I used the 3 High power LED's for the front dome -- they are brighter than the stock bulbs. Below is a pic of half stock/half LED on mine... The colors are wacky since I just let the camera auto select -- I think it was confused -- they are not this blue in reality. You see the LED's are still "hot spoted" but so are the stock bulbs -- the 6 HP might be a bit wider due to the layout, and 2x as bright (which IMO would be too bright -- even with these 3x HP bulbs I feel like I'm in a spot light when it's dark)...

[astaikos10]

^^ Great, that was exactly what I was hoping to see. It does seem to fill the dome up with light, just as the old lights did. The brightness was what i was trying to stay away from, hence y decision to go with the regular, not the high power LEDs... unfortunately things don't always play out. Now I'm going to have Natural White map lights, front and rear (old dome was Nat. White too) and since the HP LED's only come in Cool or Warm White, Cool it is. Good thing i'm the most OCD person that enters my car! The lights sure have been a hit all around though... people i never would have imagined to notice, have.

[MiracleWhips]

IIRC, there is a torx screw in the sunglasses holder. Then it's just sort of held in with spring clips. I didn't use a flathead -- just kind of wedged my fingers between the headliner and the plastic of the dome housing and it came out pretty easy.

YRC! That was really easy actually, The hardest part was finding the right size Torx Bit. (which is a T25 for anyone reading this)

I imagine the rear "dome" is held in place by similar metal tension clips.

[astaikos10]

Actually no... the rear "map lights" cover pops right off with a flat head. Slide it under the one side, and leaver it a little until it pops out, from there you can just use your fingers to pop the other half off. And FYI the torx you needed was in your tool kit!

[MiracleWhips]

Thanks astaikos10......I actually got the whole rear "map lights" housing to come down with minimal prying. Then the "cap" piece also came off when I was inspecting the housing.

Thanks for the tip about the tool kit. I remembered seeing a Torx tool in there, but I never thought to use it for a task like this.

I placed an order for the front dome and rear dome lights last night. I should have my bulbs in a few days! I am sure that once these are in and confirm that I like the look, the rest of the not so highly used bulbs in the interior will be switched to LED as well.

[tsn80]

Anyone able to replace their glove box light? I was able to yank out the bulb housing from the cable, but there's not enough slack in the connector cable to reconnect the housing once I replaced the bulb.

[B_Boy]

Anyone able to replace their glove box light? I was able to yank out the bulb housing from the cable, but there's not enough slack in the connector cable to reconnect the housing once I replaced the bulb.

i have, its a pain in the ass but i had to ask my girl to do it cuz she has small hands, good luck.

[tsn80]

hmmm good idea, i'll have her try. Anyone else found a different solution for replacing the glove box light?

[MiracleWhips]

Speaking of the glove light, did you guys use the WLED x6 lights, same as the front map lights?

I have an avant, and want to change out the three trunk lights. The WLED x6 don't fit quite snug in the housing, but does power up and work. I might have to bend the metal frame a bit to gett a better fitting. The only problem is the lighting is a bit dull, so I may have to get some extra housings and use the reflective tape like B-Boy did for the door lights.

[macuser]

what lights did you order for the trunk? thanks.

[MiracleWhips]

Speaking of the glove light, did you guys use the WLED x6 lights, same as the front map lights?

I have an avant, and want to change out the three trunk lights. The WLED x6 don't fit quite snug in the housing, but does power up and work. I might have to bend the metal frame a bit to gett a better fitting. The only problem is the lighting is a bit dull, so I may have to get some extra housings and use the reflective tape like B-Boy did for the door lights.

Something I noticed recently is that once the trunk is closed in my avant, and the replaced LED lights normally dim out, the three LED trunk lights do not turn off all the way. They dim out, but glow slightly and flicker slowly, then rapidly a few moments later.

But if I put the stock incandescent bulb back in the trunk lid, the combination of the two LEDS near the wheel wells and the stock bulb in the trunk work fine.

Anyone have any ideas. Do I need to try a brighter (more powerful?) LED in the trunk lid?

[Ryan_T]

LEDs cannot dim. They're like fluorescent lights, on or off only. When we see LEDs dim in and out like on a Mac notebook's sleep light, what you're really seeing is a duty cycle. The LEDs are FULLY on/off for varied periods at high frequency. Since it's much faster than our optical limits, we perceive it as dimming in and out.

In a nutshell, to get the LEDs to dim properly, you'll need additional circuitry that simulates the duty cycle based on variable voltage that was originally programmed into the car to dim incandescent type bulbs. The new combination of LEDs aren't balanced the way the car's system was designed.

I'm guessing that when that one particular LED that fixes things are back in, the other two are balanced just enough to let them dim fine with their own internal circuitry. (some of these have built-in resistors, etc right?) I'm not sure if you need to go brighter, dimmer or smarter on that final LED. I can't tell without testing your car or the LEDs.

[MiracleWhips]

LEDs cannot dim. They're like fluorescent lights, on or off only. When we see LEDs dim in and out like on a Mac notebook's sleep light, what you're really seeing is a duty cycle. The LEDs are FULLY on/off for varied periods at high frequency. Since it's much faster than our optical limits, we perceive it as dimming in and out.

In a nutshell, to get the LEDs to dim properly, you'll need additional circuitry that simulates the duty cycle based on variable voltage that was originally programmed into the car to dim incandescent type bulbs. The new combination of LEDs aren't balanced the way the car's system was designed.

I'm guessing that when that one particular LED that fixes things are back in, the other two are balanced just enough to let them dim fine with their own internal circuitry. (some of these have built-in resistors, etc right?) I'm not sure if you need to go brighter, dimmer or smarter on that final LED. I can't tell without testing your car or the LEDs.

Thanks for the detailed response. I was thinking it had something to do with a power cycle or volatge issue, but I am not the slightest knowledagble in electrical.

The three bulbs I am using are wedge based 6 leds. (not festoon lights which seem to have the built in resistors) The light housings don't really even hold these wedge based 6 LEDs completely in place. I tried a 9 Led wedge based LEDs, but they are too wide to place in the housing without really bending it all up. I can't even make a connection to try these.

I started with just main dome lights swap a few weeks ago, now I can't stop LED'ing the whole car! I hate it when things don't match.

[B_Boy]

i dont have any of the problems you all are having. My leds dim just like the stock bulbs. Dont know y that has happened to yall.

oh and i actually added a white neon tubes in my trunk because my sub box covers the stock light.

[astaikos10]

+1 for not having any problems. Perfect results & dimming w/ superbrightled's

[MiracleWhips]

+1 for not having any problems. Perfect results & dimming w/ superbrightled's

My main cabin lights are fine, it is the trunk that is having issues in the avant.

You guys have sedans, correct, so how have those of you who swapped the trunk lights checked that the lights are not doing what I am experiencing as well once the trunk is closed?

Once the trunk is closed, have you folded down the rear seats to see if the bulbs actually completely turned off in the trunk?

[astaikos10]

Well i have never folded the seats to check, I would assume since the rest of my lights completely shut off, so would that one, however as soon as these torrential rains stop i'll go outside and confirm for you. The bulb i picked, the WLED-xHP5 Wedge Base Bulb from superbrights did not fit within the metal clips, and after a few minutes of unsuccessfully trying to re-shape the metal around the slightly larger wedge base, i just decided to solder it straight to the metal and kinda let it sit there. I also used sticky, silver ventilation tape to make the housing reflective. Overall good outcome and happy with the amount of light that comes out of it now, easily 3x the light, matches the rest of my bulbs, and no other problems i can think of.

[MiracleWhips]

Well i have never folded the seats to check, I would assume since the rest of my lights completely shut off, so would that one, however as soon as these torrential rains stop i'll go outside and confirm for you. The bulb i picked, the WLED-xHP5 Wedge Base Bulb from superbrights did not fit within the metal clips, and after a few minutes of unsuccessfully trying to re-shape the metal around the slightly larger wedge base, i just decided to solder it straight to the metal and kinda let it sit there. I also used sticky, silver ventilation tape to make the housing reflective. Overall good outcome and happy with the amount of light that comes out of it now, easily 3x the light, matches the rest of my bulbs, and no other problems i can think of.

Thanks.

Ditto on all the above, except my bulbs are not soldered. They seem to fit snug enough to leave well enough alone. The wheel well lights in the trunk did not have the plastic housings, so I borrowed those from the ground lights in the passenger doors. I also used some shiny metal duct repair tape I got at Ace hardware just last night. Made a huge difference for a simple fix.

No I just need to get the trunk hatch light squared away.

The trunk lighting series seems to work independent of the rest of the main cabin lights.

[B_Boy]

my trunk light shuts completely off, it might be an avant thing...good luck

[MiracleWhips]

my trunk light shuts completely off, it might be an avant thing...good luck

Yup, I think we are special like that.

[Jarim]

somebody do this for a b6!!!

With all the bulb sizes and what not...