Boot light

[Deepseaskateboard]

well i just tried one of those i received from ebay today.. it physically fits, but plus and minus wires are reversed on mine I suppose on a filament bulb it makes no difference.
new lamp works as i've tested it but the lead to the existing fitting is so short i cant do anything about swapping over the wires until its light out and i can remove the boot panels to reach the wires.

I have ordered a new LED bulb!
Ill try my luck with that first.

I hate removing trim.

[Dr-Jon]

Ok so this morning I have found the cable, thanks to flybobbie, pull a bit through and changed the pins over in the plug, all good.
this is where the problems start.. but this is expected its a Z4 after all. The new led light fitting is the wrong shape
the opening in the boot is not completely rectangular the corners opposite the cable end are tapered a bit and to get the new light to fit in the opening it will need to be cut down as per the picture. Obviously only the back of the light needs cutting not the front face
when the corners are cut off right back to the aluminium heat shield it will fit. a bit of a work up all in all but the new light is a lot brighter.

[Lazza]

I think flybobbie has got the point of what I was asking about. I’m talking about either moving the existing light or better, adding an extra light somewhere better.
The existing light isn’t that bright but I don’t really have a problem with that. If I stick my gym bag in the boot, it generally blocks the light then the whole boot is just dark. If there was a light higher up, such as in the boot lid, that would work much better.

[Deepseaskateboard]

I think flybobbie has got the point of what I was asking about. I’m talking about either moving the existing light or better, adding an extra light somewhere better.
The existing light isn’t that bright but I don’t really have a problem with that. If I stick my gym bag in the boot, it generally blocks the light then the whole boot is just dark. If there was a light higher up, such as in the boot lid, that would work much better.

In the link I posted it has some solutions which people have done with lightstrips.

Probably takes the power from the existing light.

Check it out.

[flybobbie]

I discovered the cable for the boot light after i attached a led light strip for a while, but couldn't find a suitable place to fit it that had a standard look.
I will shortly have a look at fitting a light in the boot lid near the hand grab.

[Lazza]

I’m not much of an auto-electrician so I was hoping there was a plug-&-play option out there somewhere. I don’t mind doing a bit of meddling though as long as it’s a known route.

[flybobbie]

Ok so this morning I have found the cable, thanks to flybobbie, pull a bit through and changed the pins over in the plug, all good.
this is where the problems start.. but this is expected its a Z4 after all. The new led light fitting is the wrong shape
the opening in the boot is not completely rectangular the corners opposite the cable end are tapered a bit and to get the new light to fit in the opening it will need to be cut down as per the picture. Obviously only the back of the light needs cutting not the front face
when the corners are cut off right back to the aluminium heat shield it will fit. a bit of a work up all in all but the new light is a lot brighter.

Just fitted one of these on the rear boot light, guessed the plug right way round first time and it popped in without cutting.

[flybobbie]

Fuse style bulb may fit the glove box light as that has in built switch.
I also notice the reason for trimming the hole slightly, it's because the led module lense haven't quite clipped right onto the led housing.

[flybobbie]

Fitted extra boot lights on the tail light access covers.
Wired through to existing boot light.

[FabZ4]

The wire for the light runs under the pull out boot floor to access the battery. You might be able tease the wire to get more up to the cut out.

Perhaps you can help me.... my boot light stopped working. I replaced the bulb ( the glass one shown above) and it still doesn’t work. Could it be the switch ? Any idea how to check that as I can’t seem where it is (although I’ve read it’s connected to the left side power release?) . Thanks in advance....

[flybobbie]

Wiring diagrams in manual;
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxW-0N ... 9KM1k/view

[Mr Tidy]

A bit of an easy option, but I just bought these for my E86 and it is so much brighter than the standard bulb.

It was a bit shorter than OEM on one of my cars, but I can't remember if that was the E86 or the E46. But it worked fine after I bent the terminals in to suit!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x-38mm-3-SM ... 2749.l2649