Instrument Cluster - Amber to White

J

jwa1

Member
As with many others, I think the amber lights in the instrument cluster let the Z4 interior down. I'm not one to go for non OEM mods but I'm considering changing them to white LEDs. I think amber elsewhere is fine.

I could switch back to amber when I come to sell. Can anyone see any non technical risks or potential issues by doing the switch.... want to make sure I'm not making a mistake! E.g. Resale issue problems.

I might post a how to on here if I do it.
 
This work is quite intricate. There are a large amount of surface mount LED's on the circuit board behind the cluster to remove and replace and is quite a specialist job. Not worth the work IMHO. This is not a few bulbs, its much more.
 
It's been done I a sure there was a guy that has done it. Good luck to ya once you have done yours fancy having a go at mine??
 
jwa1 said:
Who says I'm not a specialist? :D
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The fact you state a change of bulbs when its actually a large volume of surface mount LED chips? The fact that you're asking about risks and concerns? :D I assume this is on an e89 given the post is in the e89 area, which has been done by two people I've read online, both sent the PCB away to Germany to have the surface mount amber chips removed and replaced by white ones.

Still, as you're a specialist, I look forward to seeing the result :)
 
It's all a matter of taste but one thing I've always liked about BMWs is the soft amber glow of the instrument panel at night. My current daily driver has an amber console with garish white instruments. I hate it along with most of rest of the vehicle.
However, that's just my opinion. It's your car - you go ahead and do what you want. I can't imagine that there will be a huge effect on price caused by non - reversal if/when you come to sell.
 
This isn't the right PCB but I've seen the e89 PCB in the flesh and it has even more LED chips on it than this. But this gives you an idea of the malarkey involved;

Each one of the tiny white squares is an LED chip that will need unsoldering and new white chips soldered back in place. Faffy but do-able if you're really that bothered. Then you'd have to reverse all the work if you wanted it back to amber for resale of course.

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Is this not the Rover Metro forum? ;). Those surface mounted candle burners come off a treat with a hammer and chisel, new ones go on nicely with some blu-tac. I'll let you all know how it goes. Good to hear it has been done on z4s before. Off skiing next week so it will probably be March before I get time. I'm not concerned about the technical side of it, to clarify, by risks/issues I'm referring to more to indirect items such as dealers picking up on it at part ex etc. does anyone have a link to the previous members threads where they did this? Keen to see what it looks like...
 
jwa1 said:
Is this not the Rover Metro forum? ;). Those surface mounted candle burners come off a treat with a hammer and chisel, new ones go on nicely with some blu-tac. I'll let you all know how it goes. Good to hear it has been done on z4s before. Off skiing next week so it will probably be March before I get time. I'm not concerned about the technical side of it, to clarify, by risks/issues I'm referring to more to indirect items such as dealers picking up on it at part ex etc. does anyone have a link to the previous members threads where they did this? Keen to see what it looks like...
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Cute. I look forward to seeing your work.
 
Titan, I see your point. Our other car is an Audi RS5 and that has white LEDs in the cluster then red LEDs elsewhere. I like that set up so am try to achieve something like that on the Z4 which I should hopefully like!
 
I remember reading on z-post that a guy did this in his e85 - in fact he changed every amber LED in the cabin. So window buttons, light control switches, the works. IIRC there were 150+ in total. Not your model but may be worth searching over there as there may be some tips you can pick up.
 
jwa1 said:
Titan, I see your point. Our other car is an Audi RS5 and that has white LEDs in the cluster then red LEDs elsewhere. I like that set up so am try to achieve something like that on the Z4 which I should hopefully like!
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Exactly how the ///M's are set up.
 
Great picture biggiz_40. Those dials look almost identical to the Z4. I'm not sure whether to do the centre section as well...
 
I was going to do this on mine but was to much for the white to be done, unless of course you can do yourself save a lot of money. Its been done as mentioned on Zpost .
 
I'd like the display brighter in the daytime. I had a Mercedes that would automatically increase the lighting if daylight got brighter. Result was I could see the readouts at all times. I'll admit that my eyesight is aged, but sure would be nice to see readouts in bright sunlight.
 
The LEDs,are they coloured glass,or glass that has been coloured? Such as amber indicator bulbs. They are clear bulbs that are dipped in a translucent orange paint,the ones you see flashing White is where the orange paint has flaked off due to age. I'm wondering if a simple solution would be to remove the amber paint from the LEDs? Probably a very simplistic view but I wouldn't want you to overlook the obvious :thumbsup:
 
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