LED sidelight

[cj10jeeper]

I switched out my sidelights from standard 5w capsules to similar sized (but of course lower wattage) LED's to get a brighter look than the rather yellow incandescent bulb light.

The result looked good, but they tripped the amber indicators bulbs on. Change the bulbs back and after a few seconds the indicators go out. This is presumably the light circuit sensing the lower wattage and tripping the other lights in each headlamp unit on.

So is there a way around it? An LED that has some sort of built in resistor to increase the wattage, or some other work around?

(Apologies to US guys if the terminology or layout of the UK lights does not make sense. We have small sidelights built in below the main beam halogen - not really running lights, more for twilight and street parking. They are actually useless as lights and seem to have long since passed their useful place on a modern car)

 

[inTgr8r]

yeah.... a resistor is needed.
the other option is silver bulbs instead of LEDs

 

[20ducks]

There is a balancer (resister as inTgr8r indicated). Many internet providers sell them with resisters. I've had LED's installed on my clear headlamps (eliminated the "egg yoke look" and also in my side markers for several years now, first on my 03, and now on my 06.


http://www.autolumination.com/

 

[cj10jeeper]

Thanks inTgr8r

That's the plan 20ducks - thatks for the link. I had not realised there were so many variations avaialble

I need to find some in the UK as shippping on such a low value item would be a killer.

 

[BlackSapphireZ]

LED"s stay lit when i put em in...and they need to be aimed outwards most arent

 

[cj10jeeper]

LED"s stay lit when i put em in...and they need to be aimed outwards most arent

There is no problem with them coming on - it's simply the lower wattage tripping the bulb out circuit. In this case it appears to make the indicators come on static.

I have some different ones on order that should cure the problem

 

[20ducks]

Look into getting LED's that have a very wide light dispersion, it will help with illumination of the ring.

 

[cj10jeeper]

Never thought that swapping out a sidelight could be such a complete science in itself.

I built my own clear lensed AE, retfofit Xenon's for my X5 with less effort than this...lol

 

[chariszzzz]

LED"s stay lit when i put em in...and they need to be aimed outwards most arent

I have some different ones on order that should cure the problem

What did u order cj10jeeper? I have the same problem.

 

[cj10jeeper]

LED"s stay lit when i put em in...and they need to be aimed outwards most arent

I have some different ones on order that should cure the problem

What did u order cj10jeeper? I have the same problem.

I have some of these coming:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....m=250197751802&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=015

It's a long story but they are free of charge so if they don't work I'll try something else.

I'll let you know if they work out

 

[bingboybri]

keep us posted on this as i might think about buying these.....

 

[cj10jeeper]

keep us posted on this as i might think about buying these.....

With Xmas delays they finally arrived.

On a quick test fit of one the colour is exactly what I wanted, much whiter than conventional. Thye seem well made, encased in silver coloured metal and lit the lens well.

They come with a pair of I assume resistors marked '7W47RJ' which come the weekend I'll decode, understand and presumably need to wire in parallel to the LED's.

If anyone has done this before I'm open to suggestions

 

[inTgr8r]

Load equalizer install....


I'll be getting into this soon along with further modification to the hamburger.
I'll be making up a pigtail extension so that I don't have to tap into the OE harness to install the load EQ.

 

[cj10jeeper]

Load equalizer install....

Cheers - that'll do just fine. I'll also see if I can sort it without affecting the OEM harness.

 

[cj10jeeper]

Finally got my replacement high quality bulbs and sorted the wiring so I hooked them up today with resistors and the result is much better than yellow bulbs:

These are encased in a silver ribbed metal body, so look much better in the light unit than the cheap plastic LED's

Apologies that I'm no expert on photographing Xenons. These are taken without flash indoors. The first image shows how well the LEDs light the housing and the latter how close the colour is to OEM Xenon:

 

[stef787]

hi cj10jeeper, i want to buy the led sidelights for my z4. can you confirm that you bought the sidelights on the link below? did you have any problems with the bulbs?

thanks for your help.


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SUPERLUX-T10-...arParts_SM?hash=item518f4aa5f7#ht_2910wt_1167

 

[cj10jeeper]

Yep - they look like the one's I used.
You will also need to fit ceramic resistors to compensate for the low wattage draw wlse you will have a bulb out error displayed.

Can't tell you yhat muh about what I did as I ripped them out after a month and fitted Angel eyes. I recycled theses LEDs as puddle lights becaus e they are so bright.

 

[planetibo]

Finally got my replacement high quality bulbs and sorted the wiring so I hooked them up today with resistors and the result is much better than yellow bulbs:

These are encased in a silver ribbed metal body, so look much better in the light unit than the cheap plastic LED's

Apologies that I'm no expert on photographing Xenons. These are taken without flash indoors. The first image shows how well the LEDs light the housing and the latter how close the colour is to OEM Xenon:

Has anyone could compare the two lights below


with this:

They have 5 LED.

 

[cj10jeeper]

The reason I used the one's I did is because bulbs protrude into the light housing and in the case of cluster LED's look horrible close up. Ended up replacing the sides with AE, but that's another story