Materials to Maintain Your ZHP IIIII Hand Protection IIIII Tools to Maintain Your ZHP
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  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2016
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    Behind The Orange Curtain
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    LED replacements and dash warning

    Doing some early exploring regarding LED replacements for front corners, sidemarkers, tail lights, rear turn signals, backup lights.

    Will replacement of these will cause a dash warning? There's a fair amount of anecdotal evidence that tails will, but what about the others?

    Thanks!

    Ken...

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
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    Portland, OR
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    Talk to BP, he's doing a lot of LED lighting. I believe you can find decent LED lights on eBay for the tails by searching "LED canbus XXXX" where the XXXX is the bulb number.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Branford, CT
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    16,055
    You need CANBUS bulbs. These are bulbs that have built-in resistors, so they will not hyperflash, nor will they cause bulb out errors.
    For best results, you should get ones that utilize CREE chips - they are the brightest of the ones I've tried. I've gone through a few different kinds...

    I have CREE LEDs in my front and rear turn signals, fog lights, brake lights, and reverse lights. I left the running lights alone with halogen because the CREE bulbs I put in were way too bright for the "half brightness" they're supposed to be.

    BTW, an unfortunate side effect of these LED bulbs is that they seem to cause some kind of interference with my radio reception. Since I rarely use the radio, I don't care all that much (it doesn't affect any other part of the audio system, such as listening via Bluetooth). The static shows up when the turn signals are activated, and has that noise every time the bulbs turn on. In my case, since my brake lights are LED as well, the radio is a bit more staticky when the brakes are applied as well. Granted, my rear glass has the infamous short in it, so I need a new rear glass anyway since the radio reception sucks even without any bulbs being on. I'm sure the static wouldn't be an issue if I had a properly functioning antenna (located in the rear glass).

    Also note, you will need coding. With the LED bulbs installed, your lights will very lightly flicker when the car is turned on while it tests the bulbs. This testing can be disabled - it does it when you turn the car on and it does it seemingly randomly while the car is in operation. I've disabled both the cold and warm checks on my car so there is no flickering.
    BP
    2005 330i ZHP / 6MT
    Imolarot / Naturbraun
    2003 330iT / 6MT
    Orientblau / Naturbraun




    It's not the car you drive, it's how you drive it.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2016
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    Quote Originally Posted by az3579 View Post
    You need CANBUS bulbs. These are bulbs that have built-in resistors, so they will not hyperflash, nor will they cause bulb out errors.
    For best results, you should get ones that utilize CREE chips - they are the brightest of the ones I've tried. I've gone through a few different kinds...
    Excellent information! Thanks!

    Ken...

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Location
    Toronto, ON
    Posts
    1,162
    Quote Originally Posted by az3579 View Post
    I've disabled both the cold and warm checks on my car so there is no flickering.
    Does that mean you will never receive a bulb out warning - even if the LED bulb is actually burned out?
    anandoc

    2004 330i auto | ZPP, ZCW | Schwarz 2 (668) | schwarz (N6SW)

    aFe Stage-1 Pro DRY S intake | Morimoto FX-R 3.0 retrofit | ///M3 Seats (power, heat, bolster adj.) | ///M3 Strut Brace | ///M3 SMG Steering Wheel retrofit | OEM Alarm retrofit | GROM USB | Khoalty angel eyes


  6. #6
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    Nov 2014
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    Portland, OR
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    @BP

    What bulbs did you end up using for your front turn signals? The set I ordered were too long and didn't fit well/looked weird in the housing.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Location
    Toronto, ON
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    1,162
    Quote Originally Posted by BMWCurves View Post
    @BP

    What bulbs did you end up using for your front turn signals? The set I ordered were too long and didn't fit well/looked weird in the housing.
    The sedan front corner bulbs (1156/7506) are different from coupe bulbs. BP has a sedan...
    anandoc

    2004 330i auto | ZPP, ZCW | Schwarz 2 (668) | schwarz (N6SW)

    aFe Stage-1 Pro DRY S intake | Morimoto FX-R 3.0 retrofit | ///M3 Seats (power, heat, bolster adj.) | ///M3 Strut Brace | ///M3 SMG Steering Wheel retrofit | OEM Alarm retrofit | GROM USB | Khoalty angel eyes


  8. #8
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    Nov 2014
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    Portland, OR
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    Quote Originally Posted by anandoc View Post
    The sedan front corner bulbs (1156/7506) are different from coupe bulbs. BP has a sedan...
    I know, I'm just trying to see if he found bulbs that were short like the factory bulbs, or if the difference between the bulbs was enough for the added length to not be an issue.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    May 2016
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    Quote Originally Posted by BMWCurves View Post
    @BP

    What bulbs did you end up using for your front turn signals? The set I ordered were too long and didn't fit well/looked weird in the housing.
    I assume you're talking about the LEDs looking weird?

    Ken...

  10. #10
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    Nov 2014
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    Portland, OR
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    Quote Originally Posted by kbcons View Post
    I assume you're talking about the LEDs looking weird?

    Ken...
    The LEDs in terms of lighting looked great. What I didn't like is how they were positioned in the housing because they were longer than the factory bulbs. They basically were pushed against the headlamp housing, like so (LED in passenger signal, factory incandescent bulb in driver's side):


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