Materials to Maintain Your ZHP IIIII Hand Protection IIIII Tools to Maintain Your ZHP
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  1. #11
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Branford, CT
    Posts
    16,055
    Quote Originally Posted by anandoc View Post
    Does that mean you will never receive a bulb out warning - even if the LED bulb is actually burned out?
    This is kind of a weird one. Let me break down my findings:

    The cold checks from what I can see are the checks it does when you first turn the ignition on. It will send a pulse to the bulbs for a few seconds, at which point it determines if a bulb is dead or on its way out. The LEDs will flicker for a few seconds as they receive the pulses from the LCM during the test. The reason the incandescent bulbs do not flicker is because they require significantly more time to illuminate. The pulses are so short that the incandescent bulbs don't have enough time to illuminate with those short pulses.

    Coding out the cold check will eliminate this flickering. The downside is that you will not get an immediate notification that a bulb is out. You'll only get that notification once you go to try to use the bulb. So, say your brake light bulb is out but the cold check is disabled. Your car will not tell you a bulb is out until you press the brake pedal. If cold checks were on, it would tell you right off the bat after turning the ignition on due to the test pulses checking for it.

    Warm checks I'm not 100% sure about. My theory is that the warm checks are pulses sent at set intervals while driving. A few people say it's around 5 minute intervals that the LCM sends the warm pulse checks. Based on research I've done and experiences I've had with my car with the warm checks enabled, that information is backed up by what I'm seeing. I've had warm checks enabled but cold checks disabled and I've had people following me tell me that my lights flicker every few minutes, so that makes sense.

    I've recently disabled all warm checks with my car in order to completely eliminate flickering. The downside to this is that it seems that it doesn't notify you of failed bulbs at all this way. I tested this while waiting for laundry at the laundromat after seeing your question on the forum. I disabled warm and cold checks, then I took out my turn signal and brake light bulbs.

    With the turn signal bulb removed, the turn signal stays constant and does not hyperflash. It also does NOT tell you that a bulb is out, which is a bummer because you wouldn't have a clue based on its normal flash rate. The brake light, however, did tell me about the bulb out as soon as I went to press the brake. I'm not sure why the turn signal failed to misbehave when it should have but the brake light notification acted as expected.

    I'd like to re-enable the warm checks and watch the car for about 15 minutes to see if the flickering does indeed happen. If so, that will prove my theory. Ultimately, there was a time when cars didn't have checks for burnt out bulbs, so personally I'd rather just do a visual inspection of my car from time to time and have super bright, good-looking LEDs that don't flicker.

    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.
    Quote Originally Posted by anandoc View Post
    The sedan front corner bulbs (1156/7506) are different from coupe bulbs. BP has a sedan...
    Yes, I do have a sedan and they are different from the 2-missing-door variants. I bought bulbs from eBay, meaning there is no "brand/model" I can give you. The best I can offer you is "25W CREE CANBUS 1156 Amber" or "Red". I have the amber for turns and the red for the brake light portions. The bulbs between the amber and red look exactly the same physically, and have (Qty) 5, 5W CREE XP-E chips (for a total of 25W), which are super bright even in direct sunlight. The red is brighter than the amber due to the wavelength of the light (or so I've been told), but the amber is plenty bright.

    I did recently order (3) pairs of 25W Red bulbs for my running lights (bottom row in the tail lights, and trunk light), but I found that they are WAY too bright when in parking light mode and are blinding at night. I don't know why they don't run at half brightness like they are supposed to, but I'm sure there's a technical reason that I don't understand, and frankly don't want to put the effort in researching it. As a result, I reverted the running lights to incandescent bulbs, which is probably a good thing anyway since they are way cheaper to replace and they are on ALL the time (I have them as DRLs).

    Quote Originally Posted by BMWCurves View Post
    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.
    I'll take a pic of the LED bulb next to the factory 1156 incandescent bulb to give you an idea. I'm not sure what socket your front bulbs are though, so the factory length of yours may be different than mine.
    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.

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Location
    Toronto, ON
    Posts
    1,162
    Quote Originally Posted by az3579 View Post
    Ultimately, there was a time when cars didn't have checks for burnt out bulbs, so personally I'd rather just do a visual inspection of my car from time to time and have super bright, good-looking LEDs that don't flicker.
    BP, thanks for the detailed post and for doing some testing on the fly. One would imagine that if the warm checks were disabled (eliminating the flickering every 5 mins), the cold checks alone would tell you at ignition whether any of the bulbs were out - but I guess the BMW engineers' logic beats ours.

    I agree - I can do a visual inspection every so often and rather have bright LED lights. I was able to locate some US based eBay sellers with the 25W CREE bulbs but the shipping and customs were cost prohibitive. Maybe I would have to use my neighborhood parts smuggler's services next time

    Yes, I do have a sedan and they are different from the 2-missing-door variants.
    LOL!
    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


  3. #13
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Location
    Portland, OR
    Posts
    10,243
    Quote Originally Posted by az3579 View Post
    I'll take a pic of the LED bulb next to the factory 1156 incandescent bulb to give you an idea. I'm not sure what socket your front bulbs are though, so the factory length of yours may be different than mine.
    I would appreciate it!

  4. #14
    Join Date
    May 2016
    Location
    Behind The Orange Curtain
    Posts
    75
    Quote Originally Posted by BMWCurves View Post
    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):
    Gotcha, thanks.

    Ken...

  5. #15
    Join Date
    May 2016
    Location
    Behind The Orange Curtain
    Posts
    75
    Quote Originally Posted by az3579 View Post
    I did recently order (3) pairs of 25W Red bulbs for my running lights (bottom row in the tail lights, and trunk light), but I found that they are WAY too bright when in parking light mode and are blinding at night. I don't know why they don't run at half brightness like they are supposed to, but I'm sure there's a technical reason that I don't understand, and frankly don't want to put the effort in researching it. As a result, I reverted the running lights to incandescent bulbs, which is probably a good thing anyway since they are way cheaper to replace and they are on ALL the time (I have them as DRLs).
    This would be something controlled by a driver circuit, which I don't think these LED assemblies have. After all, they are fed by the 12V DC of the car and not household AC current.

    Consider this to be the difference between a household dimable LED "bulb" and a non-dimable The non-dimable bulb will only run at full brightness, regardless of the voltage or waveform sent to it.

    Ken...

  6. #16
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Branford, CT
    Posts
    16,055
    Quote Originally Posted by kbcons View Post
    Consider this to be the difference between a household dimable LED "bulb" and a non-dimable The non-dimable bulb will only run at full brightness, regardless of the voltage or waveform sent to it.
    Well, the amber turn signal bulbs in the front dim just fine - I have the front turn signals set to DRLs, so they are at half brightness. I think what I'll do is put the amber bulbs into the running light slots and see if they run at half brightness back there as well. If they do, then it's probably the particular red bulbs that I purchased that aren't appropriate. I'll do that when I take out the bulbs for size comparison pics.
    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.

  7. #17
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Branford, CT
    Posts
    16,055
    Size comparison between stock incandescent 1156 bulb on the left and my LED 1156 bulb on the right. They are almost the same length.





    P.S. - Don't buy these - they have garbage light output.



    Sent from my LG V10 on Tapatalk
    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.

  8. #18
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Location
    Portland, OR
    Posts
    10,243
    Appreciate it. I guess I'll have to see if I can find one that is shorter.

  9. #19
    Hi all,

    I recently also started adding LED bulbs to my car, mostly bought from JDMaster. Special thank you to az3579's posts explaining the checks, I disabled all warm checks and left the cold checks.

    Very happy with the results but have an interesting issue. My side indicators on the fenders, works great but are very dimly lit as soon as the LCM wakes up, and will stay on for about 5 minutes after the car was locked before turning off.

    It looks like this:
    Name:  IMG_20191129_171715.jpg
Views: 509
Size:  93.7 KB

    I suspect the LCM is sending a very low voltage to the side indicators as soon as it wakes up, but I have no idea. The LCM is running 4.5 SW, I retrofitted it to the car.
    Would changing PWM values for these help? If so what values should I try.

    Thank you in advance!

    Here is a short clip testing the bulbs on the rear.

  10. #20
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Branford, CT
    Posts
    16,055
    Regarding the sidemarkers,
    Yeah I just deal with it. It's not a big deal in my experience.
    I haven't found anything I can do about it, though to be fair I haven't looked much either. It doesn't bother me.
    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.

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