LED interior conversion review w/pics
#1
11-23-2010, 01:40 PM
LED interior conversion review w/pics
My LED interior light transformation is complete. My C5 A6 kit from Tunerdomes.com arrived a week or so ago and the difference is amazing. I do have a few reservations about my LED interior upgrade but overall, I’m very pleased with the outcome.
I’ll start with the bad, the visor bulbs and map lights in my A6 had to remain incandescent bulbs in order for the dome lights and map lights to function properly. In exchanges with David at TunerDomes, he believes my cars factory wiring may be to blame. He believes the polarity of the map lights gets reversed when a map light is manually turned on. Explaining why the map lights work correctly when the dome lights turn on, but only flicker when you manually turn them on. The visor LED bulbs (standard or error canceling) resulted in a flickering bulb. I did not attempt to resolve this any further as I just don’t care about the visor lights.
UPDATE: I finally got around to trying to track down why certain bulbs would not work correctly as reported originally above. I did a test where I wired in 2 incandescent wedge bulbs one to each map light socket. This solved all my issues with the LED bulb conversion, so now it's off to Radio Shack to wire in permanent resistors..
UPDATE: I decided not to buy resistors as wiring them in series was just too much work and hacking the wiring harness to the dome light. So I went with using 4 (2 front, 2 rear, 1 per map light) ultra low wattage incandescent bulbs. I updated my photo album and you can see the photos of how I installed them. The bulbs I chose barely even get warm to the touch even after being on for 5 or more minutes. I used 4 colored bulbs (what was available) from Radio Shack 272-1099 pack of 3 12v 60mA. Now every bulb works 100%, 100% of the time. I could have used resistors wired into the dome wiring harness but that would have required cutting the factory wiring harness going into the dome fixture but that wasn't something I was comfortable with. The resistors would need to be wired in series. If I used low wattage incandescent automotive bulbs, I could wire them in parallel and it would not require cutting factory wires.
Now onto the good, my biggest interior lighting complaint with my A6 Avant is how darn dim the incandescent bulbs are. Maybe if I didn’t have a black interior or dark tinted window it wouldn’t be such an issue. But if I drop something on the floor at night, it’s gone until daybreak. With the LED bulbs from Tunerdomes.com my interior brightness has (to my old eyes) seemed to have doubled. What once was a dark cave of a wagon, has become bright and crisp. I chose the hyper white bulbs and I would say they have the same color temp as my 5000k HID headlights, white with a hint of blue. The LEDs do fade on and fade off when opening and closing the doors just like the incandescent bulbs do but maybe not to the same degree.
The license plate bulbs make my plate stand out. They are significantly brighter than the incandescent bulbs and give it a nice crisp look. The footwell lights actually light up the footwells now and the bulbs in the doors that illuminate the ground do an amazing job. Moving to the rear of the car, my Avant’s hatch area has always been so dark, it’s impossible to see. Since the LEDs are so bright, I can see into the cargo area quite easily now. The hatch safety light/marker light (the one on the door itself that shines white down and red back) is actually usable now. The only downside is the LED bulbs are directional, so you have to choose between the white light shining down on the ground, or the red shining back. I chose the ground.
What I’ve learned:
Changing the rear seat footwell lights can throw me into a rage in seconds, I hate them, there is no space and the wires are so short (you’ll see if you ever have to change one).
LED bulbs are directional, if they don’t light up on your first try, flip it around.
Don’t waste your time changing the RED warning lights on each door to LED as you can’t tell any difference.
I received no warning lights on my dashboard for burnt out bulbs from using their license plate lights.
The map light housings are sharp and will slice open your fingers. Bloody bulbs don’t look cool.
Overall I am very pleased with this mod and think my car has a distinctive glow. If you have any questions, I will do my best to answer them. Also David@tunerdomes.com or Matt@tunerdomes.com are very helpful. I only took night pictures as daytime pictures don’t reveal much of anything.
Here is a link to the pictures I took. I know, I know, they suck, but you try taking photos of light bulbs at night.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jeffmlaf...eat=directlink
Here is a link to the A6 kit. Enter this coupon code for an extra 10% off: AUDITUNER
http://www.tunerdomes.com/index.php?...d&productId=28
Jeff
I’ll start with the bad, the visor bulbs and map lights in my A6 had to remain incandescent bulbs in order for the dome lights and map lights to function properly. In exchanges with David at TunerDomes, he believes my cars factory wiring may be to blame. He believes the polarity of the map lights gets reversed when a map light is manually turned on. Explaining why the map lights work correctly when the dome lights turn on, but only flicker when you manually turn them on. The visor LED bulbs (standard or error canceling) resulted in a flickering bulb. I did not attempt to resolve this any further as I just don’t care about the visor lights.
UPDATE: I finally got around to trying to track down why certain bulbs would not work correctly as reported originally above. I did a test where I wired in 2 incandescent wedge bulbs one to each map light socket. This solved all my issues with the LED bulb conversion, so now it's off to Radio Shack to wire in permanent resistors..
UPDATE: I decided not to buy resistors as wiring them in series was just too much work and hacking the wiring harness to the dome light. So I went with using 4 (2 front, 2 rear, 1 per map light) ultra low wattage incandescent bulbs. I updated my photo album and you can see the photos of how I installed them. The bulbs I chose barely even get warm to the touch even after being on for 5 or more minutes. I used 4 colored bulbs (what was available) from Radio Shack 272-1099 pack of 3 12v 60mA. Now every bulb works 100%, 100% of the time. I could have used resistors wired into the dome wiring harness but that would have required cutting the factory wiring harness going into the dome fixture but that wasn't something I was comfortable with. The resistors would need to be wired in series. If I used low wattage incandescent automotive bulbs, I could wire them in parallel and it would not require cutting factory wires.
Now onto the good, my biggest interior lighting complaint with my A6 Avant is how darn dim the incandescent bulbs are. Maybe if I didn’t have a black interior or dark tinted window it wouldn’t be such an issue. But if I drop something on the floor at night, it’s gone until daybreak. With the LED bulbs from Tunerdomes.com my interior brightness has (to my old eyes) seemed to have doubled. What once was a dark cave of a wagon, has become bright and crisp. I chose the hyper white bulbs and I would say they have the same color temp as my 5000k HID headlights, white with a hint of blue. The LEDs do fade on and fade off when opening and closing the doors just like the incandescent bulbs do but maybe not to the same degree.
The license plate bulbs make my plate stand out. They are significantly brighter than the incandescent bulbs and give it a nice crisp look. The footwell lights actually light up the footwells now and the bulbs in the doors that illuminate the ground do an amazing job. Moving to the rear of the car, my Avant’s hatch area has always been so dark, it’s impossible to see. Since the LEDs are so bright, I can see into the cargo area quite easily now. The hatch safety light/marker light (the one on the door itself that shines white down and red back) is actually usable now. The only downside is the LED bulbs are directional, so you have to choose between the white light shining down on the ground, or the red shining back. I chose the ground.
What I’ve learned:
Changing the rear seat footwell lights can throw me into a rage in seconds, I hate them, there is no space and the wires are so short (you’ll see if you ever have to change one).
LED bulbs are directional, if they don’t light up on your first try, flip it around.
Don’t waste your time changing the RED warning lights on each door to LED as you can’t tell any difference.
I received no warning lights on my dashboard for burnt out bulbs from using their license plate lights.
The map light housings are sharp and will slice open your fingers. Bloody bulbs don’t look cool.
Overall I am very pleased with this mod and think my car has a distinctive glow. If you have any questions, I will do my best to answer them. Also David@tunerdomes.com or Matt@tunerdomes.com are very helpful. I only took night pictures as daytime pictures don’t reveal much of anything.
Here is a link to the pictures I took. I know, I know, they suck, but you try taking photos of light bulbs at night.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jeffmlaf...eat=directlink
Here is a link to the A6 kit. Enter this coupon code for an extra 10% off: AUDITUNER
http://www.tunerdomes.com/index.php?...d&productId=28
Jeff
Last edited by Jeffla; 02-20-2011 at 12:08 PM.
#3
11-24-2010, 12:38 AM
It looks good. Guess I need to get some bulbs to replace mine.
Side note: didn't know the C5s don't have those over the door reading lights.
With the light coming from three different directions, actually I can see pretty good in my old farty C4. I bet the LEDs would make it pretty bright in there.
Thanks for sharing.
Side note: didn't know the C5s don't have those over the door reading lights.
With the light coming from three different directions, actually I can see pretty good in my old farty C4. I bet the LEDs would make it pretty bright in there.
Thanks for sharing.
#4
11-25-2010, 10:58 AM
It looks good. Guess I need to get some bulbs to replace mine.
Side note: didn't know the C5s don't have those over the door reading lights.
With the light coming from three different directions, actually I can see pretty good in my old farty C4. I bet the LEDs would make it pretty bright in there.
Thanks for sharing.
Side note: didn't know the C5s don't have those over the door reading lights.
With the light coming from three different directions, actually I can see pretty good in my old farty C4. I bet the LEDs would make it pretty bright in there.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks
#8
12-16-2010, 01:19 AM
Update: Added a bunch of better photos. Ignore the time stamp on the photos, it took me a while to figure out how to turn it off.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jeffmlaf...eat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/jeffmlaf...eat=directlink
- preserve the "carpeting" better.
#10
12-16-2010, 10:54 PM
I was just thinking the same thing...."where did I put my rubber mats?" I have a nice set somewhere, but where? Guess I should go and look. We got 17" of snow a few days ago, no time better than the present to dig them out. I think I'll have a few drinks before heading out to the garage, for only being a 1 car, it's got too much **** in it.