I would love to change all of my exterior lights to LED's. So I'd like to confirm, can LED's go everywhere on the exterior of the car:

Taillights
Arch lights
Parking Lights
Blinker (egg yolk)
Fogs???
High Beams???
Rear Fog Light

Can anyone confirm? Maybe Imago-X?

 

only ones you cant do LEDs on is the fog and the headlights
EDIT to say i have replaced all my bulbs except my head light and fog lights

 

How about some detailed info with regards to the rear brake lights and rear fog lights. I'd like to switch to LED in both. What bulbs did you use, were any special resistors required?

 

Mykl's got it right: Everything but the headlights and fogs

(check out my sweet true LED tails: the red part has a small 9 led pattern- the top 2 are gonna get LED bulbs.)

 

Those look nice but, I just want to replace the oem bulbs with LED's. Not interested in replacing the entire brake light assembly.

 

For 600+ posts...you sure do ask a lot of SEARCH questions!

 

Try this...
http://autolumination.com/

 

They are in AZ...if you ever get back down here!

 

Price of the M3 just shot up $3K genius!

I'll do some research...but I'm confused on where resistors are needed. I want everything bright enough and long lasting. Will I only get that with what I have on the car now (i.e. NO LED's)??

 

LEDs if done right should last longer that OEM bulbs cause they dont get hot like bulbs do so they dont burn out. Plus they draw less electricity so they are more durable the less electricity part is why you need resistors. I working on finding a new relay like autolumination sells that is designed for both bulbs and LEDs like alot of modern cars have nowadays. I hope that would get rid of the need for resistors.

 

If you're using LED replacement bulbs from Autolumination then you should not need any additional resistors - everything should be good to go right out of the package, with any needed resistor built into the base - all the ones I got from them were, anyway. Just match the correct base (most replacable bulbs are 194-type) and you're good to go.

The only reason you should need to put resistors on LEDs is if you plan to use a straight LED directly hard-wired into the car's 12v power supply. If you want to do that, just check out Oznium.com's PRE-WIRED LEDs - I just order all my non-based LEDs this way in packs of 10 - they're very well made and have multiple layers of heat-shrink material covering the wires and the resistor. They cost a bit more this way, but someone else does the time-consuming and tedious task of soldering on the fiddly-bits, so it's well worth the extra expense IMHO. Just connect 'em and you're all set - no muss, no fuss (or soldering, either).

 

When people talk about resistors for tail light LEDs, they generally aren't talking about voltage drop resistors like you're showing.

Resistors are inserted in-line with the turn-signal bulbs to slow down the flash rate. When a bulb blows, the remaining bulbs draw less current and the flasher speed increases. It's how you can tell that you have a bulb out. Some newer vehicles also monitor the total resistance of the bulb circuits to determine if a bulb is out.

So, when "resistors" are discussed when talking about LED Bulb Replacement it's to get around the fast-flash or bulb out warning issues, not to drop voltage.

-Scott

 

Ah... I know there's a discussion of using a resistor in this fashion in the "Lignt that Boot!" thread... Just do a forum search and it should pop right up.

 

Not from what I understood. Because LEDs will light with significantly less juice than normal bulbs, LEDs without the resister will continue to flicker even in the "off" position because there is an intermittent residual (or test?) current flowing . The purpose of the resister is to basically absorb that current rather than the LED.

 

We're dicussing two separate issues here. There seems to be residual current in the MINI electrical wires even when a bulb is supposed to be off. The current is not enough to light up a regular bulb but enough for an LED. For the external lights, I've seen this reported for the front parking lights and the license plate lights. The remedy is to put a resistor across the +/- terminals of the LED bulb.

The fast flashing turn signal is a different issue. When the car detects a burnt out turn bulb (and it would appear to be this way when using an LED), it makes the turn signals blink fast. Autolumination and other vendors sell load resistors for LED turn signal bulbs. The downside is that these resistors simulate a regular bulb and they use just as much current and get just as hot as the regular bulb, and you have to be careful where you mount them.

 

It actually will do both. Some bulbs(like the turn signals) are on a device that measures the resistance on the circuit and blink faster to warn you a bulb is burnt out. WHen an LED bulb is installed, the system thinks the bulb is popped because the LEDs have so much less resistance o the circuit. Adding a resistor of the proper size tricks the car into thinking that an incandescent bulb has been properly re-installed.

In places like the tail and in the boot, LEDs can also flicker, either when the car is running or even when the car is turned off. In this application, the resistor "absorbs" the trace voltage as was stated.

Resistors - they're your FRIENDS!

 

You guys are killing me Yes it will work without external resistors... No it won't work without external resistors... Watch for heat build-up from external resistors... Where should I attach the resistors.... Which are the best LEDs to use for brake and fog replacement bulbs????

Thats why, on another thread about LEDs I suggested it would be great for a vendor to create a PACKAGE...Plug-and-play type that would allow us klutz's to up grade to LED brake/fog lights

 

That would be nice if someone would make a "plug and play" LED tail solution, I agree. The new MINI is now in it's, what, seventh year of production? Nobody's done them yet though, so...

Doing LED tails is a very large endeavor... Not too challenging provided you have some basic math skills pertaining to circuit design and can solder cleanly on a breadboard - doing them is mainly grueling repetition. I'd Google something like "DIY custom LED tail lights" and read some of the How-to articles you find... I think you'll soon understand that we don't MEAN to be confusing, but where electricity is concerned, there's usually a SIMPLE answer and a CORRECT (usually much more complicated) answer...

 

ImagoX: Thanks for the suggestion. Did google and found some things that could help. Still think it would be smart for one of our vendors to develop a Plug and Play Kit. Bet it would be a good seller.

 

I still would love to do something like that. Here is something i drew up as a concept for how i would imagine an 05-06 style taillights

 

^^ That would be sweet. One may be able to do that by hacking apart a clear taillight housing and using easily-available truck taillight LEDs, but it'd be a ton of work and could look, well, "hacked".

 

Everything but highbeams and front fogs (waiting for high output LED in these areas)...I've done everything else including all interior lights...

 

man that would be hot...i know the third brake light comes in LED now both clear and smoked....the wheel markers would be nice and all the others too ...if you can mock these up and sell them let me know ill def. buy ! ( smoked of course)

 

A couple of questions on this.

1. Which locations have you seen LED flickering (when the bulb is supposed to be off)
2. Have you had issues with LEDs burning out (probably overvoltage from the alternator)

 

I have one persistant problem with the license plate bulbs...they would start to burn out and begin to flicker after a few months...this might be a problem specific with Autolumination's bulb choice...I'm going to find another source after this set starts to go south...

Brake lamps now light instantly like the CHMSL...

Signal flashing is roughly twice the normal rate and I haven't found any resistors to counter this...However, I kinda like the rapid flashing...goes with faster passing and lane changes... Curiously though, the emergency flash rate is normal...

As for flickering when off, I haven't experienced that anywhere...