It was time to replace the pesky lamps in the HVAC, but I was not prepared to pay silly prices for a plug with a soldered in bulb.
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Plus, maybe LEDs are the way forward. So, I sourced white 12V LEDs, the resistors are built in, identified which was the ground wire on the car sockets, its brown and white
, and went to work.
The pictures below are the 3 versions of mod, first version was cutting away to reveal the soldered connection to finally deciding that you can pull the pins out one side, then remove the bulb from the other. The bulb plug on the left shows the final version. I have also shown the one bulb I manged to remove complete with soldered pins. I can only assume BMW did this to stop bulbs falling inside the HVAC control unit!
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The LED legs were tinned to add a bit of bulk so they made a good connection with the car's plugs, then trimmed the legs to length. One leg is penned in black. This is because new LEDS have the +ve identified by a longer leg. When I trimmed them to length, you lose this identifier! There is another way of identifying it though, the -ve normally links to the largest metaled area inside the LED.
After triple checking the LED cathode and anode (-ve and +ve) were correctly orientated, glued the LED in place with hot glue, using the LED's legs to replace the soldered pins shown on the right. The sharp eyed amongst you will spot that the middle plug (where the plug was cut shorter than the later versions) has the LED inserted the opposite way to the other 2. This is because the ashtray plug was wired incorrectly at the factory.
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I attempted to ensure the element of the LED that generates the light was roughly in the same place as the bulb filament. These pictures shows the LEDs fitted and working. The only limitation is that the LEDs used have a narrow viewing angle with leaves parts of the HVAC with poorer light coverage. This will be remedied when I source a 12v LED with a wider viewing angle. (Or use lower voltage LED with a wider viewing angle and an external current limiting resistor)
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Cost? circa £18 for 30 LEDs which included postage and packaging which works out at roughly 60p each!
LEDs:
https://www.rapidonline.com/4-8mm-low-profile?Attributes={"Forward Voltage Typical":["12V"]}
CW
After many years of my good lady asking for a convertible and looking at various options from different manufacturers, we bought a Z3. Although she initially wanted a TT or MX5, the minute she finished test driving MAU her first words to the dealer was "So, lets talk money!". Being a long time BMW owner, this was music to my ears.
