[reblok]

Originally Posted by Billfitz

Nope. To recap:
You have to code out the cold and warm checks... cold and warm checks will cause the LEDs to periodically blink. You don't see it with halogens, but with LEDs you do.

Something happens with the fogs that doesn't with the high or low beams. As soon as you plug them in they flicker rapidly, at a very low intensity... I found that a 15 ohm resistor stopped the flickering...The high and low beams don't have this flicker, so they don't need resistors.

Might depend. The first set of LED low beams I tried flickered, even when the car was off, so it's apparently not always just the fogs.

[Billfitz]

There's only one way to know for sure. If you're forced to use them don't use the 6 ohm that are sold for the purpose, use 15 ohm, which consume less than half the current and don't get really hot. Why they recommend 6 ohm I can't figure.

[reblok]

WAG: they are not recommending coding. Instead, they are trying to fake out the system into thinking they are halogens. Probably works with a number of make/models.

[Billfitz]

If they don't recommend coding they don't know WTF they're doing. Resistors provide a load that the iDrive sees to prevent a bulb out warning, but they don't stop the blink every few minutes caused by the cold and warm checks. They also don't change the voltage from a pulsed waveform for incandescent to a constant DC for LED.

[chadco]

Hi, after reading so many posts about changing to LEDs this is the best one. I changed all of my lights to LEDs (low, high, fog, drl, parking) and coded out the warm and cool checks and changed to LEDs. I did not run any resistors or a canbus and haven't had any issues what so ever (it's been a few months now). Thanks for the post!!!

[Littlebear]

Originally Posted by Billfitz

I've seen those [retainer clips], which are usually tagged as used in Mercedes, and I don't think it has anything to do with LED anyway.... I used high temperature RTV silicone. It's meant for use with metal and will withstand the heat of LED bases that must be considerable, otherwise they wouldn't have heat sinks.

Hello BMW Experts!

I have some LED bulbs I want to use in my low beam spot, and they look very much like the "BroSpeed" ones. They have no retainer clips, the stock clips for the halogen bulbs don't fit, and the bulbs do not have a removable collar to slip the other clips behind, like some LED bulbs do.
What have all you muggs done to hold the big LED bulb in the socket? BMW use the left clip for my halogens, and I just used the center clip on a bulb with a removable collar. I would like to find the proper clip (round center hole, slotted (like right clip) so I can bend it onto the bulb since it have no removable collar), but have any others besides B.F. just globbed on a bunch of Permatex or similar to hold the bulb in place?

TIA! Murf

[Billfitz]

I didn't do anything, mine fit into the stock clips for H7 bulbs no problem. I guess the bulbs you got don't have an H7 base.

[Littlebear]

But even my stock H7 halogen bulbs use a retainer clip (see above pic).
My 2017 bulb socket has two torx screws opposing each other (~ 3 & 9 o'clock), that the retaining clips slip those little side tabs under. I think earlier/other cars might be different, having three tabs that are pushed out from the center of the circle, like in this vid.
Not my car! No, I need those stupid clips....

Murf

[Billfitz]

My 2015 has the same bulb retainers as in the vid.

[Littlebear]

Well, BMW has moved on from that old style socket.
Has anyone with the "new" style sockets (LCI?) figured how to keep the "old" style" LED bulbs (no separating collar) in (I have a set in the closet)?

Murf

[brob]

This is a bit off-topic, but when I installed high beam LED "bulbs" in our 218d, they blink exactly 16 times each time the engine is started, but never again until the next engine restart. I thought that the vehicle's control system was acting normally by sending these pulses to the bulbs, in the expectation that this would be a stimulus for an ageing (incandescent) bulb to fail due to the high inrush current of a cold filament. Because of an incandescent bulb filament's thermal inertia, you would not be able to see the bulbs blinking during this stress test at each startup. BTW, the LED bulbs have worked flawlessly over a couple of years, and give a much more penetrating light than the bi-xenons on my 435i. However, it does seem too much trouble to change the 435i bulbs from bi-xenon to LED

[Billfitz]

The first set of blinks is the cold check. After that's done the warm checks begin, a single flash every minute or so. If there's no load detected you get the dash warning. If the bulbs have a ballast that will usually provide the load the iDrive needs to see to prevent the warning, but the blinking will still occur unless you code off the warm and cold checks.

[Littlebear]

Next Problem, LCI Edition:

My low beams have those little "caps" that go around the front of the halogen bulb. The caps won't let my replacement LED bulbs go in all the way, with the front of the bulb contacting the loop, or cap.
Has anyone dealt with this problem? Do I need a smaller LED bulb, or can you pull the 'cap' thing out?
The bottom, red car pic is mine. The cap looks smaller than the others....

TIA! Murf

[muniz_ri]

Originally Posted by Littlebear

Next Problem, LCI Edition:

My low beams have those little "caps" that go around the front of the halogen bulb. The caps won't let my replacement LED bulbs go in all the way, with the front of the bulb contacting the loop, or cap.
Has anyone dealt with this problem? Do I need a smaller LED bulb, or can you pull the 'cap' thing out?
The bottom, red car pic is mine. The cap looks smaller than the others....

TIA! Murf

You need a bulb with a smaller tip. I wouldn't remove the ring. It prevents glare.

[brob]

And to Bilifitz - thanks, I didn't know about the hot flashing. Although, if you don't get a headlight fail warning either at startup, or when driving, the only person(s) able to see the (hot) flashing lights would be those approaching drivers who just happened to be looking at your lights. Probably not a issue for one brief pulse.

[Billfitz]

It's an issue because that pulse happens every minute or so. Oncoming drivers would only see it once, those in front of you would wonder why you're flashing them.

[brob]

Quite right - I'll do a test drive with our 2 cars and assess how bad the hot flash is. Thanks.

[nodaus]

Billfitz, I was wondering whether you managed to sort out the issue with the fog lights in the end;

Additionally, anyone with this modification done in the UK had issues with MOTs

Excellent post, by the way!

Regards

[Billfitz]

Since I cured the hyper-flashing of the fogs with resistors that I had on hand I didn't bother to investigate further as to the cause and how it might be fixed via coding.

[sspade]

@nodaus

There is no issue with swapping LEDs into fog housings. No different than the headlights.

[Billfitz]

Update 8/14/20: I came across this source for the same headlight/fog lamp bulbs I used:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/H11-LED-Hea...53.m2749.l2649

Those on this page are H11 base for the fog lamps. I don't see any H7 base on the sellers site, so you'd have to contact him to see if he has any. At $21 the H11 are an absolute steal.

Update 10/27/20: These bulbs have been replaced with a different style, which use fan cooling. Fans fail, so I don't recommend them.

[Stuart j]

Have you come across any low beam leds that give a good beam pattern now? Cause the links are old I can't find the bulbs you recommended

Thanks