[M3EW]

I drive a 2013 328i and about 2 weeks ago I replaced my OEM turn signals with white BA15S Cree 5730 LEDs that I bought from eBay. After a week of driving around with them my parking lamps began to flicker every time I started up my car and it would give me a parking lamp malfunction message. Did switching my turn signals cause the parking lamps to malfunction or is this just a coincidence and the lights are about to burn out? Thank you

[cngo]

The new LEDs will flicker upon startup or periodically while driving because your car is performing cold/warm checks on the bulbs. You need to have the bulb cold/warm checks coded off after installing LEDs in the headlights or taillights.

[RoundelM3]

There's also a code that indicates the light "is LED" in addition to the bulb checks. See the DIY and coding section of this forum for more info.

[Billfitz]

Originally Posted by brzy328

After a week of driving around with them my parking lamps began to flicker every time I started up my car

It happened from day one, you just didn't notice it. No matter what the ads say there's no such thing as a plug and play LED, coding is necessary. Threads on the subject abound here:
http://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=430

[Wires]

As part of BMW safety, the computer "cold tests" the bulb for continuity. If you put in LED's and it expects incandescent, then it will fail the test and give you that false positive dead bulb warning. Like others said, you just need to code it to fix it.

[M3EW]

Thanks for all the help

[Billfitz]

Originally Posted by Wires

If you put in LED's and it expects incandescent, then it will fail the test and give you that false positive dead bulb warning.

There are three distinct things happening. The warm and cold checks are used to confirm the presence of an operating bulb, but most LED driver ballasts will prevent a warning from coming up. To that extent they are plug and play, but only to that extent.

Warm and cold checks won't cause incandescent bulbs to flicker, because the pulses are too short to heat the lamp filaments sufficiently to light up. LEDs don't use heated filaments, lighting up instantly, so they will flicker even though there's no dash warning of no bulb. That's why the warm and cold checks have to be coded out.

The last item is that with incandescent the voltage applied to the bulbs instant constant, it's a pulsed voltage. You don't see the bulbs strobe from the pulsed voltage because it happens too fast for the filaments to cool down between pulses. LED can strobe with that pulsed voltage, so coding them to 'is LED' provides them with a constant voltage.

[valley_nomad]

Originally Posted by brzy328

I drive a 2013 328i and about 2 weeks ago I replaced my OEM turn signals with white BA15S Cree 5730 LEDs that I bought from eBay. After a week of driving around with them my parking lamps began to flicker every time I started up my car and it would give me a parking lamp malfunction message. Did switching my turn signals cause the parking lamps to malfunction or is this just a coincidence and the lights are about to burn out? Thank you

It seems that many people who answered your question didn't really read your post

My understanding is that you changed your rear turn signal bulbs. And now your front parking lights flicker whenever starting the car and cause the error message. Did you change any code when you replaced your turn signal bulbs? Your problem seems to be a bit strange to me because first of all my 2013 328i doesn't do cold check on parking bulbs. It makes only warm check on those bulbs. Secondly, the parking lamps should not flicker if they still have the OEM incandescent bulbs. My only guess is that you changed the code at wrong place and accidentally enabled the cold check on parking bulbs that are already LEDs. Of course I have no way to explain why this started to happen two weeks after replacing turn signal bulbs....

[AlteBMW]

Originally Posted by valley_nomad

It seems that many people who answered your question didn't really read your post

My understanding is that you changed your rear turn signal bulbs. And now your front parking lights flicker whenever starting the car and cause the error message. Did you change any code when you replaced your turn signal bulbs? Your problem seems to be a bit strange to me because first of all my 2013 328i doesn't do cold check on parking bulbs. It makes only warm check on those bulbs. Secondly, the parking lamps should not flicker if they still have the OEM incandescent bulbs. My only guess is that you changed the code at wrong place and accidentally enabled the cold check on parking bulbs that are already LEDs. Of course I have no way to explain why this started to happen two weeks after replacing turn signal bulbs....

Where does it say he replaced the rear? It says "turn signals"

[valley_nomad]

Originally Posted by AlteBMW

Where does it say he replaced the rear? It says "turn signals"

BA15S is for F30's rear turn signal. The front one is BAU15S.

http://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho...50&postcount=7

[AlteBMW]

Originally Posted by valley_nomad

BA15S is for F30's rear turn signal. The front one is BAU15S.

http://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho...50&postcount=7

Aha. Obviously knowledge beyond my pay grade. Thanks.
Is another possibility that OP put in wrong bulbs? Or are they physically different?