Nothing to worry about. I see that too in my 05. LEDs are much more efficient and can light up with much lower current than incandescent lights. That same current is flowing through your incandescent light for that length of time but it is simply not enough current to warm the filament. Should be fine.

Lets see some pics!

 

Send it! The intake in my gallery is not my car, a non S. The wheels I bought here and have another set for sale,cheap! In the marketplace,here.

 

Thanks smoke05S,

Here is the photo showing the LED, LED in dimmed mode and the blink LED when opening the door haha

 

More photo, sorry...

 

Hey guys...

I've been having a few problems here. I have an r56.

I ordered the license plate lights from ledautomotive and the bulbs seem too long. Do I have to bend the contact spots or were they meant for the r53?

Secondly, I got the front eyelid LED lights off ebay. They were about $8 shipped for a pair. I tried one in and the light wouldn't turn on. I'm thinking it is defective. I tried the other one in, and it worked fine when I first installed it. I then drove to work without a problem. When I was coming home, I got my first CEL. After about 10 minutes, the CEL went off and I am assuming the light turned back on. Another 10 minutes went by, and the CEL came on again. The CEL light was on until I got home. I checked the eyelid light and the light is off. I had the LED installed in one eyelid and the standard light in the other.

What I also noticed was that the LED eyelid light seemed a little flimsy in the socket. It did not have as tight of a fit as the stock bulb.

Anybody else have these problems or can give me some advice?

 

Rotadent,
If it doesn't work when you first plug it in spin it around and reverse the polarity. That will usually solve that problem. If you have a crusty connection, the CEL will trigger until you stop driving so it may come on or off at any time. If it is loose try getting a small screwdriver to bend the socket tabs closer together. Also while you are in there scrape away any dirt dust or corrosion and dab a small amount of grease in there. The grease will stop corrosion from reforming and make the connection more reliable. My ebay special eyelid led was as tight as the stock bulb there too. My car is brand new so I didn't have any connection problem but it will happen eventually. That fix I outlined will fix a lot of quirky behavior when our cars age.

Another test for that one you think is defective, swap it for the LED that works, plug it in both ways. One way should work. now put the good LED in the side where it wasn't working and see if you can get it to work.

If the connection is tight and clean, it should work. One more test, your dome light uses the same socket size and is easy to get to. It should be cleaner than a foglight socket. Do your testing there.

On the LED automotive light, did you get the E46 BMW specific LED for 13.98 (with 6 LED's per light) or a different one? It should be the same size as stock and fit just like stock, no bending or tweaking needed. They could have shipped you the wrong one too. These are gauranteed so you should be able to exchange it for the right one.


Vodka,
My R53 does exactly the same thing, ha ha. I get the same light show and dim mode. I think maybe they were going to monitor the bulbs and nixed it. My R56 flashes like that while it is checking the bulbs for the first 10 seconds after startup then it turns off. It wont drain the battery or anything, in fact it is probably drawing even less current than the incandescent bulb while all of that is going on. it only takes .707 volts to make the LED light up. If it really bothers you a parallel resistor may work to pull down the voltage so that it wont come on or you may need some type of voltage regulation that only lets current pass when the voltage is over a certain level ( I am having trouble remembering my EE101, is that a clamper or a clipper?)

 

Here is the update...

I was able to get in the license plate BMW lights. I had to jam them up there and it does bend the connectors. But the do work. I'm still getting the CEL. But I'm thinking it's because of the eyelid lights.

The eyelid lights are still giving me problems. I swapped them both and rotated the polarity. There is still one faulty one that doesn't turn on at all. The other one turns on, then turns off after a few minutes. The connections appear clean. The car is fairly new. The old lights work fine. I'm baffled.

Anyways, ordered a pair of new lights off the same guy on ebay. They're so cheap!

I'll keep you posted...

 

smoke --- these look great!!! thanks for all the info!!

now if anybody has secret ways to stop all the squeeks and rattles I'll be set!

 

I hope squeeks and rattles are not coming from the lights Bagwell! Those above are just ebay specials, 2.99 each shipped. I have had zero problems to date. That mod went so well I went hog wild on the rest of my cars and have not had a quality problem. . . except for once the width was a little off and that allowed the light to shift sideways off the contacts. This was for the puddle lights on my Armada, which see water and dirt so I had a similar problem. The clean and grease trick worked in that application and I haven't adjusted or tweaked anything since (2500 miles and counting), granted that is a much smaller light.

Rotadent, Try to do one mod at a time because the warning light can be confusing. I got bit by that myself and tried a whole bunch of fixes for the wrong light. Once you solve the problem go to the next mod. Those lights are not that expensive so maybe buy another pair if one is consistently out. . . let me look around, I may have one extra one I can send you to test out. It looks like you tried to post some pics to show us but at least for me only the URL came through. Try the "go advanced" button to get to the file upload screen or use your gallery function to upload the pics. Hopefully you have a pic of that socket and a good close up of the light. From what you describe it sounds like the LED's are thinner than the stock light. On mine the LED's are slightly thicker so it snaps in really tight. I want to see that plate light installation too. I found my camera so I can take some pics of my plate light with the power off if anyone needs it.

 

Smoke05s: Thanks for your help in this thread.

Here is the update.
I got the license plate lights working! I had to force them in there, but they do bend the connections a little. But they work well with no CEL while I have the stock eyelid lights in.

As far as the eyelids are concerned, I bought another pair of the ones you recommended on ebay. I'm getting the same issue. Both of them do not work and they set off the CEL/check bulb light.
I also bought another pair from another dealer off ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/2-x-White-12V-19...item3a59a0146e

These don't have that many LEDs (1 row instead of 3) for a total of 4 LEDs. They both work! However, it still sets off the CEL.
Is it setting the CEL because the voltage is too high? It's been a while since my college physics.

I'll try to get some pictures over the weekend.

 

How long did it take you guys to receive your eyelid lights? Mine were shipped exactly 3 weeks ago, and still haven't seen them.

On a lighter note, I discovered a coupon code for the license plate lights:

e46may10off

It takes an additional 10% off!

 

Where did you get yours License Plate LEDs?

 

Prost:
I got mine from ledautomotive.com
http://www.ledautomotive.com/product.php?id_product=129

It took them less than a week to ship.

3one3:
I got the ebay lights in about 1.5 weeks. It might be faster since I'm on the west coast. Both ebay sellers are in Hong Kong. The shipment shouldn't take longer than 4 weeks to get to you. 3 weeks is pushing it. If you don't get them, I could send you mine... though they don't seem to work for my car. I have 4 of them!

 

Thanks bro. I'm going to send them a message and see what's going on. I'll keep you posted. I apprciate it

 

^These are the ones to get. Great coustomer service as well. I odered 2 sets for 2 cars and 1 of the bulbs was not lighting up and after 1 email a new one was quickly sent out to me. Great products.

 

hey,if they are not the right bulbs,it will throw the light on the dash..the only solution i have found is the piaa led bulbs...they are a bit pricey but they work...

 

I bought a pair of 4x 5050 SMD LEDS from Ebay. Cost is $25. Cheaper than Ho-en W5W(non-LED).
(http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/WHITE...item335c392ecb)

They are shipping from Canada. It took around 5 days to Pennsylvania.

No bulb out error so far. No flckering. Not too bright, not too dimm.^^. I also tried these LEDs on fog light, but they were way too dimm....

 

Thanks for your input. I might try get these off ebay. Ebay is making a lot of money off me. Did you try these for the eyelid lights or the foglights? if it is dim for the foglights, it should be really dim for the eyelids.

 

Here are my license plate LEDs. They're pretty bright. Got them from Smoke05S's recommendation of ledautomotive.com

http://www.ledautomotive.com/product.php?id_product=129

 

I put them on eyelid lights(parking light), not foglights. It was dimm.. Foglight takes H8.

For parking lights, I am going to try T10(W5W) 13 SMD LEDs from Ebay. They are cheap(less than $4 for each). Smoke05s recommended these LEDs. From his gallery picture, they look very bright.....although I doubt.^^

 

They look bright^^. Are they a festoon dome type 6411 6418 bulb?

My MC clubman uses T10 194 W5W.

 

Yes, they are very bright. I'm a little more self-conscious now. I hope I'm not attracting that cop who can read my license plate a mile away.

http://www.ledautomotive.com/guide.php?id_cms=60

That's the instruction page. On the third picture down is the bulb installed. They are festoon dome and has 6 smd leds.

 

Sorry I have been away Rotadent,

It looks like the new bulbs do not have enough LED's to avoid the bulbout warning. The 3 story one draws about 3 watts which is just enough to avoid the warning. I don't think the one story lights will do it. I have heard the 2 story ones will work but I have not tested that to verify. You can add a resistor and that will take care of the bulbout (36 ohm 5 watt will do it).

For that Clubman how much room to you have in front of the light socket? If it is tight you will probably need to go with something with an on board resistor . . . (which I see you already have) Correct those would be dim in the eyelid but look good in that plate application. That black chip is the resistor which is drawing most of the current. (Check for flicker in the first 10 seconds after you turn the car on, I bet it does it). The other way to go, if you have the room is get a bulb with more LED's and go for the largest elements to draw more current. here is a link to a bulb that will be bright and work in the eye lids.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2x-19...item2a0683d25a

 

Ordered last night, thanks

 

love my license plate LEDs!!!!!!!

thanks again smoke!