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ElectricalFor discussions regarding wiring up electrical modifications such as radar detectors, brake light mods, power sockets, and driving lights in Clubman (R55), Cooper and Cooper S (R56), and Cabrio (R57) MINIs.
Everyone needs to stop buying cheap, chinese eBay bulbs and expecting them to last. I get all of my bulbs from v-leds, they're washington based and have amazing customer service. They custom design all of their bulbs in-house and everything they sell is top quality. I installed these bulbs in my 2011 and have had no problems. They're plenty bright enough to light the plate but not stupidly bright. They are a nice, pure 5000K white, none of that blue-white nonsense.
When it comes to LED bulbs you need to buy quality ones if they're going to last and be trouble free. Also, most cheap bulbs aren't very bright. V-leds makes some of the most blinding bulbs on the market.
I don't work for them or anything, just a huge fan of their products!
Yes. IMHO, it is worth paying the premium price. The light assembly fits perfectly on my Clubbie. I had them for couple weeks now and so far, no "dash error."
The LED lights are very bright and no issues with lights flickering either. Here's couple photos:
The biggest issue with these modules is the rinky electrical connection. You may want to use the OE bulb housing as a connector and hardwire pigtails between it and the plug on the module housing, then cover the exposed terminals in some silicone. Otherwise, I forsee corrosion and other reliability issues very quickly, as the supplied connectors (both ends) are exposed to the elements.
The Coopersport modules for the puddle/footwell lights work quite well too. I found it helped to trim back the locating nubs on the door cutouts, as otherwise the modules won't fit. A better idea would have been to cut matching recesses into the light modules, but I didn't think of that at the time...
I won't purchase the AZN ones anymore. I am already on my second set for my license plate and now they are not matching in bulb color. They have all burnt out within 3 to 4 months. Too $$$ to keep doing it this way. I now carry OEM bulbs in my car in the event they burn out while I am out on the road. I do a lot of driving between NorCal or to AZ.
I bought them 2 years ago an have never had a problem with my 2008
They are bright but they are pure white. Love them.
Look way back in this thread when I bought mine. My LED automotive 129's are trouble free 3 years later and just as bright as the day I put them in. It is hard to find domestic 13 element leds for the eyelids. 13 is right on the boarderline of drawing enough current to throw a bulbout. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. If anyone ever makes a 17 element that fits in there, that's the one to get.
walk0080 have you found some replacement eyelids yet? I'm on pretty much the same boat as u. Had countless replacement AZN's bulbs sent to me but have them give bulb out in just a couple weeks. Did you end up just coding them out with ncsexpert? BTW where abouts are u from canada?
Everyone needs to stop buying cheap, chinese eBay bulbs and expecting them to last. I get all of my bulbs from v-leds, they're washington based and have amazing customer service. They custom design all of their bulbs in-house and everything they sell is top quality. I installed these bulbs in my 2011 and have had no problems. They're plenty bright enough to light the plate but not stupidly bright. They are a nice, pure 5000K white, none of that blue-white nonsense.
When it comes to LED bulbs you need to buy quality ones if they're going to last and be trouble free. Also, most cheap bulbs aren't very bright. V-leds makes some of the most blinding bulbs on the market.
I don't work for them or anything, just a huge fan of their products!
i dont know jack about license plate bulbs but i would like to get some LED bulbs for my 2012 MCS, could you send me the link of the exact bulbs for the license plate.
I have used these bulbs in all three of my MINIs going back to 2009, no bulb warnings, incredibly bright, integrated power regulation circuitry for compatibility with dimming ( cabin and footwell lights ). Definitely not e-bay Chinese bulbs...
*Do not look directly at the light without the diffuser covers in place.. (c:
I have purchase PIA bulb for my fogs, regular bulbs ect ...
I have recently wanted to try some LED, bought the whole interior LED, looks pretty nice, clean white and then I decided to get licence plate LED - bought them from Ebay, went with two Leds as I didn't want to have the brightest of the brightest. looks again clean (cant believe I kept that yellowish OEM ones for that long...) no bulb warnings, fits perfectly.
Everyone do what they want,however, IMO, $10 didnt break the bank and they do look good
When I tried installing LED festoons on a R57 license plate I had a terrible time getting them fitted correctly. The regular bulbs are hard to seat correctly in that tiny area and the LED heat syncs made it almost impossible to get them in there. Then a couple weeks later a huge bump in the road bounced one of them out of the socket. I reinstalled the regular bulbs and gave up.
The countryman and paceman T5 style for license plate bulbs and is so much easier to install.
Yes, a little tight fit but can be done and hold tight with our Ziza ones , a little trick so they don't wiggle out ( once installed ) is to bend it the bottom end a hair inward of the tongs to hold the bulb cone end a little more. Been running mines for years, no issues.
Also ours are canbus so no bulbs out errors. No coding required.
Reviving the thread here... been using stock halogen bulbs in the license plate area for 1+ year since the AZNOptics were a total bust. I am hesitant to use anything with CANBUS/resistors as there is nowhere for all that heat to escape.
VLED didn't seem to have the right festoon bulbs so I went with this small company that makes accessories for the Tesla S. The CREE LEDs have no resistors or CANBUS chips so hopefully will run cool enough... and have approx 5-5,000K colour temp.
I also ordered some VLED units for the exterior. Details are here
We're sorry for the issues that you had. Our records show that you had our older line of festoons that utilized heat sinks to regulate the heat dispersion. Heat sinks unfortunately does not work well due to limited air flow in an encapsulated environment. We're always looking to improve our units so in our V4 model, we introduced built in intelligent IC drives that smooth out the input current, reducing heat spikes from current surges. Also utilizes our high temp gel substrate coating which serves to insulate and isolate heat from the rest of the components and protect the solder. So far, these new units have been champs for our Mercedes, Porsche, VW, and Maserati customers and we'd like a chance to re-earn your trust. Although our units only have a 1 year warranty period which you're well out of, if willing, I'd like to send you a free set of our new V4 line as a way of doing right by you and make sure you're taken cared of. Just PM me.
Our new V4 festoon units retail $20/set of 2 units and are plug and play. Free shipping anywhere in US. International rates apply.
Last edited by AZN Optics; Aug 1, 2015 at 10:41 PM.
That said, I've noticed browsing through NAM that quite a few of you have coded out the codes. Is there an interest for non-canbus units? Without resistance, it would actually be a lot cooler burning.
That said, I've noticed browsing through NAM that quite a few of you have coded out the codes. Is there an interest for non-canbus units? Without resistance, it would actually be a lot cooler burning.
If you happen to have a product lying around that would work and it's just a matter of adding R56/55/57/58/59/60/61 to the compatibility table, sure. But if you would have to make a custom design, I doubt you'd sell enough to pay back the design and tooling costs. Coding the car is just annoying enough that it's not much of a mass market thing. (I'd love to be proven wrong.)
