I have been trying to replace the front turn indicators with white LED bulbs to completely get rid of the orange lights on the front of my MINI. Tonight, I finally succeeded without having to cut into any wires.

The stock front turn indicator bulbs are 7507.

I could not find a site that sells white LED 7507 bulbs, so I bought a pair of 12 LED white 1156 bulbs (got mine off ebay for $11 + shipping).

They are the same size, the only difference being that the nubs on the base of the light are not straight across on the 7507, where on the 1156 they are straight across. Example:


This means you can't just plug in the 1156 bulb. The easiest way around this is to almost completely file off one of the nubs on the 1156 bulb like so:


After one of the nubs have been filed down, you can then slide the bulb in the socket, and twist it in to place.


The next problem is that LED bulbs are polarity sensitive (you have to put the positive wire to the correct terminal on the bulb). On the MINI, the wires are reversed. The first and simple option is to cut the wires, and re-connect them (via solder or another method) to opposite sides. I really didn't want to cut the wire harness on my brand new MINI, so after a closer examination of the turn indicator sockets, I found a way to disassemble the socket, reverse the wires, and get the LED bulb to work!

Here is what you'll need:

A file to get rid of one of the nubs on the 1156 bulb, and a very tiny flat blade screwdriver, see the size of the screwdriver next to the bulb for an idea of how small.

First step:

On the inside of the socket, you can see there is a small bracket that is held on by the clips on the side of the plug. You need to pry these outward gently, so the clip moves up.

Next:

Once you have the clip moved up, you can slide it out of the socket.

Next:

Once you have the clip off (be sure not to lose it, or break it!), you will need to press in on the metal clips using the small screwdriver, and pull the wires out the back of the socket.

Next:

Once you have the wires out, you will need to reverse the side each wire goes in. When sliding the wires back in, you will hear each one snap in to place. After you have the wires snapped back in, re-attach the small clip to the plug, and give your new LED lights a try!

No more ugly orange. All lit up, it looks pretty sweet!


The best part about this mod (aside from not having to cut any wires) is that a regular bulb will still work fine even after the wires are switched!

One drawback is the faster blink rate that is caused by the LED's since they don't draw as much power as regular bulbs. Some people like the faster blink rate, but I can't stand it.
I have already bought a pair of 6 ohm, 50 watt resistors to fix that though. I plan on installing those tomorrow, so I'll post some more pictures when I do that. Let me know what you think!

 

wah, pretty detail guide, great job. too bad those white leds aren't legal ~!

 

Very nice write up and great photos. Not a mod I will do unless I find some orange LEDs, but a pleasure to read.

 

Please do! I'm using silver stars now but would like to go to LED where possible.

 

Thanks! I'm not too worried about the legality, I had white front turn indicators on my last car for 5 years, and was never hassled once about them. I'm pretty sure it is just a fix it ticket anyways.


Thank You If you are worried about the legal part, orange 1156 LED bulbs are easy to find too! Just search ebay (or froogle) for "1156 led amber", you should get tons of results.

I only got the 12 LED bulbs since they were so cheap, but I think I might be switching to at least the 24 LED bulbs for a little more brightness.

 

They sell whatever you need on www.autolumination.com

 

Except White 7507 LED bulbs... They do have some excessive Amber 7507 LED bulbs though...

 

Stopped by ACE Hardware on my way home tonight and picked up some mounting hardware for the resistors.
I picked up (4) 6/32 x 3/4 black allen bolts, (4) 1/4 aluminum spacers, & (4) nylon locking nuts. I ended up not needing the nuts at all, which I will explain below.
Here is one of the resistors I had already purchased:

The resistors get very warm to quite hot while the blinkers are running, and it is recommended to mount them to a metal surface on the car. The problem is that there is not a lot of easily accessible metal surfaces near the front turn indicators. I opted to install them under the thick plastic just around the front turn indicators. To address the heat concerns I used 1/4 inch aluminum spacers so that they would not be resting directly on the plastic.


Here are most of the tools I used for the install:

Pencil, allen wrench, loctite, super glue, resistor pattern template I made from a business card. The other tools I used were a drill, pliers, and exacto knife.


As I mentioned above, I ended up not needing the nuts I bought since the allen screws barely fit through the holes in the mounting tabs. By carefully screwing the bolts in to the mounting tabs, it threaded them perfectly!

Had I known this ahead of time, I would have bought shorter allen bolts.


Next I used the (business card) template to drill holes in the plastic where I would be mounting the resistors.



The reason I am mounting the resistors on the underside of the plastic is because with the hood closed, I am not sure there would be enough clearance for the resistors with the headlight housings sitting right there.


I used the super glue to hold the spacers in place on the bottom of the resistors to make mounting them easier.



Once the super glue dried it was time to mount the resistors. I put a drop of loctite on the newly threaded mounting tabs of the resistors. This will hopefully keep the allen bolts from backing out.



Here is another picture of the resistor mounted. This view is from the turn indicator looking backwards.

(That one drop of loctite sure goes a long way!) You can really see in this view how much space is between the resistor and the plastic mounting surface. This will help keep the resistor cooler, and also keep it from melting the plastic.


Next it was time to splice the resistor wires into the turn indicator harness. I used the exacto knife to cut back 3 to 4 inches of the electrical tape. Be careful not to cut the wires!

I just used the wire splices that came with the resistor kit. It does not matter which wire from the resistor you splice in to each of the turn indicator wires. Just be sure to splice one on to each wire!


Here are a couple of pictures with everything mounted and in place:


Finally all done. Now I have some nice White LED turn indicators that don't blink 200 times a minute!


There are all the light bulbs I have replaced so far on my MINI with LED lights!

10 Total so far. (2 Turn indicators, 4 wheel arch lights, 2 side turn indicators, and 2 front bumper parking lights).

 

great upgrade - thank you for the very in-depth DIY write up!

-jac

 

i just spray painted my amber turn signal bulb with silver paint to completely
remove the orange inside the assembly.

http://www.geocities.com/ken350gt/2m...r.10.16.05.jpg
done.

 

Excellent photograph documentation - well done! Not sure I'd do this mod, but if I am tempted, I'll come here for the details

What I would like to do is change the side repeaters (near the mirrors); I'd love red lenses instead of the white ...