Hi guys,
I have a 11' MCS and I am wondering which type of LED license plate bulbs to use? I feel they're too dim and I want them to be brighter. Thanks and look forward to everyone's answers.

 

I was hoping someone would answer you, myself. But... :dunno

I did find this thread, but it seems the results are mixed. I think I'm going to keep mine OEM until someone seems to have better luck with them.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...te-lights.html

 

Now Just a Question for you.

Why would you want the police to be able to see your license plate better?

Seems counter intuitive to me. I really don't want the police to see the plate better or allow police cameras a better view of the plate.

I am just curious!!!!!!

 

I think people are looking for more consistency with the lights around the car.

 

That is why I switched to LED. The dim yellow bulbs look a little low rent.

If a cop wants to see your license place he/she will have no issues either way when they pull you over. And most camera systems don't have issues with a dimly lit plate.

 

Mind sharing where you got your LEDs?

 

Mine are from AZNOptics.

More details here:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...te-lights.html

 

I have them on my R58 and they look great.

 

Unfortunately my second pair of AZNOptics festoon bulbs failed the other day. There was discoloration on the chips and the solder joints look weird and/or missing. I went back to stock bulbs but I still have bulb out warnings so I think my city light LEDs at the front are going too.

Very disappointing as $$$ possibly wasted.

 

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ent-howto.html

 

I ran into the same thing with one of mine. : /

Might be worth letting them know.

 

Yep will email them some pics this weekend and see what happens. I already received one replacement set under warranty and they lasted a couple weeks.

Frustrating that MINI doesn't use LEDs throughout the car from the factory to save cost.

 

I've used this one for 3 trouble free years in the R56. Fit is perfect. 6000K coloring. No bulbouts. It does not use resistors so there is no extra heat that can cause discoloration and eventual unsoldering of the LED over time. You want one that works and your car uses the festoon type. Go with this one:
http://www.ledautomotive.com/product.php?id_product=129

If you have an R55 clubman go with a 13 element T10 style on ebay. It's bright, cheap and no bulbout. Anything smaller will throw a bulbout intermittently. Anything with resistors has the potential for premature failure from the heat. The same bulb is just boarderline in the eyelids so get some extras for spares.

If you have an R53 any festoon will work because R53 does not monitor plate bulbouts.

 

Thanks Smoke for the link - seems I will need to consider the non resister LED setup.

Update: I do not recommend AZNOptics units for constant-on locations like the license plate or city lights locations... They can't seem to handle the heat generated. Both of my LED units have failed - just removed them today and will check on a warranty replacement so I can maybe use them elsewhere in the car.


Failed AZNOptics 194/W5W LED unit by walk0080, on Flickr

 

So i replaced the one that was giving me with a bulb out with a replacement that I was sent months ago and the error went away. The only problem is that the sides seem to be mismatched in terms of color now.

I guess I'm going to try the non-resister set up as well.

Smoke is there a city lights version (wedges) on that very same site? I want the city lights to match with my festoon license plates.

 

and here I was ready to post that it was your recommendations that I bought these. Hopefully yours are just a fluke.

 

Ya unfortunately it takes time to see if heat-related issues are a problem and hopefully it really is a fluke but I've gone through three sets of different LEDs so far due to resistor failure.

I actually took my W5W AZNOptics LEDs that had failed resistors and moved them to the interior cabin. The popped resistors only affect the bulb out warnings, but not an issue on the interior. So for now I have 1 in the boot, 1 in the center roof spot. I also took the one of the still working festoon LEDs and put it in the glove box.

My replacement AZNOptics W5W and Festoon bulbs actually arrived... I am going to put the festoons back in the license plate sport but I fully expect them to fail eventually. And the new W5W bulbs are going to the interior spots where they should work just fine. I am going to order some more W5W LEDs from a different vendor to finish off the interior so everything matches.

 

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Like I said in the other thread... Go with v-leds. They will sometimes trigger a bulb-out waring on certain exterior lights but THEY LAST!!! Even if they do fail, they replace them. I've had bulbs die after 2 years of use and v-leds replaces them no questions asked. If they no longer make the model of bulb that died, they've given me a full credit towards a new set.

I believe you said you had v-leds inside so put them outside as well. They last incredibly longer than anyother brand I've seen and they're about the same price as AZN bulbs. Look on v-led's FB page, they almost always have a coupon code out.

 

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THESE are the ones I use for my license plate. They are a nice, crisp, white. No blue, no yellow. They did cause bulb out warnings but I soldered a little resistor across one of the bulbs and that fixed it before I coded the warnings out.

The other feature I loved about this particular bulb is that you can unscrew the power contacts on the tips to make the bulb longer or shorter. I made them a little longer than the OEM halogen bulbs. These festoon bulbs like to rotate in the housings and when you're dealing with a directional LED bulbs it is very noticeable. Making the bulb a little longer makes the car's contacts squeeze the bulb just a little tighter and I've had no problem with them rotating.

But yeah, I couldn't recommend any other bulb more.

 

i got these ones from jlevisw.com, e46 bmw 3 series license plate bulbs, 2 years no problems so far

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...some-leds.html