Has anyone upgraded the bulbs in their R50/52/53 to LED using the existing OEM housings? I did so and while I like the look am wondering if there would be any long term issues. Thanks in advance!

 

There is a guy on youtube who has many videos installing various parts on his r53 and also put two seperate LED inside the oem housing. The first were pretty dim, but the second set he liked. Unfortunately, he didn't say anything about longevity as you are asking, but he usually responds in the comments.

I think it was this one.

 

This guys done it with the helix upgrade which focuses the light i would not just put them in a halogen ( non projector) headlight unless the led itself is focused.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...installed.html

 

Thanks, guys! I suppose I should have clarified: I have HID lights so those will be left alone though I may change the high-beam with LEDs. I was referring to the brake lights and running lights. My concern was potentially damaging the Body Control Module since lights are controlled through it.

 

Apex
You can safely change most lights to LED with only one minor problem.
The car will run a bulb check which may cause the LEDs to flicker for a second at start-up time. It's pretty-much invisible in day light.
The bulb-check can be programmed off. (My '02 R53 runs the check but the basic dashboard has nowhere to display the results!).
Always get LEDs the color of the lens, otherwise you get wimpy pink & lemon. Get extras - they are very cheap on line from China.
For the directionals get LEDs with a built-in resistor to avoid 'hyper-flash' - there are several designs.

I'd be interested to know if headlight retro-fit LEDs actually improve the lighting on the road. Most folks seem more concerned with the look rather than whether they actually work better.

 

I've found that LED's don't throw as much light as Xenon HID's or Halogen. I've found myself looking past the LED lights into darkness. When I'm pushing Scarlet around the bendies at night, I want to see as far out as I can.

 

I'm using white LEDs in the tail lights as they're already red - they seem to be okay. The side markers on my car are smoked so I run red LEDs in the rear and amber LEDs in the front; the side repeaters and front running lights are also amber LED. I have yet to find a decent brand (Sylvania or Phillips) 7507 amber LED and am reluctant to try the cheapie Chinese once, even though the bulbs are easily accessible.

As for the high beams, I won't use LED bulbs in those. My experience has been that LEDs are great to be seen with (such as in marker lights) but because blue/white light scatters too much the color the high beams effectiveness would seem reduced. Maybe I'm wrong. Also, I haven't checked to see if the drop in H7 LED bulbs will clear since most have a cooling fan/heat sink on them. As cheap as they are, I may just order a set and try them out, though I suspect my results will be what I expect them to be - negligible if not worse. I'll report back if I do go that route.

Thanks again for everyone's input!

 

LED's will not cause electrical problems, but there are caveats to consider. For brake lights, make sure they are easily visible in bright daylight. Many aftermarket LED bulbs are dimmer than the original.

Unlike brake and turn lights, running lights often stay on constantly for long periods. This can cause aftermarket LED's to overheat and have short lifetime. It is difficult to provide enough heat dissipation (heat sinks) in a small retrofit plug-and-play LED bulb to keep them operating within their ideal temperature range.

For maximum light output behind a red lens, use an LED that emits only red light. A white LED emits a spectrum of colors, and everything except red gets filtered out by the red lens. In general, behind a colored lens, ideally choose an LED that emits the same color (doesn't matter for a white/clear lens which passes all colors through).