Interior LED Lighting

[jb182]

Hi All,

Looking to change the dull "Yellow" interior lights in my BlueGT to some White LED ones. Does anyone know what type of bulbs are required for the front and rear fittings & how to get the fittings out (I haven't looked... yet).

Any advice greatfully received.

Thanks

[Manny94]

If you search on autobulbs direct, they usually list the bulbs that you need.

Just make sure you get Canbus error free ones otherwise you'll get a light on your dash, not a big deal just can be a bit annoying


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[tintin]

I've just switched mine in my BlueGT with these:

4x OSRAM LEDriving C5W 6000K Cool White 36mm Car LED Bulb
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252692466294? ... EBIDX%3AIT

2x OSRAM Standard LEDriving Retrofit 6000K W5W Cool White Bulbs (Twin)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/332089829376? ... EBIDX%3AIT

There is one W5W in the boot, 3 in the front roof light
Two 36mm in the rear roof light and one 36mm in each of the sunscreens.

[jb182]

Thanks for the link tintin, will certainly get some ordered.

Were they easy to fit?


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[tintin]

Thanks for the link tintin, will certainly get some ordered.

Were they easy to fit?


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I can see I have ordered 3x2 of the W5W. But I can't remember where I fitted the last two bulbs.


Yeah. It was pretty straight forward. I've used a small flathead screwdriver to pry to lights out, but I think the safest thing is to use som plastic-stuff-thingy.

The bulb in the trunk was the hardest part to fit, because the wires in the bulb didn't tocuhed the metal in light. I've used the screwdriver to bend the wire on the bulb a bit, and it fits like a charm.

Before:


After:

[peter_dk25]

These are also very good solutions - have it in my Blue GT:
6R: https://www.benzinfabrik.de/de/licht-fu ... iss?c=7342
6C: https://www.benzinfabrik.de/de/licht-fu ... iss?c=7342

[jb182]

Thanks all, will get some ordered. Appreciate all the advice!


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[Sives]

Hi, I am struggling to remove the rear seat roof lights. Do you prise out the whole unit or just the plastic covers? Thought the front one were hard enough. The rear have baffled me!

[benzinkopf]

Hi, I am struggling to remove the rear seat roof lights. Do you prise out the whole unit or just the plastic covers? Thought the front one were hard enough. The rear have baffled me!

you can remove just the transparent cover or the whole unit. for the whole unit, there are two notch points that you need to press and pry out on the longer sides of the rectangle shape.



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[veteran]

tintin,

What you and benzinkopf have posted is very helpful, particularly as some months ago I attempted to remove the various escutcheons and lenses around the various interior lights of my 2017 1.2 TSI Polo in order to note the types and wattage ratings of the bulbs for future usage, but found I couldn't figure out how to remove those parts without risk of damaging them. Now I've a better idea. Thanks.

One thing's slightly puzzling me. According to the two 'before' and 'after' pictures, the interior of your Polo is much less well-lit than before! Is this just because of poor camera exposure settings on the 'after' one, or is it genuinely like that now? If the latter, I can't see the worth of doing the change.

The one and only reason why I myself would want to swap to LEDs is if in so doing less heat is generated behind the various lenses and less current is drawn from the battery/alternator. However, with current automotive LED technology, I see no evidence of that being achievable. That seems to be because 12v is still fed to each bulb but LEDs operate on a lower voltage than that (and also take less current). That means that some power has to be shed to properly accommodate the LED array. That's achieved by there having to be a series resistor included, into which that excess voltage/power is dumped. The power thus shed is in the form of heat. Personally, I don't regard that as a satisfactory outcome, design-wise. Although you may end up with a bulb that's arguably longer-lasting than a filament type, all you really achieve is illumination with generally a cooler colour temperature than hitherto; in terms of power saving, because of the included resistor I don't think there's any saving at all, or very little. I suspect, however, that you yourself (and others) have wanted to make this change more to not have to constantly replace filament bulbs than anything else. But then again, I think you'll find that VW tends to use long-life filament bulbs these days, so maybe that argument doesn't hold water either?

[RUM4MO]

I agree with that wrt lamp life, I've owned 2 VWs for 13 years each and never ever needed to replace an interior lamp, so the longer life aspect does not seem relevant to me.

Current draw by an LED array, for equivalent light output to a similar filament bulb will always be a lot less, but the PARALLEL(shunt) resistors normally only get fitted to satisfy any lighting circuit current monitoring devices, ie bulb failure device - so surely not relevant here, I'd expect these LED bulbs to have a built in solid state DC-DC device - no?

Edit:- I'd think that the pictures make a poor comparison due to the extremely bright LED point sources forcing the camera to react.

[Dink]

I think you will find that most non canbus leds will use a switching converter (buck) to lower the voltage and current to the led. So this is a lot more efficient than just a series resistor.

I made my own reversing led lamp as I wasn't happy that any of the bought ones would actually be brighter than the oem lamp.

[RUM4MO]

I think you will find that most non canbus leds will use a switching converter (buck) to lower the voltage and current to the led. So this is a lot more efficient than just a series resistor.

I made my own reversing led lamp as I wasn't happy that any of the bought ones would actually be brighter than the oem lamp.

Out of interest, did you do that by fitting a different style/type of bulb to the existing area in the rear lighting cluster, or did you make up/buy an extra seperate reversing light assembly?

[Dink]

Out of interest, did you do that by fitting a different style/type of bulb to the existing area in the rear lighting cluster, or did you make up/buy an extra seperate reversing light assembly?

I printed a ba15s base then epoxy glued a heatsink to that with an led thermo glued to that.

Then fitted a dc-dc converter on the inside of the lamp holder housing then soldered some wires from the reverse lamp traces and then up to the led.

It worked out quite well as the dc-dc converter seems to put enough load on the circuit to make it think there is a lamp in there.

Good thing about aswell is that I was able to pick the colour temp for the led (opted for 4000k)

[Andy1273]

These are also very good solutions - have it in my Blue GT:
6R: https://www.benzinfabrik.de/de/licht-fu ... iss?c=7342
6C: https://www.benzinfabrik.de/de/licht-fu ... iss?c=7342

This kit looks good and I like the idea of the blue LED's.
The kit contains 2 x footwell lights , how easy are these to wire in and fit?