Map Lights on with Dome light Mod

I am looking forward to doing this mod. I am very comfortable with wiring and everything but not with soldering. I avoid it whenever I can make good connections another way (yes I do know soldering is the best overall but I have never had a problem in all the years I have been avoiding soldering).

 

ANYWAY, those of you that did this mod successfully without soldering...any pics so we can see exactly where you slid and crimped or whatever to the maplight switches? Also, just to be extra safe, once again stating exatly which fuse to pull ahead of time to make sure we don't fry the expensive module?

 

Thanks everyone. I am loving all the help and advice and trail blazing this site has to offer. Hopefully I will soon be able to offer help not just ask for it!

i didnt do any soldering... crimp the diodes to new wire... and use t-clamps from the brown and white wire (in the dome light) to the new wire which will go to the map lights..

I undertstand the descriptions - basically - I am just hoping for a picture of where you connected up in the map light housing and wiring so I can make sure to get it right and not blow anything expensive.

 

Pictures are always best.

 

Thanks

Just use the existing photos and substitute crimp connectors (Radio Shack, Home Depot) for the soldering. Rather than solder or attach the diodes directly to the contacts, I added another 3-inch piece of shielded wire to the end of the diodes, then just threaded the bare end of the wires underneath the contacts where they meet the plastic housing.

I'm trying to limit mods to the inexpensive ones for now (and install the ones I already bought but don't have on the car yet) as I save up for the IPT 5eat valve body upgrade...then I'll be ready for W.I.

 

The autolumination web site isn't the easiest to navigate. Here's what I currently have in the cabin:

 

Start HERE, then scroll down to 6 LED Super High Flux for the map light bulbs ($9.99 x 2). Next, scroll to 12 LED Two-Face for what I'm using in the front door puddle lights ($11.99 x 2). Finally, scroll to 25 led High Powered SMT Array for the dome light ($24.99). Use the 31mm size for all of them. Total would be $74 for all 5 of them shipped.

 

It looks like the fastwrx dome light has a plastic piece you install inside the lens to position the LEDs. I just used a piece of foam tape behind my LED array and used a small flat blade screwdriver to get position it exactly where I wanted it as I snapped the plastic lens back in place. The foam keeps the LED board pressed against the inside of the lens with some light pressure so it doesn't move.

 

do you know what size us wagon owners need for the hatch bulbs? tia

Bulb Guide sticky says 912, which cross-references with:

901

904

906

908

909

914

915

916

917

918

920

922

923

926

927

928

939

I plan on doing things differently...LED upgrade for the puddle lights and wagon cargo area.

 

Map lights...instead...will try to find some groovy ambient coloured bulbs. I'm pretty sure Kragen or Pep Boys sells them for cheap. Anybody know where I can get some better quality coloured bulbs for the maps lights?

haha. sigh. yeah my 36 led cluster is blinding enough. just gave my brother a bunch of green 194 LEDs for his green chevy trailblazer.. looks great.

Wow...green LED's? Nice

 

I'm probably just gonna buy some cheapy red or blue bulbs to swap the reading lights out. Anybody know where I can get some higher quality colour bulbs?

how about high quality color leds!!!!

They don't fit in the much smaller map bulb connectors? You would have to rebuild the whole piece or something.

i have 6 LED clusters in the maplights... go a few pages back and find the link to autolimination or wahtever.. they have a bunch- just remember 31mm

Thanks to mweiner2 and all the others who shared their knowledge for this mod.

 

I just finished mine up this morning. A few things different I did on mine:

 

a) I popped the pins out of the map light plug and swapped them

b) I couldn't get my "blob" of solder to stick to the metal tabs of the map light, so I used an "eyelet ring" connector. I secured the rings with the screws next to the "round circles" seen in the pic below.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a257/mwiener2/DomeLight011.jpg

 

The rings were large enough that it touches the corner of the metal bar and that's where the electricity flows through. I used a washer to make sure the screw head held the ring down nice and snug!

 

It's nice to have the front of the car illuminated now too!

 

LaterZ!

Darren!!

I've been waiting for a plan that didn't require soldering :-) But I don't see (or recognize) the "round circles" you mention. How about some clues?

 

Thanks to mweiner2 and all the others who shared their knowledge for this mod.

 

I just finished mine up this morning. A few things different I did on mine:

 

a) I popped the pins out of the map light plug and swapped them

b) I couldn't get my "blob" of solder to stick to the metal tabs of the map light, so I used an "eyelet ring" connector. I secured the rings with the screws next to the "round circles" seen in the pic below.

 

The rings were large enough that it touches the corner of the metal bar and that's where the electricity flows through. I used a washer to make sure the screw head held the ring down nice and snug!

 

It's nice to have the front of the car illuminated now too!

 

LaterZ!

Darren!!

Sorry. I didn't take any photos - too lazy. That, and I recycled mweiner2's picture.

 

I'll try to do a quick photochop of what I did.

 

LaterZ!

Darren!!

I used this to "connect" the wire to the map light switch, held down by the two screws in the corner.

 

http://www.nexternal.com/afla/images/531638.JPG

 

 

LaterZ!

Darren!!

Alright - here's my poor-man's Photoshop (actually, I used GIMP on a G3 iBook running Kubuntu FTW!) of my mod. I took mweiner2's maplight pic and showed how and where I placed my terminal ring. You can see how I placed the left terminal ring on the left side of the picture.

 

Attached to the end of the terminal ring, I crimped and soldered some thin (18 ga) wire. To the other end of the wire, I soldered the diode as described in the original instructions.

 

I secured the terminal ring to the map light as shown in the attached picture. What I did was use the existing screw to hold the terminal ring to the map light. I made sure that part of the metal ring touched the metal "bar" of the map light circuit. If the metal bar and terminal ring don't touch and make a good contact, the circuit will not be complete and the map light/dome light mod will not work.

 

My particular terminal ring's hole was too big for the screw, so I used a small washer to cover the difference between the screw head and the terminal ring hole.

 

 

Repeat for the right side and connect things up, and there ya go! A few more required parts than the original write-up, but now you don't have to worry about melting the map light switch!

 

LaterZ!

Darren!!

I just finished doing this on mine - no soldering, switched the wires without cutting. very clearn very cool and now lights in the front and main cabin. Thanks everyone for all your input and suggestions!

Here is a diagram of how I did it. The map lights are still fully independent (map lights do not turn on dome light), and they come on when I turn the dome light on with the override switch. As noted in the first post, I had to reverse the wires in the map light connector. Note how the diagram calls out the "correct" (after reverseing them) wire locations.

 

http://www.freebmw.net/yamarocket630/NABISCO/LGT/1.jpg

The dome light is on always, when set to Door but it works when you turn light off and on but stays on when set to door is there anyway to fix this with out buying a new BIU?

sounds like you mis-wired it, or fried the switch.

if so is there anyway to fix it with out buying a new BIU?

well, unless you didn't switch those two wires going into the maplights, i wouldn;t think you fried the BIU

i dont know if it fried or not cause when i leave the dome light at the door it just stays on and doesnt turn off.

Bulb Guide sticky says 912, which cross-references with:

901

904

906

908

909

914

915

916

917

918

920

922

923

926

927

928

939

 

 

I swapped out my hatch bulb but only 5 of the 9 LEDs are lighting up. Hmmm