Quote:
Originally Posted by R.G.
Some quick info regarding ambient lighting and a general outline on how I changed mine
Pre LCI ambient is terrible. Almost impossible to see with dark interior. LCI had a revision for the PCB that the LED is soldered on to. You can find the part number on realoem.com
Picture #1 is what the PCB is housed in. It connects to an optical cable that I believe was also updated in LCI models. There are two styles. Forward facing and L shape. Each door has two forward facing and one L.
I updated the optical cable but the pre LCI PCB was rubbish so it did little. I also soldered better LED's on and it still didn't do much.
Ultimately I decided to buy the pre made LED strips that are advertised on ebay but installed my own way. Rather then running their included harness throughout the car I simply tapped one of the three ambient power sources in each door using posi taps (picture #2 and 3). You can get these online as they make things a bit easier.
The optical cable is routed under the trim using black clips. The black clips created gaps in the lighting so I snipped the center ones and supplemented using 3m double sided tape.
Pic #4 and 5
The pocket lights had a nice groove and kept the LED's hidden so I didn't bother trying to come up with something to run new optical cable
#6
I was getting some light bleed thru the top of the door trim after reinstalling so I simply ran a piece of electrical tape across the inside and rolled it towards door before snapping trim in.
Finished pics 7-11
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Thanks, this is a great write up. Do you mind sharing links where you purchased the led lights and any additional parts that were required for this install?
Also, can you dim the lights through iDrive? How do you change the colors?