Ambient lights - barely visible - new OEM LEDs?

[Noggie]

I know this is a well known issue that the ambient lights in pre-facelift cars are crap.
My -14 is a LCI, albeit an early one 4/14 and the ambient lights are crap, they are all turned up to full, but are barely visible, my black interior certainly doesn't help either.

While looking at something else, I stumbled across a guy that had replaced the LED's in his M4.
Apparently BMW changed the LED's at some stage and the new ones are considerably brighter, which may actually be why most LCI models have decent ambient lights.

So before I take the plunge, buy new ones and tear the car apart to replace them, has anyone actually tried to change the ambient light LED's in their M5?

Not interested in aftermarket kits, only if you have a replaced the OEM LED's with new OEM LED's, which seem to be quite cheap too, about $15-20 a piece.

Part number seem to be 63319353133 for the front which supersedes 63319242150 (11/01/2011 — 09/09/2014)
Which indicate that my car has the old ones and the new ones came on the MY15 M5.

Anyone with a 15 or later M5 that can chime in with an opinion on how the ambient lights are.

[M5Noob]

I have a 16 M5, the lights aren't super bright, but noticeable. They also change colors via Idrive, classic and modern, Classic being the typical orange BMW gauge cluster color and modern are white. I have a black interior as well, nice feature, my wife loves it lol.

[rockyfeller]

Here's an option:

Personally I did it different, with a full aftermarket replacement. Usually I don't like to do irreversible mods on my car, but I made an exception for this one.

Before doing it, I was on the fence like most people naturally would be. I was not sure if all the effort would be worth it because my LCI car has ambient lights to begin with. Almost makes no sense to rip it out.

Came out great, makes a huge noticeable difference to the interior and helps make it look more updated. I'd encourage anyone on the fence to go for it!

[Noggie]

Originally Posted by M5Noob

I have a 16 M5, the lights aren't super bright, but noticeable. They also change colors via Idrive, classic and modern, Classic being the typical orange BMW gauge cluster color and modern are white. I have a black interior as well, nice feature, my wife loves it lol.

Yeah, it's the same on mine, except the orange classic is pretty much invisible, more or less the modern white too.
I have to be in a dark place and hold my hand up under the door trim to even see it.
The ceiling lights, doorhandles B&O speakers and the storage compartments are decent, but the one on the door trim is barely visible.

[Noggie]

Took some pictures, they are not the best as it was pretty much dark in my garage apart from the parking lights from the car, so my phone camera adjusted as much as it could.

As you can se, they are barely visible, even when its completely dark, they actually look brighter on the pictures than in real life.

I'd be happy to spend the money for 4 new OEM LED's if this improves to the stage where I can actually see them when driving at night.

[m5rosco]

Neither of my 2016 m5's stay on the modern white setting. Next time I go out in the car it has reverted back to the classic amber setting. On a more relevant note, I wouldn't say either are overly bright either. I'm not sure it would be a worthy "upgrade" putting the lci units in.

[Noggie]

Originally Posted by m5rosco

Neither of my 2016 m5's stay on the modern white setting. Next time I go out in the car it has reverted back to the classic amber setting. On a more relevant note, I wouldn't say either are overly bright either. I'm not sure it would be a worthy "upgrade" putting the lci units in.

Thanks for the input.

I did some googling and on the G30 forum they claim that the upgraded LED's are about twice as bright as the pre MY15 ones.

Now I can barely see them, so double the output might make them ok and not blinding or disturbing.

My -14 stay on the setting I choose in the iDrive, both color and level.

[AnotherM]

Originally Posted by m5rosco

Neither of my 2016 m5's stay on the modern white setting. Next time I go out in the car it has reverted back to the classic amber setting. On a more relevant note, I wouldn't say either are overly bright either. I'm not sure it would be a worthy "upgrade" putting the lci units in.

Do you have a saved profile and use the same fob?

[AnotherM]

Originally Posted by Noggie

Took some pictures, they are not the best as it was pretty much dark in my garage apart from the parking lights from the car, so my phone camera adjusted as much as it could.

As you can se, they are barely visible, even when its completely dark, they actually look brighter on the pictures than in real life.

I'd be happy to spend the money for 4 new OEM LED's if this improves to the stage where I can actually see them when driving at night.

My 2016 is significantly brighter than these.

[m5rosco]

Originally Posted by AnotherM

Do you have a saved profile and use the same fob?

Always use same fob.

[AlisterB]

I agree that the standard ambient lighting is not much chop Noggie.

I will follow your progress with much interest.

[ruben356]

Weren't people swapping out the LED module with 3 pins that connects to the fiber tube? I thought this would make it brighter, unless the lighting module controls the wattage and still dims them.

[AlisterB]

Originally Posted by ruben356

Weren't people swapping out the LED module with 3 pins that connects to the fiber tube? I thought this would make it brighter, unless the lighting module controls the wattage and still dims them.

This is the part that Noggie is referring to:

[ruben356]

Originally Posted by AlisterB

This is the part that Noggie is referring to:

Yes, i found the thread i saw this in a while back, here's a link where they advise to replace the part and the fiber tube as well for optimal lighting. This is something i am interested in tackling one of these days.

https://www.drive2.ru/l/462710777925599638/

[rockyfeller]

Originally Posted by ruben356

Weren't people swapping out the LED module with 3 pins that connects to the fiber tube? I thought this would make it brighter, unless the lighting module controls the wattage and still dims them.

Yeah exactly. You open that module and change out the LED circuit board inside. That's it. You don't change anything else. They plug right into the factory harness. It's not the complete replacement kit method that you typically see on those ambient lights videos. The video I posted above shows how the guy did it. Those modules are from some Danish website.


I know I saw similar modules on sale elsewhere. Just searched now and couldn't find them again except some Russian website. So it seems like they're out there somewhere, just not from the typical Chinese suppliers. Hopefully someone can track down what I'm talking about.

[ruben356]

I would like the ability to have brighter lighting, as well as be able to switch at least between 2 colors. Does anyone know if we can swap the ambient lighting control module from LCI to Pre-LCI, so we can have the options on Idrive. Or could this possibly be achieved just through coding?

[F10_M5_Competition]

Definitely suggest looking up one of those LED upgrade kits

[Noggie]

Originally Posted by rockyfeller

Yeah exactly. You open that module and change out the LED circuit board inside. That's it. You don't change anything else. They plug right into the factory harness. It's not the complete replacement kit method that you typically see on those ambient lights videos. The video I posted above shows how the guy did it. Those modules are from some Danish website.


I know I saw similar modules on sale elsewhere. Just searched now and couldn't find them again except some Russian website. So it seems like they're out there somewhere, just not from the typical Chinese suppliers. Hopefully someone can track down what I'm talking about.

Looking at the picture of the circuit boards you posted, and through google I found the same picture identifying them as new/old OEM LED modules, the resistors are quite different.
Yellow 3921 (3.92Kohm) vs 2321 (2.32Kohm) 40% less resistance
White 1621 (1.62Kohm) vs 1581 (1.58Kohm) 3% less resistance

This should indicate that the orange light should be considerably brighter, but not much change in the white between old and new.

Obviously, you could reduce the resistors even further to get even more light out of the LED's. Either by replacing them or soldering in another resistor in parallel.
That you can do with the old ones as well.

This makes me wonder if I should brush the dust off my 25 year old soldering skills, get a couple of resistors and just modify the ones I've got in the car.......

[rockyfeller]

Yeah, you could change the resistors and do it that way for more brightness.

The pic I posted earlier was just a pic I found on of the OEM boards just for reference. Below are pics of the boards from that video. I found the webpage for those. They have combos including blue, red, violet etc. if you don't want the regular orange/white combo.

https://www.benzinfabrik.com/de/led-...number=B803812

[SCD-1983]

Originally Posted by rockyfeller

Yeah, you could change the resistors and do it that way for more brightness.

The pic I posted earlier was just a pic I found on of the OEM boards just for reference. Below are pics of the boards from that video. I found the webpage for those. They have combos including blue, red, violet etc. if you don't want the regular orange/white combo.

https://www.benzinfabrik.com/de/led-...number=B803812

Great find, it's actually a German company. I like the white option and might give it a shot soon. Thanks again for posting the link 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[Noggie]

Originally Posted by rockyfeller

Yeah, you could change the resistors and do it that way for more brightness.

The pic I posted earlier was just a pic I found on of the OEM boards just for reference. Below are pics of the boards from that video. I found the webpage for those. They have combos including blue, red, violet etc. if you don't want the regular orange/white combo.

https://www.benzinfabrik.com/de/led-...number=B803812

Great find, thanks, think I'll go that route with White/Red as my car is red and I have red interior stitching.

If I got this right, I will need 4 for the door trim, I guess its the same for the door handle and storage compartment making it 3 each door and 12 in total?
Did I miss any?
Obviously the orange roof lights and B&O light stays as is.

[rockyfeller]

IRCC yeah i think that's the right number of modules.

Their combos aren't the best thought out though if you think about it though. Instead of white and another color they should have done BMW orange/the other color. The reason I'm saying that is because when you switch to "classic" on the iDrive the theme is orange. The overhead LEDs, under-dash LEDs, speaker LEDs etc will be orange. Ok great. But then what color will the other ambient lights be then? They'll clash. You'd ideally want the other color to go with the "modern" theme because the white LEDs overhead LEDs, under-dash LEDs, speaker etc. will go with any color basically. Perhaps this is not a big deal for most people because those locations have really dim LEDs to begin with, but it's just worth thinking about.

This just shows how obsessed I am and why I went with the total aftermarket replacement option. With this option the combo is either orange or a nice light blue (replaces the white) and is what I use most of the time. It works perfect with the "modern" setting (white accents) and my silverstone full leather.

My only problem is that it's TOO bright now. Lol. The OEM dimmer control works but then the gauges get too dim for my taste. But I have a workaround for this which is in mentioned in another thread.

Anyways this is all just mentioned for those thinking of doing an upgrade. If you want the easier and reversible route, replacing these modules is the way to go.