Daylight Running Instrument Pod Lighting
 

I love my LED lights in my 87 at night. What I don't love is that the instrument panel is so hard to read the rest of the time. I want to change that. I want to light the three LED bulbs in the instrument pod.

My BMW has aftermarket LED head light rings that light up when the door is opened or the car is running. It does this by tying into the interior lights and ignition.

To that end how can I illuminate them on opening the door or ignition key in the run position.

Kevin

Bump.

I cannot believe I'm only one that would like more light on my instrument panel during daylight hours.

Never considered this an issue myself, I did remove my pod a while back and thoroughly cleaned the clear plastic both sides and I have the LED backlight.

You're not. On a sunny day and wearing sunglasses, the gauges are unreadable. Without sunglasses they're mostly unreadable

Hugo

My current thinking...being electron impaired ... is interrupting the wire supplying power after the dimmer switch. But, I'm not sure that is 12v or switched. Need to check the diagrams. Also, since the pod lights come on when you move the headlight to the first position does that provide a clue.

Wayne Strutt provided this solution:

Tap off the door switch to a solid state relay https://www.ebay.ca/itm/25A-40A-60A-...b9A:rk:11:pf:0 that lights up the circuit on the DRL and or pod lights. Use one of these(rectifier) https://www.ebay.ca/itm/20pcs-HER608...E9I:rk:32:pf:0 in the line to avoid current coming back to the interior lights when you turn on your headlights.

Not sure I understand it. Maybe somebody can help. I do get the use of a relay.