Jadz928

Alan,
Clearance (from headliner, up)... There's about 1/2" - 5/8" nearer the sunroof. Plenty more nearer the overhead lamp.

I looked the Ledtronics snap-in one you listed. It has a good sharp beam angle, but low Mcd. I'm not sure if two of them would be bright enought. The outer dia. is a little large at 3/8". I could work though.

Bill Ball

OK, that's simple. I already have a bunch to experiment with. Some of the low-mcd indicators you linked would probably work very well too, although they aren't US retail sources. Thanks!

Randy V

Very nice.

Similar effect to the interior lighting on my 740iL.

Jim M.

I like it! I've been toying with this idea for a long time. I wanted to mount mine on the windshield side of the sun visor clips, but couldn't come up with an acceptable mounting. Yours is much better. Hmm, maybe I could mount your lamps in my original location, in front of the sun visor clips. I'll have to rig up something and see what the light pattern is like.

Jim Mayzurk
93 GTS 5-spd

Jadz928

Thanks Randy and Jim.

Jim,
I tried out that location. The only problem is how to conceal the light source and aim them properly. So I thought to bore out the the backside of the sunvisor clip, but found it was hollow and pretty flimsy. Then the problem with aiming them towards to center console. They are a 3-5" offset center of the vehicle, so they would need to be aimed on an angle. With all the cutom work involved, it would hurt to go thru all the work and not have them hit the target. That is why I chose on center.

ew928

Too bad you can't just drill through the overhead courtesy light and mount the LED's into the clear cover of the light.
Don't know if the LED beams are wide enough to allow for the overhead light's swivel switch angles. That way you don't mess with the headliner and just put couple of holes in the overhead light.
Is it OK to tap into the switched side of the overhead light for power?

Jadz928

Ernest,
I looked in to that one too. And you could. Just do one LED (just offset the festoon bulb) and it would target either the radio/HVAC or the window switches, depending on how you orient the overhead lamp. Since one position is switched with the door, this would be your baseline position prior to orientation.

The only problem I see is you will see the light source from the driver's position.

You could tap the switched power but then the ambient light would only be available with the overhead light on, which defeats it purpose.

I couple holes in the headliner, no big deal. A little Surflex could take care of that.

Bill Ball

Jim:

So how did you power this? Is it always on?

Jadz928

Bill,
It's switched on with the dash illumination, 1st turn of the light switch (parking lights). I wired it to the power and ground on the ashtray light (I'm sans ashtray)

So when I'm driving at night, I'm good.

I drove my 323i from VA to MI a few weeks back and realized how nice the center ambient light was. Easy to find the Jujubees.

Bill Ball

Jujubees. Good. Then it should help me find my M&M peanuts bag.

dr bob

Warning-- The red M&M's will disappear under the red LED illumination. Just a heads-up...

dr bob

It would seem that a change to the door-mount light assembly, the one with the little switch on it instead of the rocker type, would let you mount an array of LEDS-- white ones for general function mimic, and recessed reds for this console illumination.

Remember that the power for the original lights is always on, and the ground is switched by the parallel pin switches at the doors and hatch. So it will still need the switched power feed from the dash lights circuit. If I was doing this from scratch, I'd pull in the power lead for a radar detector, a phone cord wire for the future V-1 install up there, etc. A stealth V-1 head unit install up there in the middle could easily include the subject red LED's. Maybe the radar detector housing needs to plug and snap into the hole for the overhead light... Just keep me away from the sawzall!l

Jadz928

I was able to cut down the color wash-off on the sunvisors and further "hide" the light source. I added a 3/8" long sleeve over the LED bulbs. I used a small cut of glossy heat shrink tubing, and gave it a light going over with a blow dryer. It snugged up nicely around the LED bulb.

I know it's not low-profile flush/recessed mounted, but you really can't see any of it with the sunvisors up. You would really have to go looking for it.

silbershark

Has anyone tried installing the whole BMW overhead lighting escutcheon? W/O a sunroof there is plenty of horizontal space for mounting, but I'm not sure about depth.
I'm looking into headliner mods for mounting this piece in my OB. Any info would be great - and I'll keep shuffling through the old posts, as well.

jeff spahn

I just did this mod in my 90 S4. I used pre-wired LEDs from Radio Shack. They are 110mcd brightness and ready for 12v. They stick out of the headliner by about 1/4" so I put a 3/8" piece of heat shrink tubing on each but haven't warmed it yet to shrink it up to the led's . Gonna come up with a different OEM type look box or something to put over them. Black plastic box or something.
Right now you can see the lights when they are on (not really too annoying but needs to be addressed)
It's a work in progress so right now I am happy.

I wired them up to the ashtray light so they come on with the headlights and dimming the interior lights doesn't affect them.

I also added one to each footwell (like my Acura MDX and VW Jetta have) for a little ambient lighting down there. The red color works very well at night.

Next is a very low mcd led behind each door handle.

I recently drove a 2010 E class Mercedes from Iowa to Florida. It has ambient LED lighting on the dash and doors. I really like the effect on the interior and I am going to try to incorporate something like that on my interior. Also going to do some white LED lighting in the door pockets so you can see what is in there when you open the pocket at night.

Oh so many possibilities. Just have to make sure it does't start to take on the "THUMP THUMP" stereo crowd look that these guys do in their Honda interiors.