Ironman88

Interested to know if anyone has had issues with getting the LED interior light upgrade bulbs (from Suncoast) to properly work in their car?

I installed the lower door bulbs and initially they both worked fine. But later when opening the doors (either side), they would not illuminate any longer. I also could not get the footwell and glovebox units to function at all.

There is not a polarity issue with these specific units as there is only one way to install them.

Is the concern tied to the car not sensing adequate power draw coming from the LED units and then shutting down power to the elements?

997lex

This may or may not be helpful, but some of the CANBUS LED bulbs use something like 20W of power vs 3-5W of the bulb they are replacing. This may up the current and trip some fuses, or worse burn out the LKM (light control module).

I have a similar problem as you on my G-Wagon, where the rear hatch no longer illuminates any of the dome lights, leading me to believe the LED upgrade to be the culprit of burning the microswitch in the door, the fuse, or the LKM. Have yet to diagnose....

Ironman88

I don't think anything has burned out in my case nor fuses affected.

Put the original incandescent bulbs back into the affected receptacles and they illuminate fine...

TopKatz

Isn’t there a setting for the lights that disables them illuminating? I feel like this happened to me. Try finding with the setting on the main cabin light switches.

cwheeler

I used a cheap Amazon kit and they all worked. Something else must not be right for you.

Ironman88

Thanks. Did try that.

Incandescent bulbs lit. LED bulb units swapped into the receptacles. Door units lit initially - looked great. Then they would not come on when the doors were closed and then re-opened a few minutes later.

LED units swapped out. Incandescents back in. They lit up.

Definitely frustrating as all accounts of the function of the Suncoast package I have read have been positive.

Petza914

LEDs have polarity. First disconnect the battery for 10 minutes (DON'T LATCH THE FRUNK OUT OF HABIT). This is going to reset the bulb control module.

Then reconnect the battery and start swapping the bulbs. If you put one in and it doesn't light, flip it around and try it. They only light 1 way even though they look symmetrical as they're not like incandescent bulbs.

snethss

You could always try some contact cleaner as well. doesnt hurt to make sure there is a good connection.

Ironman88

Thanks Pete.

That sounds like it will address the subsequent problem I had with the door / courtesy LED's illuminating normally initially, but later not coming on when I opened the doors.

I was contacted by Suncoast directly (perhaps after seeing this post.) They mentioned that the footwell and glove box lamp units (they use the Canbus 194's) may have developed issues during shipment where the LED elements dislodged from their connections resulting in them not working. As it turned out - that was the case when I opened those units up.

I'll give it another go this afternoon. Hopefully will be a different outcome.

Thanks again.

saabin

FYI - I had this issue a couple of years ago with that kit..

https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...lacements.html

kellen

Same kit. Same issue. Just pop the cover off and a reseat the bulb.

No issues with the kit since.

Ironman88

Following up on this -

Pete's (Petza914's) advice above on disconnecting the battery for 10 minutes or so, reconnecting it and then starting the bulb change, addressed the issue with the LED's not coming back on after the initial installation and illumination. (Thanks Pete.)

Suncoast reached out to me via a PM this morning and conveyed that the units for the footwells and glove compartment likely had the LED elements shake loose and separate from the connection during shipment to me. They sent the following YouTube video that illustrates the remedy action to take...


Part of the concern with these LED's shaking loose is due to the way the contacts on the end of the element are shaped coupled with the fact that the receptacle that they plug into is poorly designed and poorly made (photos below.)

Additionally, after getting the kit from Suncoast, I did a quick inventory of what they had sent, and discovered that one Canbus 194 LED unit was missing from the kit. I contacted Suncoast right away about it. They shipped out the LED unit today.

Everything has been installed and works great now (exception being the dome light / map lights which I'll address when the last LED unit arrives.)

Summary learnings:
1) Inventory the shipment from Suncoast as soon as you receive it and make certain that you've gotten everything that should have been included in the kit.
2) Open up the enclosed lighting units for the footwell and glovebox that are included in the kit (three of them) and reseat the LED bulbs.
3) Before you start the install, disconnect the car battery and leave it disconnected for 10 minutes or so so that the bulb control module in your 997 is reset.
4) Don't under-estimate how hot the existing Frunk, Engine Compartment, and Dome light incandescent bulbs can get and grab one with your bare fingers. You'll regret doing that...



These are the units that need to be opened up so that you can verify / and reseat the 194 LED element in each one

Contact points don't make the most solid contact with the receptacles - and can unseat during shipment. Hopefully they stay put once in the car...

This is an incomplete kit - missing one of the Canbus 194 LED elements (cylindrical ones on the upper left.) Should have been 4 of them in my kit. One for each door, and two for the dome element map lights.

G.I.G.

I bought and installed the Suncoast kit not long after purchasing my '07 C2S a couple years ago. My biggest gripe was the disco ball effect it created in the passenger foot well created by the defuser with the LED's installed. It looked pretty bad so I was looking for other ideas.

I came across another thread where someone swapped out their interior (along with the frunk and engine compartment) lighting using these Philips LED's. Since the Philips already have a diffuser on the bulb itself, it doesn't produce that weird disco ball effect when going through the diffuser on the bulb housing.



I'd give these Philips a try. Since you already know how to pop open those light housings now, installing the Philips LED's should be straight forward and give you a better looking result.

Ironman88

Were you happy with the color of those bulbs? (6000k)

G.I.G.

Yes. I was initially concerned that with the 6000k rating of the Philips they would look blue, but that’s not the case. They produce a clean, bright white light with no blue or purple tint that I can observe. I did notice some purple in the foot wells with that Suncoast kit, however.

From what I’ve read and observed, 5000k, 5500k, and 6000k can all look very similar depending on the manufacturer.