Update and Night Shots of the Ambient Lighting

[xnsf]

Hi everyone!

It's been 8+ years on the X5, 128,000 miles, + 5 years on this forum!!! (I lurked for a bit lol), and everything is still working great. A regular oil change every 5000 miles has this car plowing down roads with no sweat. I do think I might change the transmission fluid just as a preventative measure, but so far, it's still acting normal. I will be tackling that and fuel filter that I've had for the past year, but never changed.

This is a update of my other thread from two years ago.

So, I thought I should add some more ambient lights. So I bought 10 LEDs from ebay for $8 and some wires, and I started ripping out the door panels.

The lights under the door wood trim were done before, but I extended the wire so the front doors were in a better position. The front wires for the OEM LEDs are very short. Now I have added lights for the door handle pulls and the door pocket for each door. These were tapped from the existing LED wiring. I also added lighting for the passenger side dash trim with power tapped from the radio, but not so sure I like it there. Am I going overboard with the lighting?

[o. l. t.]

COOL. Is it red or amber?

[mrbmwx5]

Nice work.. You need two more lights for the cups holder.

[CT_X5_Joe]

I dont think its possible to go overboard with lighting.

[dskyers]

so my next mission is this where is the diy? its beautiful

[RichiRich]

Very cool looking....I love the way that looks!

Rich

[xnsf]

Originally Posted by o. l. t.

COOL. Is it red or amber?

They are orange. Don't buy Red, Red/Orange, Amber, Orange/Amber, I've tried those and those don't match, just buy orange

Originally Posted by mrbmwx5

Nice work.. You need two more lights for the cups holder.

I should stick some in my popped off clips!

Originally Posted by dskyers

so my next mission is this where is the diy? its beautiful

Thanks! I didn't do a DIY, but this will help you:
http://www.xoutpost.com/articles/x5/...nt-bmw-x5.html

Look for the LED wire and tap it from there. I ran one eBay LED down to the door pocket and strung it through the screw hole and tightened the screw back in with no problems (I hope). The LED under the wood trim is lit by the original LED which is supposed to be used for the door handle. Between where you see the two intense glows behind the wood trim is where the LED is located. And I ran another eBay LED and jammed it into the light tube for the door handle. To tap, I didn't use any special wire tapping things, I just stripped and tied wires (bought 16 gauge) and bundled it back up with electrical tape.

[Gixxerboy63]

Waaaaay cool!

[Naz24]

Very cool. I was in a RR the other night and just admiring all the lighting in the pockets, etc. (maybe bc i had 1 too many jack and cokes lol) Looks very similar here. Love it. Keep up the good work

[MINIz guy]

Now post pictures of where all the lights are mounted!

Were the LEDs you bought designed for 12v or did you have to add resistors for all of them? I've been putting of adding LEDs on just because of a lack of electrical knowledge.