Interior lights flickering... UNWANTED DISCO!
 

Hey everyone. I am back to the darkside after going Audi/VW for a little while. In short, my parents owned a 4.8iS when I was in high school and it was the best SUV I've ever been lucky to spend time driving. Finally bought another one the other day as a daily driver. Overall, really good condition. However...

The passenger front door puddle light and the left rear seat light are flickering. All other interior lights do just fine. They have all been upgraded to white LED. Where should I look first for a loose connection, and/or is it possible the previous owner's LED conversion is just no bueno?

Any help appreciated! Not super afraid of valve seals or coolant pipes, but WIRING scares the poop outta me in this generation car!

I would suspect the lamp itself. Trade with a different location to test. I've had to change out blinking LED lights often.

Thanks! It's a good idea and I'll test that tonight. Not sure, however, because I think they all flash together... seems like it might be a wire unless they're somehow tied together.

I think the circuits are all pwm and if so would make perfect sense to have your symptoms

Interesting! Copy that. I'll check it tonight! Thank you!

I’ve had a couple of my led relamps go bad and flicker as your describing. Bad bulb.

Hi, I have one rear door where light (LED) comes on when door is half opened, goes out when fully opened. What tells the module that the door is opened. All other doors/puddle/interior are fine. Led has been changed. Small problem just irritating.


Sent from my iPad using Xoutpost.com

I've been wondering forever where the door open switch is. I thought it was in the door actuator but that can't make any sense if it can change from door completely open

That problem is probably a broken wire in the door jamb snorkel. :dunno:

Next time I’ll give it a wriggle and see if the light comes back on. Good call


Sent from my iPad using Xoutpost.com

They are built inside the lock unit. They are hall sensors detecting the latch position. The position sensor on my driver's door failed and started to randomly turn on the alarm. Also sometimes while driving showing "DOOR OPEN" on instrument cluster. I took the lock unit apart and there was nothing obviously wrong with the sensor. Eventually installed a new lock unit.

https://www.pss-autosoft.net/diagram...B465126002.htm

Take it easy on the looms between the door and the pillars - there is a SRS crash sensor and an SRS air-bag in each door and if it is disconnected (unplugged the loom etc.), it will set an air-bag fault light that you will need to use software tools to reset.... :rolleyes:

Interior lights flickering... UNWANTED DISCO!
 

Good warning but I think the problem must be in that door jamb loom. Foxwell can reset such errors I'm told but haven't ever had to

Possibly - I've seen examples of corrosion on connector pins.

Remove the battery negative connection before goofing with the looms - easy-as! :thumbup:

Yeah you kinda have to bite the bullet on the loom and try it while powered only way to be sure that's where the issue is

Well, on a somewhat lighthearted reply, I went out and threatened the door that I had consulted the Xoutpost community and was now going to investigate the problem. Can’t get it to NOT work. So thank you all very much?? If only every job was this easy


Sent from my iPad using Xoutpost.com

You're welcome....?[emoji28][emoji28]

Sent from my SM-A730F using Tapatalk

Interior lights flickering... UNWANTED DISCO!
 

That's awesome. I work in computer IT and clients frequently fix a problem by calling me. It's not uncommon for them to resolve while they are leaving voicemail.

So... somehow bad to worse. I ordered ECS's "master LED interior lighting kit", made by Ziza. I've at least heard of Ziza before, so assumed they'd be a decent option. I found one of the old LED lights that had a gravestone resistor, so that matches up to what was said about potentially being a bad LED causing my flickering. However, after replacing every light but the overhead lamps, I have an even worse issue: with the exception of TWO lights (the passenger front puddle lamp and the passenger front foot well light), every one has stopped working. I now have no lights except for those two and the incandescent overhead lighting. Not even a flicker.

I thought maybe a fuse could be bad, so I looked through and found none to be burned out. However, there was one odd thing. Fuse F17, which should be for the interior lighting module, is missing. Like-- not there. There aren't even posts to push a fuse into. It's just an empty socket.

Starting to realize why my friends told me not to buy this generation BMW again... any help is appreciated!

This generation of BMW works best with regular incandescant lamps, not LEDS... :rolleyes:

But in the spirit of saying something useful, have you tried putting a regular lamp back in a socket or two to see if they still operate normally?

LEDs are polarity sensitive (regular incandescants bulbs aren't) but it would be serious bad luck to get nearly ALL of them in backwards... the odds are 50/50 after all. Although, having said that, most LED lamps contain a diode bridge designed to allow them work regardless of installation orientation/polarity.

I’ve had LEDs fitted for years only had a problem with one rear door puddle light as above. To be fair I normally have to replace one of the number plate LEDs about once a year but put that down to closing/slamming the boot lid. Mine were just an e53 set bought of ebay. So they do work on X5, doubt if there’s anything special or different on mine


Sent from my iPad using Xoutpost.com

Edit:

Guys... I did it. Or something.

After pulling ALL the LED bulbs out and using an incandescent bulb to test each bulb mount, it turned out that the left rear footwell light mount had come undone from the little wire leads in the connector. Once this was reconnected, the other footwell light and driver door puddle lamp kicked in. All but the driver footwell light was on. This one just had the polarity backward. So strange, but happy all lights are now working! Thanks for all the help!