mja

Hello again,
I would like to warn you (well, at least people in Europe) about a certain Romanian wrc.rider -person who sells badly made copies of Bruce Miranda's cables on Ebay. I bought mine for eur150 a couple of months ago and the seller claimed he had sold his E60 and was selling 2nd hand Bruce Miranda cables for me. After I had already closed the deal, I was contacted by Bruce Miranda and warned about the cables that they are probably not made by him but a copy. After I got the cables, I tried them and they worked, so I thought that I'd keep them. There was a strange buzzing noise though from the left unit that stopped after a couple of days.. only for me to realise a bit later that now one of the bulbs was dimly lit all the time. I took the unit open and was shocked.. well, have a look at the attached picture.


NOW THIS GUY IS SELLING SEVERAL OF THESE SETS ON EBAY. Do _not_ buy from him! He is now asking for eur210 and claiming, that he is giving some sort of extra cabling (worth eur45..yea right) that would do the trick for the front LCI lights! This is total BS - he is just selling what's left of the BMW LCI-light cabling set after he's used the plugs for the rear lights. This BMW cabling set costs ~eur23 total.

Since I usually want to learn if I make mistakes, I had a look at the circuit (a relay was broken) and designed myself a new board (and asked a fellow who is in an electronics student club to etch me a decent PC. I also think that the relays are not necessary. The relays can be replaced by a couple of transistors and a zener (if someone is interested, I can send the schematic).

sportzfan76

Hey. Just trying to get up to speed on these LED tail lights for Pre-LCI vehs.

If I understand correctly -

1. Get OEM LCIs from BMW - ie. Gary @ BMW of Newport (and I presume these will be Amber turn signals ??? )

2. Purchase Bruce's cables

This sounds like a more dependable way to mod the tail lights than say this ebay item (with resistors) ....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...T&viewitem=


Thanks for bearing with me if these questions are redundant (again).

bruce_miranda

The lights in this ebay listing are not the OEM lights. They are aftermarket lights so cannot be considered as an option for the LCI lights.

Dr Dave

OMG..that looks like a mc donald straw used as insulation...

i use bruce's cables, well made and no chance of my car catching fire...
you get what you pay for.

sportzfan76

Bruce - just to clarify ...Your cables only function properly with OEMs and not the various aftermarket lights that are available on ebay, etc ?

bruce_miranda

I'll rephrase that a bit.

My cables ONLY function with OEMs.

The various other aftermarket lights do not need any special cables at all.

Sagar

Bruce do you know of anywhere in the UK I can source some LCI rears or is it dealer only?

bruce_miranda

Dealer , Breakers or eBay.

Sagar

Thanks to Dav for this excellent thread, I fitted my LCI lights today using the write-up.
Also a massive thanks to Nick (M3>535d) for supplying the Lights and Cables and agreeing to take time out of his day to meet me halfway

I'm currently using Bruce's V4 cables and have found that when the lights are on "Auto" & I start the car there is No Strobing; But if the lights are in any other position and the car is started there is Strobing for around 4-5 seconds.













Sag

myfiveserie1818

I will be doing this mod for sure, but my wallet will be so much lighter