Brake light upgrade
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Joined: Dec 2010
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From: Texas
I have a 2004 E60 and was wondering could the brake lights bulbs be upgraded to put out a brighter light ? 
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Contributors
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 5,781
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From: CA
My Ride: BMW E60
Model Year: 2016
Dude, did you read his post?
Yes, you can upgrade the bulbs to something brighter, LEDs even.
However, what exactly is the issue here? Is your stock ones dying? The way the tails are, pre or LCI, the brake lights are definitely noticeable and bright.
Yes, you can upgrade the bulbs to something brighter, LEDs even.
However, what exactly is the issue here? Is your stock ones dying? The way the tails are, pre or LCI, the brake lights are definitely noticeable and bright.
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Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 1,456
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From: Empire State
Yes. My friend who has a 2004 525i tried to upgrade his brake lights to LED and his blinkers to LED but it was a hassle. You need resistors and that messed up his left tail and the right one started having strobe effects. Its much more cost efficient to upgrade to LCI tails.
Contributors
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 5,781
Likes: 2
From: CA
My Ride: BMW E60
Model Year: 2016
Yes. My friend who has a 2004 525i tried to upgrade his brake lights to LED and his blinkers to LED but it was a hassle. You need resistors and that messed up his left tail and the right one started having strobe effects. Its much more cost efficient to upgrade to LCI tails.
A pair of resistors are about $10 or so. If he changes out all four brake bulbs, the cost is $30-$40 at most. How is that less cost efficient than spending $1000?
Sorry to say, your friend uber failed in his attempt, and should leave it to someone that know what s/he is doing. I have done this for people before (rarely, but a few times), and it has always been fine. The strobe effect is likely do to the resistor not functioning correctly, resulting in the car pulsing the current to the brake lights -- same as what happens with front turn signals when the car throws a fit about drawing the wrong current.
Additionally, the LCI brake lights are not brighter man... they use the exact same bulbs. Potentially you could argue that the overall design of the tails make the light emit more noticeably, but that's really a stretch.
Just to end this or
tl;dr: don't bother. Unless your bulbs are dying or out, leave it the hell alone.
Senior Members
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 1,456
Likes: 0
From: Empire State
No it's not.
A pair of resistors are about $10 or so. If he changes out all four brake bulbs, the cost is $30-$40 at most. How is that less cost efficient than spending $1000?
Sorry to say, your friend uber failed in his attempt, and should leave it to someone that know what s/he is doing. I have done this for people before (rarely, but a few times), and it has always been fine. The strobe effect is likely do to the resistor not functioning correctly, resulting in the car pulsing the current to the brake lights -- same as what happens with front turn signals when the car throws a fit about drawing the wrong current.
Additionally, the LCI brake lights are not brighter man... they use the exact same bulbs. Potentially you could argue that the overall design of the tails make the light emit more noticeably, but that's really a stretch.
Just to end this or
tl;dr: don't bother. Unless your bulbs are dying or out, leave it the hell alone.
A pair of resistors are about $10 or so. If he changes out all four brake bulbs, the cost is $30-$40 at most. How is that less cost efficient than spending $1000?
Sorry to say, your friend uber failed in his attempt, and should leave it to someone that know what s/he is doing. I have done this for people before (rarely, but a few times), and it has always been fine. The strobe effect is likely do to the resistor not functioning correctly, resulting in the car pulsing the current to the brake lights -- same as what happens with front turn signals when the car throws a fit about drawing the wrong current.
Additionally, the LCI brake lights are not brighter man... they use the exact same bulbs. Potentially you could argue that the overall design of the tails make the light emit more noticeably, but that's really a stretch.
Just to end this or
tl;dr: don't bother. Unless your bulbs are dying or out, leave it the hell alone.
. If you get the car coded for the lights (cold/warm) you can add a led bulb for the front turn signals without getting a resistor? Right? 
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