*** If anyone has 10 minutes of their time and has experience with 5 series gauge cluster modding, please let me call you and talk if you have 10 minutes today/tomorrow. I would appreciate it.

So I wanted to have a better introduction. I've been browsing for months and doing a ton of mods, putting together a LOT of DIY guides because my model is different from everyone else's out there, even in small ways from what I'm finding with my white gauge mod. But my name is Bilbo Teabaggins and I'm here to stay. I have a 2010 e60, 528i and over the past years have really began to love BMW, and this is my baby Julia. I love her more than anything... No joke.

This isn't a disaster story yet. I think everything went smoothly, I really think I might have just soldered the LEDs incorrectly. Here is the thing, I hope not to get backlash because I have read about this a TON before even messing with it.

I bought my plcc2 from lighthouse led, white 3528 smd led, and on their website it says that the notch side is the negative side, or cathode. THis is the EXACT opposite of the OEM chips, when I test with a multimeter the positive is the side with the notch.

When I was soldering my new LEDs I saw them light up, not with a multimeter but because of the heat from the soldering gun to give them energy. I thought this meant that if they were lighting up that they were soldered correctly. But for some reason they only lit up with soldering, not when I would test them with a multimeter. But they didn't light up when I tested them with my multimeter so I just thought that I wasn't giving them enough power with a AA battery? At first I thought all the LEDs I got were shot because none of them lit up under multimeter, but then like I said I was relieved when I saw them lighting up dimly when soldering.

So I put my dash back in, and thank GOD I left the bottom part amber which I intended, because none of my LEDs lit up!! Do you think I soldered them all the wrong way??? I read SO much about this, and even read another thread (3-4 in total of white mods) which said that the OEM LED notch is also the positive side, not the negative which the conventional ones today are.

Something else weird, is that if I replace just one of my amber LEDs with a white LED in the speedometer LED cluster and apply the multimeter, they ALL light up, including the white one in the middle. As soon as all 4 are replaced with white LEDs, none of them light up, could this be a sign they are also soldered the incorrect way??!

Sorry for freaking out a little but I need to get this fixed asap because it looks like shit. Also one of my needle LEDs is out but I think I just need to check the connection.. Didn't want this as my welcome but this is pretty urgent.


Bilbo T

 

If I remember my experience right, I was once soldering a led, it lightened up for a second during soldering, and when I was done I noticed the heat(?) had killed the led.

- Antti -

 

Darn. That might be the case. I just wish there was a way for me to test if I am killing them, because the multimeter won't even dimly light them up straight out of the factory package. I might be heating them too much but I couldn't have killed every single one?

Also - if the first one is dead will that kill out all the other LEDs that success the first because of no continuity? I'm not an engineer but I can grasp the main concepts of these.

Thanks Anzafin, you're awesome. Any ideas help guys. My first thing to do is to probably try to make less contact with the LED/solder. I watched a ton of videos before soldering and I've done it before, but these tiny things are a pain hah!!

 

Also Anzafin, do you know how to solder these without killing them? Have anything from experience? I felt like I didn't apply much heat at all to apply these, much more heat is needed to remove the OEM ones, they used a good metal.

 

When I did my cluster in my previous car, I let a professional to do the soldering, just for case. So I don't know the best way to solder them, sorry.

- Antti -

 

Haha, hopefully you got it figured out man. You should've just sent them to me! Same day turn around, lol. Or if you want to drive here, you'll be in and out in an hour

 

+1 for Simon.


OP - this is his handy work.

 

What's the exclamation mark for?

 

Simon or anyone else, what temperature should the soldering iron be set at to not burn out the LED? I figure too low and it could take a while to heat up the connection which in turn could transfer heat and slow cook the LED and too high could definately fry it. I figure a happy medium would heat up the solder points fast enough with minimal damaging heat transferring to the LED then make the solder connection. What's that happy medium? I managed to get a spare professional solder station from work with adjustable temperature.

 

Luckily nothing serious. When I took the picture I turned the car on but didn't start the engine.