Has anyone changed their instrument dashboard lights?

[jh15984 0]

Hey guys,

Has anyone from bimmersport had their instrument dashboard colour changed??

I was driving around city last night and saw a 330i with blue dash board colour and damn, it looked good...

It's just that everything in bmw is orangish red light and the car i saw last night, really stood out from the crowd..

Do you know who sells those kits? or install them?

thanks~

[*Glenn* 854]

Could be quite expensive on your E46 M3. They dont have bulbs... they are hard wired LCD's Check with Shane @

Auto Electrical Services in Takanini Ph. 0274722287

[my_e36 43]

Blue is cool it might be but the orange is definitely easier on the eye for driving at night.

I know as I got a VW (blue light ) and BMW (orange light), but hey it's your car.

[elmarco 56]

The car companies actually patent (or maybe trademark - I forget which) the specific colour they use in the interior lights believe it or not! VW have a patent on a particular blue colour, and I would expect BMW have a specific hue that they use.

I imagine changing the LED's would be a bit of a mission (never seen the dash PCB on an E46) - you may have to change line resistors as well as the blue LED's have different current and voltage requirements if you get into the detail. However, it is obviously possible to do as you have seen one....

I personally find the blue hard on the eyes. Red is used for night vision in a lot of applications - which is possibly why BMW chose it (something to do with rods and cones that are the photo receptors in your eye if I learnt anything in 1st year Psychology...).

Edit: I thought the only thing I learnt in 1st year psych was that was where the hotties hung out - so maybe that little gem of info slipped in as well!

Edited July 2, 2009 by elmarco

[hybrid 1044]

All you need to do is change out the clusters LEDs. There are about 10 in total.

The only problem is the pixel display is still orange as the back light is different.

Its a fiddley job .. but not too difficult.

[turbolizard 38]

Has anyone done this (changing LEDs) to the face of a stereo head unit?

I have blue lighting in my head unit and would like it to be orange like the rest of my instruments. Even if it was not so bright it would be better.