Replaced my interior lights with LEDS *Pics
 

It gave my box a modern fresh look.

cool! I bet they look way better in person.

Is it me or do LEDs generally look dim in photos? I'm sure they're much better in reality, though. I've kicked around the idea of installing them into my cars (if I ever get around to it :D).

Suncoast sells a Kit to provide the LEDs:

Boxster 986 LED Interior Light Kit:Porsche Parts & Porsche Accessories - Wholesale Porsche Parts & Tequipment

But it seems like the LEDs could be purchased elsewhere for less; unless there is some special sockets or something.

Did you get a kit or did you source the LED's from somewhere? (I should probably go in the DIY folder and do a search...)

I would like to do this but not for $69.99 or whatever it is :)

Looks great!

Steve

Mine looked like this, I thought it came out nice in the dark :cool:

Interior LEDs (also trunk front and read, and licence plates..)

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/1407/pvf4.jpg

Yes Suncoast has a kit on their website $70 for all 986s & it includes a led for the glovebox.
The only part of the kit that fits my 2000 is the frunk & trunk lites.


http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1386953675.jpg

$70!!!! :eek:
For $2 or $3 worth of LEDs and materials?! No thanks. I'll take 30 minutes and a couple dollars and make my own that actually fit ;)

I did this mod last month to keep up with my teenage boys. I bought bulb off of _bay and was very surprised how much of a difference of the new LED's made. I'd say that this is the biggest bang for the buck mod one can do to their Box. No effort to install any of the lights and total cost was about the same as a cold draft beer.

The lights are much brighter than stock and IMO does make the car seem newer. I don't plan on going all out with exterior lighting but the interior and both trunks are very bright now!

I need to do this as well and would love to find some reasonably priced bulbs. Can you link the bulbs that you purchased?

That orange dome light is about useless. I also have a little mod I've been thinking on for the cubbies in the dash. It's very hard to see inside of those at night even with the interior lights on and I'm tired of fumbling for my garage door opener or phone.

I was thinking of using an IR emitter and detector that can sense when your hand enters the cubby and automatically turns on a little LED light, one for each cubby. ;)

steved0x,

I did some research and bought a few pairs on eBay. Reasonably priced too!

$7-$8 a pair.

I also saw the $70 LED set at Suncoast, but that's just highway robbery.

These just came in today. I'll pop these in tomorrow.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1387000686.jpg

Yup. For some reasons when I took these pics the lights look extremely dim.

I wonder if you can set those up for footwell lighting. It was a $500 option when I bought my boxster.

That's a brilliant idea. Let me know the developments. Motion sensed lighting. I love it.

FYI, the Suncoast kit includes:
3x 194LED
1x 30MM LED
2x 41MM LED

I was able to find all of these on Amazon - some of the Amazon ones seemed to be better quality as well. It's a bit more than "$2-3 of LEDs" but much less than $69. Hope that helps!

Not sure if I want to put LED license plate lights so the cops can read my plate quicker ...

Definitely special sockets since the kit from Suncoast will not fit my 2000. They won't take them back either. Last time I order from Suckcoast! :mad:

BYpro - I installed a kit from SunCoast in my MY2000 Boxster just a few weeks ago. No problems and a 15 minute job.

Are the lights wrong, or by some weird reason are the sockets in your Box different?

The LEDs won't plug into the sockets except for the trunk lights.

Can you tell by the above pic if that's what you received ?

I'm at work right now and the car is at home, but I'll check later this afternoon and post back. I also have a new light kit from SunCoast I got last week for my 996 that I haven't installed yet - it should be the same kit. I'll check everything back and forth to see if they all work and report back.

I'll post the #'s on the bulbs as well.

Gimme a couple of hours...

Rick

Yeah, I just ordered the Suncoast pack and it looks just like yours. Haven't installed them yet though.

which two are for the frunk and trunk? maybe ill just order those from amazon if there is a fitment question on the others....
Thanks

41mm- you'll find the 42mm are more common and would probably fit just fine.

Going to go and do this, thanks!

I replaced my inside lights with red LED
can't see **************** but who reads a map inside their cabin these days anyway

Thanks Rick

Long pair with pointed ends. I like the reduced battery drain these provide while working on the car.

I installed the Suncoast LED kit today - everything fit fine in my 2004 S. The two 41mm bulbs were for the trunk/frunk, single 30mm for glovebox, and the three 194LED push-in bulbs went in the doors and dome light.

I used a credit card to remove the dome light lens (shown in first picture) -- slipped it between the lens and bezel and it popped right off. I thought any metal screwdriver would mar either the plastic lens or the surrounding bezel. It appears as though the lens had a thin layer of clear glue holding it on - when I replaced it after the LED upgrade I used just a tab of super glue to keep it locked into place. Not sure if this is standard or something from the PO.

As a side note - the 194LED included in the Suncoast kit is the maximum height that will fit - anything taller would be too long for the lens to fit. And the LED upgrade makes the car interior look great - super updated look. Glad I did this!

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/.../domelight.jpg

Sorry for my ignorance, but what's the reason for switching to LEDs? I like them in my sailboat because they draw so much less battery power and the battery sometimes doesn't get charged for a long time. But why in a car?

BYpro - I spent some time today checking out bulbs between the cars and can find no difference. The bulbs that I had earlier installed in my MY2000 Boxster are the same as I received from SunCoast and installed in my MY1999 Boxster and my MY1999 996.

I wish I had a good answer for you... :(

Rick

Joe - I like them in my Boxsters and 996 due to the brighter, cleaner light they give off.

It's a lot easier to find the quarter I drop on the floor and whatever I'm fumbling around for in the cockpit with better lighting. Just getting old I guess... :D

Rick

For those interested in doing this conversion, I would recommend buying LED versions of the bulbs used for the various 986 lights. You are paying a big premium for suncoast to put this kit together, and source/quality of the bulb is unknown (except for the suncoast name backing it).
Sylvania and others make LED versions of 168/194/2825 bulbs and there is no need to find the bulb size in millimeters (unless you're buying some cheap chinese bulbs on ebay). The Sylvania "LEDriving" Bulbs are very bright and have good white color. They also have diffuse lenses over the LEDs which helps the light output scatter more like halogen bulbs (what these various lamps were designed for).
The output of a bunch of surface mount LEDs mounted together (like the suncoast kit) can be somewhat harsh and is hit or miss in my experience.
There are plenty of cheap no-name (ebay/amazon) options for these bulbs also. Not 2-3 dollars for all the bulbs, but for $10-$15 you could put together this kit yourself with cheap bulbs. I did this initially, and when I was happy with the results I replaced it with the brand name sylvania bulbs so it will last.

Personally, I prefer knowing and understanding the parts going into my little projects, so I would rather do the leg-work of finding and deciding on the bulbs myself. But if you're not interested in that, then it sounds like people have been happy with the suncoast kit.

For me it's less about battery drain although that's a perk - but more that the light is a pure white instead of the dated yellowish you get from the stock filament bulb. I purchased the Suncoast kit not knowing it was just bulbs - I thought there was more to it. So I paid a $50 premium for having everything done for me, oh well - if I were to do it again I'd snag the individual bulbs off Amazon or similar.

just got myself a set for under 5$ shipped

Thanks for the info, it's about time a companies like Sylvania gets into the LED game. Diffuse lens is what sets them apart from 99% of all LED lights out there.

I know of too many cheap LED lights "burn out" due to bad soldering.

Looks like amazon.com don't ship this item to Canada... boo.

Here's my license plate setup. Just replaced the bulbs with some good 4300k color temp ones. They look very nice in person and aren't too bright. Masking out the plate number makes it look brighter than it is. Got them from superbright leds. Hard to find a 4300k bulb that fits! Most are 5000k+ which is blueish.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...ps2e312802.jpg

I think the total cost plus shipping was about $9.

I'm in the mood to share little tech as well

Also had those LED similar to those 360/180degree Sylvania or other common LEDs around before. Had to trash them after a few weeks tho... man they do shine everywhere, diffuse or not :(

Have a look at my new LED interior and license plate lighting. They have little fancy lens built-in the housing making the light output unidirectional - bingo, no more freak show aquarium looking interior and no more glowing half my car rear bumper and tailpipes!

The good part, I got the amber LED (filter) from the supplier. They have the same color output at distance as those other oem shiny bits in the Boxster's cockpit. Clean and magical :)

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01/01111389547373.jpg

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1389547387.jpg

Might advertise a kit of those soon ;) Something like $5 for the complete interior and license kit. The problem is you'll get a bag of 25 for that price. A bit of a waste... unless you know of 24 other guys who wants a 0.20cent LED

Amber (Porsche same) and white color being the best but they also have the green. I know of someone who would love those...

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01/ggg1389548360.jpg

Sign me up, maybe a combo kit with the HID's;)

In that case I'll let those go to you at $2.25. I was making profit at $5 Bruce lol