Led bulbs for doors, front dash, glovebox and trunk?

wrybread · Post by **wrybread** » 05 Mar 2022, 20:08

I've been meaning to replace the lights on the sides of the doors with LEDs so when I accidentally leave them open overnight it doesn't kill my battery. Does anyone know offhand what bulbs those use?

And is it the same as the trunk, glovebox, and bottom of front dash?

Bob Morton · Post by **Bob Morton** » 06 Mar 2022, 00:35

Here's a fun read:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=61483

Post by **bmdubya1198** » 07 Mar 2022, 09:30

The front map lights are any BA9S bulb, but the rear lights are positive ground BA9S. Just make sure you get non-polar LEDs for the rear bulbs at the very least. The floor bulbs are a different size.

Post by **MrAl** » 10 Mar 2022, 15:43

Hi,

Maybe before you go into the house you should get in the habit of checking all the doors to see if they are closed properly.

Now i would be the last person on earth to leave one of my doors open, but i actually did this several weeks ago.
What happened was i got out of the car thinking i would get back in so did not close the door all the way, then checked under the hood. When i was done (it took a while) i closed the hood gently as i always do, then went into the house. A few hours later a neighbor called and said my door was open. I felt like an idiot (ha ha).

Im not sure if the light was on or not, but i dont want to be leaving my car door open regardless what happens to the battery. What is more imprortant i think is if anyone goes inside the car. I dont keep anything valuable in there but the car wasnt exactly cheap. I also keep a lot of junk in there to ward off theives and kids wanting a joy ride.

So the moral of the story, not just for you but for me too, is to check your doors before you leave the car, and that includes the back hatch too if you have that. It's much better than having to buy new bulbs for everything

wrybread · Post by **wrybread** » 10 Mar 2022, 15:52

So the moral of the story, not just for you but for me too, is to check your doors before you leave the car

It's not like I do it often, but it happens about every 6 months. And I'd rather not damage my batteries when I do it. My car lives half time in the city and half time at the beach, and when at the beach I don't even remove the key from the ignition ever, much less lock the doors, and that leads to a door ajar occasionally. Oops.

It's much better than having to buy new bulbs for everything

After reading that link posted above I'm thinking that might be true! Quite an impressive tome and one of the reasons I love the Volvo community. But it's easy enough to pull each bulb that I need to replace and just order LED versions, they're dirt cheap and I've worked much harder and spent way more money on projects with much less reward than the $20 this is likely to cost. In other words one of the fun parts of owning an old car is the tinkering, and I'm definitely not a "keep it stock" kind of guy.

Post by **abscate** » 11 Mar 2022, 03:09

Bookmarking where I can acquire Nautic blue parts cheap,if needed….

wrybread · Post by **wrybread** » 11 Mar 2022, 03:25

Why do you say that? You think I'm likely to kill the car by swapping out a few lightbulbs for LEDs?

Post by **abscate** » 11 Mar 2022, 08:37

wrybread wrote: ↑11 Mar 2022, 03:25 Why do you say that? You think I'm likely to kill the car by swapping out a few lightbulbs for LEDs?

No, you leave your car unlocked at the beach with keys in it

It’s an easy swap,on p80s but a lot of more modern cars are current sensing, so leds can create chaos

wrybread · Post by **wrybread** » 11 Mar 2022, 10:04

Oh, ha. To be fair, where I do that, so does everyone else, and if someone is going to steal a car it seems unlikely that they'd choose mine. Car thieves have poor taste, thankfully.

Post by **abscate** » 11 Mar 2022, 10:47

My daughter moved down to nyc and was worried about her 99 getting stolen. I was going to explain the immobiliser but then realised she was parked next to this guy….