Replace interior light bulbs?

[nuppar]

Has anyone managed to replace the front interior lights? The existing ones are far too dim and yellow in my view and could do with both much brighter and whiter lights. But what led bulb types are needed and what is their safe upper power limit? Prising out and replacing cover also looks challenging!

 

[fred12345]

Has anyone managed to replace the front interior lights? The existing ones are far too dim and yellow in my view and could do with both much brighter and whiter lights. But what led bulb types are needed and what is their safe upper power limit? Prising out and replacing cover also looks challenging!

I'm sure I've seen previous post on this somewhere, search the forum and it should pop up

Check accessories thread for other options, too.

 

[nuppar]

I did search the forums before posting and did not find a reference to this. But hopefully the knowledge on how to tackle this does exist.

 

[fred12345]

depends on your model and what's already there, check out this one for fittings

Interior light bulbs

Trying to replace interior light bulbs with LED. Got the housing off with a bit of trepidation, but cannot for the life of me disconnect any of the connectors (sunroof, lights, SOS) to allow the housing to be removed, I'm assuming that it has to be removed to replace bulbs. Anyone done this...

www.mgevs.com

 

[MG steve]

Read the manual as bulb type and instructions are in there.

 

[Staffex]

You'll probably find all you need to know here: Interior bulbs getting them out.
It worked like a dream for me.

 

[Lovemyev]

Has anyone managed to replace the front interior lights? The existing ones are far too dim and yellow in my view and could do with both much brighter and whiter lights. But what led bulb types are needed and what is their safe upper power limit? Prising out and replacing cover also looks challenging!

I am assuming we are talking Gen1 ZS EV here ?.

 

[nuppar]

I am assuming we are talking Gen1 ZS EV here ?.

It's a brand new Gen2 Trophy LR actually. The one that was meant to come with a panoramic sunroof, V2L and universal CCS charging but somehow didn't ?

 

[Exdro]

It's a brand new Gen2 Trophy LR actually. The one that was meant to come with a panoramic sunroof, V2L and universal CCS charging but somehow didn't ?

That’s why I jumped at the chance of an ex demonstrator with all of the promised bells and whistles (fortunately no bongs as per my Gen 1. If you know, you know). I think the bongs have now been decommissioned.

 

[Lovemyev]

It's a brand new Gen2 Trophy LR actually. The one that was meant to come with a panoramic sunroof, V2L and universal CCS charging but somehow didn't ?

I only asked the question because your original post did not state either ZS EV Gen1 or the facelift Gen2 model.
The Gen1 only had capless festoon ( yellow glow ) lamps / bulbs and some owners updated these to the brighter / whiter LED lamps.
The owners manual on the Gen2 states that “depending on the cars market” the interior light could be either standard ( yellow glow ) lamps or the brighter LED units.
Our 2022 Trophy ? model HAS the front LED interior light, that was fitted by the factory.
I don’t recall any other owner of the Trophy ? model, not having a LED interior light TBH ?.
Regarding the missing sky roof in your car.
MG did give clear notice that they intended to remove the sky roof on any future factory orders the Trophy ? model, around July time I think it was ?.
There was then a bit of a scrabble for some customer to try and find, a Trophy model already held in any group stock, in order to secure a car with a sky roof.
Or a X demo model or a second hand model.
Any owners who expressed an interest to the dealer in order to accessing the V2L facility, then this could easily be done by replacing the small module that permits V2L discharge.
This has been covered extensively on the forum.
The universal CCS issue you mention ?.
Are you referring to the use / access to the non Tesla super chargers ?.
If so, there is a software update that will allow the ZS EV Gen2 model to charge from the non Tesla supercharger units.
Some have had this carried out FOC but others have been asked to contribute to the cost of updating the software.
Again this is covered by another thread on the forum.

 

[Elec Car Aust]

Has anyone managed to replace the front interior lights? The existing ones are far too dim and yellow in my view and could do with both much brighter and whiter lights. But what led bulb types are needed and what is their safe upper power limit? Prising out and replacing cover also looks challenging!

Yes, and I installed puddle lights in the footwells and rear seat lights. The MG's have shameful interior lighting.

I thought I did a YT video on it but looking on my channel I can't find it amongst the over 100 videos ? so will have to look into what happened to it. Here's one where I talk about the lighting when doing a review of interior after 3 yrs ownership. Enjoy.

 

[nuppar]

I only asked the question because your original post did not state either ZS EV Gen1 or the facelift Gen2 model.
The Gen1 only had capless festoon ( yellow glow ) lamps / bulbs and some owners updated these to the brighter / whiter LED lamps.
The owners manual on the Gen2 states that “depending on the cars market” the interior light could be either standard ( yellow glow ) lamps or the brighter LED units.
Our 2022 Trophy ? model HAS the front LED interior light, that was fitted by the factory.
I don’t recall any other owner of the Trophy ? model, not having a LED interior light TBH ?.
Regarding the missing sky roof in your car.
MG did give clear notice that they intended to remove the sky roof on any future factory orders the Trophy ? model, around July time I think it was ?.
There was then a bit of a scrabble for some customer to try and find, a Trophy model already held in any group stock, in order to secure a car with a sky roof.
Or a X demo model or a second hand model.
Any owners who expressed an interest to the dealer in order to accessing the V2L facility, then this could easily be done by replacing the small module that permits V2L discharge.
This has been covered extensively on the forum.
The universal CCS issue you mention ?.
Are you referring to the use / access to the non Tesla super chargers ?.
If so, there is a software update that will allow the ZS EV Gen2 model to charge from the non Tesla supercharger units.
Some have had this carried out FOC but others have been asked to contribute to the cost of updating the software.
Again this is covered by another thread on the forum.

As I understand it, MG removed the panoramic roof because of supply shortages during covid. If this is true it suggests the deprecation should have been temporary and they should have reintroduced it by now. But what was their excuse for disabling V2L when this has continued to work on the MG5/4?

Universal CCS does refer to the Tesla issue which I'm likely to refer to the Consumers Association Legal advice team and perhaps also to Which? because of the likely wider interest in this than just Tesla and MG.

 

[Lovemyev]

As I understand it, MG removed the panoramic roof because of supply shortages during covid. If this is true it suggests the deprecation should have been temporary and they should have reintroduced it by now. But what was their excuse for disabling V2L when this has continued to work on the MG5/4?

Personally I don’t buy the supply shortage story myself.
The ZS EV had seen a number of price increases in quick succession.
This was bringing the model much closer to other EV’s by the competition.
Removing the sky roof made huge savings on the cost of production, as they were only using a single roof pressing for all models from this point onwards.
I think the V2L issue was purely down to the U.K. car spec models not receiving the correct module to allow this to happen.
Incorrect details on the build sheet at the factory ?.
Why do I think this?
Well as soon as new customers started complaining, they allowed the dealer to replace the incorrect module FOC very quickly .
Not a supplier problem as they clearly had the parts then ?.

 

[nuppar]

Personally I don’t buy the supply shortage story myself.
The ZS EV had seen a number of price increases in quick succession.
This was bringing the model much closer to other EV’s by the competition.
Removing the sky roof made huge savings on the cost of production, as they were only using a single roof pressing for all models from this point onwards.
I think the V2L issue was purely down to the U.K. car spec models not receiving the correct module to allow this to happen.
Incorrect details on the build sheet at the factory ?.
Why do I think this?
Well as soon as new customers started complaining, they allowed the dealer to replace the incorrect module FOC very quickly .
Not a supplier problem as they clearly had the parts then ?.

If cost is the issue for the panoramic roof, why has the ZS been released recently in markets like India, Malaysia and Thailand with the panoramic roof? Would have thought these are more likely price sensitive markets than the UK.

And the V2L issue seems to have been prolonged for recent ZS's when previously earlier Mk2's did not have this problem I think. So how did their build process manage to get it right and then wrong. Doesnt altogether sound credible to me over such a long period - more than a year? 2023/4? Perhaps ZS owners are just test subjects to see what percentage actually complain about the missing feature. Although seems like a clumsy process to measure this.

 

[gonzo]

I have a 25 plate ZS and replaced the interior lamps pretty much as soon as I got it home.
I had some LED replacement wedge lamps which I used. I found that the cool white ones appear brighter. And in the boot I used an LED festoon replacement.
I doubt that LED lamps are going to be anywhere near the power draw or heat generation of an incandescent lamp. So I was happy to just bung them in and try.
The electronic control seems to handle the lower power draw fine.
(I have seen cars where replacing with LEDs can cause the dim function to not work, as they are just so low power.)

Mine is the lowest trim level, so I only had a few to change.

 

[Vipar]

So if I was to order new LED lights what do I ask for?
I am no leccy I want them as bright as possible

 

[Staffex]

I used these in my 2023 MG5 Trophy FL: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B071LNH2D3?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_11&th=1

 

[gonzo]

The ones on my SE model used the T10 size lamps.
There are plenty on eBay. I would suggest for interior lamps you don't need the 'canbus error free' types. As the extra load resistor inside will just generate additional heat. And I don't believe the car checks for bulb failure on interior lamps.

They seem to be all fairly similar.
ebay 374321101919 look to be the type I brought (though cheaper than this listing). At the time there were loads of listings. Looks like things have moved on.
I'd try buying a selection and see which you prefer.

The cool white ones I found to appear brightest in use.
When fitting they are polarity sensitive. So you may have to try plugging them in both ways to see which works.

 

[Staffex]

The ones on my SE model used the T10 size lamps.
There are plenty on eBay. I would suggest for interior lamps you don't need the 'canbus error free' types. As the extra load resistor inside will just generate additional heat. And I don't believe the car checks for bulb failure on interior lamps.

They seem to be all fairly similar.
ebay 374321101919 look to be the type I brought (though cheaper than this listing). At the time there were loads of listings. Looks like things have moved on.
I'd try buying a selection and see which you prefer.

The cool white ones I found to appear brightest in use.
When fitting they are polarity sensitive. So you may have to try plugging them in both ways to see which works.

For the benefit of those who, like me, have never heard of CANbus, I turned to Google:
"CAN bus stands for Controller Area Network bus. It's a robust vehicle bus standard designed to enable electronic control units (ECUs) in vehicles to communicate with each other without a host computer, according to PowerBulbs. The "bus" part refers to the physical wires used for communication.
Essentially, a CAN bus acts like a nervous system within a vehicle, allowing different components to share information and respond to events. For example, it enables the engine control unit to communicate with the brakes or the transmission."

Further Googling revealed:
"The value of the resistor in a 12V 5W Canbus error-free LED bulb typically ranges from 240 to 600 ohms. This range helps the Canbus system recognize the LED bulb as a standard 5W bulb and prevents error messages or flickering. The exact resistance value may vary slightly depending on the specific LED bulb and the vehicle's Canbus system."

I haven't measured the resistance in the ones I purchased from Amazon [KATUR 194 LED Light Bulb 6000K White Super Bright 168 2825 W5W T10 Wedge 24-SMD 3014 Chipsets LED Replacement Bulbs CANBUS Error Free... (4pcs,White)] but given the resistance range stated above, the additional heat would vary between 0.6 and 0.25 watts.

 

[gonzo]

Apologies in advance for the techno-babble....
I know it is not going to be of use to the OP.
But as a technical discussion, here goes!

It is probably not helpful to refer to the resistances of lamps. Unless it is as an operating impendence, when lit.
Incandescent lamps are positive temperature coefficient devices. So the resistance will increase as they heat up. If measured with a meter when cold, they will be almost zero ohms.
LEDs are a diode with 2.5-3V of forward bias drop, and a current limit resistor. Trying to measure them on a meter will give different results on different meters.

The most useful thing to measure is the current drawn when fully illuminated. For a 5W incandescent lamp, this will be just under 500mA. I would guess for LEDs this will be 50-100mA ??

The CANBUS is being mentioned here as this is how the modules in the car will report errors. in this case it is the module controlling the lamps that could be reporting a bulb failure error.
They will do this my sensing the current drawn by a lamp and if this is below a given level, will report this as an error.

The LED lamps sold as being error free, have an additional resistance added in parallel to the LED circuit. This draws extra current to make the controlling module see a current more representative of the incandescent lamp that it was designed to work with.
As the LED makers will have no idea what current limits the module makers will have chosen, I would assume they will choose an additional resistance to bring the draw up close on the full 5W.
That would mean the whole LED package will be dissipating about 5W. It will only get as hot as an incandescent 5W bulb.

Back to the OP original question...
As I have replaced the front interior lamps with simple lamps that do not have the extra resistance to prevent bulb fail errors. I would conclude that the module controlling them either, only tests for a low current to detect lamp failure, and so is happy enough with my LEDs. Or, more probable, the module doesn't bother testing. As it's not a critical function (and you would know if it failed anyway).


Sorry. Being an engineer does this to you!