[m_power]

Hey all,
I see last night a few of us received and installed our LED interior kits!

I Purchased mine at: http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=466069

I'll have to say that installation of these are really easy. As with any mod, I was hesitant at first since I REALLY don't want to permanently damage anything on my car. The only tool I used was a really thin bladed flat head screw driver. If you're going to install these, definitely find the thinest bladed flat head and use that. I had previously filed mine down and dulled the tip from a modding my first car back in 1998.

The installation:
Map Lights: The hardest part of the installation was the map lights. Finding how to take off the housing and wiggling those bulbs out is a huge pain. I just hope that the LED's last a long time and I don't have to mess with the housing any time soon. As with every mod, there is a steep learning curve. To remove the map light housing, don't pry them out. Simply place the flat head screw driver in the map light housing's slot, and they simply pop out themselves.

Dome Lights: Pretty easy to install, but don't stay up in the housing after installed. I had to remove the double sided tape on the LED's and replace the tape on the side of the LED's for them to stay up in the housing. After that, they should remain up in the housing and off of the plastic film.

Floor Lights: I removed the plugs from the bulbs prior to remove the bulbs from the housing. I found that when they were on, and extremely hot, they would expand and make it very difficult to remove. Once off, and they cool very fast, they would just pop out of the housing.

And of course, pics!

[Dark_Knight_335]

Wow, fantastic pics! Looks like something out of a BMW brochure. What is that an SLR? Canon 5D? Great write up. Good to have a Sonic write up to offset the half dozen HPB write ups

[canucklion]

m_power, I'm confused; the links you provided are reviews of the HPB kit by HPB/TopGear, but your review is apparently on the kit by Sonic.

So are you talking about the HPB or the Sonic kit?

[m_power]

Originally Posted by canucklion

m_power, I'm confused; the links you provided are reviews of the HPB kit by HPB/TopGear, but your review is apparently on the kit by Sonic.

So are you talking about the HPB or the Sonic kit?

Mine review is from the Sonic kit, sorry about the confusion. And the camera is the canon sd8800.

[m_power]

Originally Posted by m_power

Mine review is from the Sonic kit, sorry about the confusion. And the camera is the canon sd8800.

I included those because, unless I'm wrong, it's the same product just a different vendor. I could be way off on that though, not sure.

[canucklion]

Originally Posted by m_power

I included those because, unless I'm wrong, it's the same product just a different vendor. I could be way off on that though, not sure.

They are different.

Sonic has been selling their kit for a while now, whereas TPB just came out with this new batch of LEDs a few weeks ago.

[m_power]

Originally Posted by canucklion

They are different.

Sonic has been selling their kit for a while now, whereas TPB just came out with this new batch of LEDs a few weeks ago.

Thanks for the clarification Canuck. So this is a different set of LED's than TPB's. Sonic's set looks great. I'm really glad I did the conversion!

[Joe@TopGearSolutions]

Originally Posted by m_power

I included those because, unless I'm wrong, it's the same product just a different vendor. I could be way off on that though, not sure.

They are not the same product. Several aspects of our kit are not universally bought.

They were custom made and we invested money into them to achieve the brightest and whitest solution.

Off the shelf bulbs to end to have a blue or yellow hue and not as bright. Trust me we had those, thats why we invested into our own lights custom made.

The high performance bulbs kit offers brighter SMD LED's in some areas as well.

For future reference they are high Performance bulbs.com Kit

We are just dealers of their kit. We've converted many people looking for a brighter whiter solution in the dome light areas.

The reviews by the 2 other members should not be confused, those members have High Performance bulbs.com kit.

If its any consolation we could replicate other kits out their for HALF the cost.

[canucklion]

Originally Posted by m_power

Thanks for the clarification Canuck. So this is a different set of LED's than TPB's. Sonic's set looks great. I'm really glad I did the conversion!

You're welcome

Your Sonic kit looks good, + their price is pretty attractive as well

[Shellacked135i]

Ya bro definitely not the same. My buddy has the sonic tuning kit and mine is way brighter. He's picking up a few LED's from HPB to replace some of his that aren't as bright or not as white.

[canucklion]

^ good to hear first hand comparison between the 2 kits.

Top Gear, you got to start shipping to Canada!

[Dr. G]

Originally Posted by canucklion

^ good to hear first hand comparison between the 2 kits.

Top Gear, you got to start shipping to Canada!

Yes ship to Canada! I have access to every interior kit and am itching to do a live head to head comparison between kits.

[newbimm]

I just installed the Sonic Tuning kit today. Honestly, I thought it was going to be brighter but I'm ok with that, I was afraid it was going to be tooo bright from some of the pics. I don't really have anything to compare to so I wouldn't know how the other kits are. Pretty happy with the outcome. The door lights and the trunk lights are awesome!

Question to the OP: What and how did you do to keep the dome leds up? (I know you said you replaced the tape but can you explain more in detail? thanks.)

[jose_sonictuning]

Originally Posted by Rob@TopGearSolutions

They are not the same product. Several aspects of our kit are not universally bought.

They were custom made and we invested money into them to achieve the brightest and whitest solution.

Off the shelf bulbs to end to have a blue or yellow hue and not as bright. Trust me we had those, thats why we invested into our own lights custom made.

The high performance bulbs kit offers brighter SMD LED's in some areas as well.

For future reference they are high Performance bulbs.com Kit

We are just dealers of their kit. We've converted many people looking for a brighter whiter solution in the dome light areas.

The reviews by the 2 other members should not be confused, those members have High Performance bulbs.com kit.

If its any consolation we could replicate other kits out their for HALF the cost.

Rob,

Can you take pictures of individual bulbs for your "customer LED kit"?

Please take note none of the LED is "universally bought"; they are custom fitted to the e9x platform.

[jose_sonictuning]

Originally Posted by m_power

Hey all,
I see last night a few of us received and installed our LED interior kits!

I Purchased mine at: http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=466069

I'll have to say that installation of these are really easy. As with any mod, I was hesitant at first since I REALLY don't want to permanently damage anything on my car. The only tool I used was a really thin bladed flat head screw driver. If you're going to install these, definitely find the thinest bladed flat head and use that. I had previously filed mine down and dulled the tip from a modding my first car back in 1998.

The installation:
Map Lights: The hardest part of the installation was the map lights. Finding how to take off the housing and wiggling those bulbs out is a huge pain. I just hope that the LED's last a long time and I don't have to mess with the housing any time soon. As with every mod, there is a steep learning curve. To remove the map light housing, don't pry them out. Simply place the flat head screw driver in the map light housing's slot, and they simply pop out themselves.

Dome Lights: Pretty easy to install, but don't stay up in the housing after installed. I had to remove the double sided tape on the LED's and replace the tape on the side of the LED's for them to stay up in the housing. After that, they should remain up in the housing and off of the plastic film.

Floor Lights: I removed the plugs from the bulbs prior to remove the bulbs from the housing. I found that when they were on, and extremely hot, they would expand and make it very difficult to remove. Once off, and they cool very fast, they would just pop out of the housing.

And of course, pics!

Thank you for a extensive and honest review, pictures look good.

Originally Posted by newbimm

I just installed the Sonic Tuning kit today. Honestly, I thought it was going to be brighter but I'm ok with that, I was afraid it was going to be tooo bright from some of the pics. I don't really have anything to compare to so I wouldn't know how the other kits are. Pretty happy with the outcome. The door lights and the trunk lights are awesome!

Question to the OP: What and how did you do to keep the dome leds up? (I know you said you replaced the tape but can you explain more in detail? thanks.)

If you have any questions regarding the LED, let us know.

[jose_sonictuning]

Originally Posted by Shellacked135i

Ya bro definitely not the same. My buddy has the sonic tuning kit and mine is way brighter. He's picking up a few LED's from HPB to replace some of his that aren't as bright or not as white.

Shellacked,

Please post the comparison of the LEDs, and which LED are you referring to?
Can you post the pictures of HPB's LED kit ( the actual kit). It would be pretty simple once we compare how many LED module is on each board.

[rollinstone157]

Originally Posted by jose_sonictuning

Shellacked,
Can you post the pictures of HPB's LED kit ( the actual kit). It would be pretty simple once we compare how many LED module is on each board.

Through my talks with HPB (I just ordered some stuff with them), I mentioned that I would be willing to do a review on the product, and his one condition was that I cannot post pictures of the actual bulb. They claim that they have custom developed each of the bulbs, and they don't want their competitors to imitate the design. So just out of respect for HPB, don't post the pictures.

[jose_sonictuning]

Originally Posted by rollinstone157

Through my talks with HPB (I just ordered some stuff with them), I mentioned that I would be willing to do a review on the product, and his one condition was that I cannot post pictures of the actual bulb. They claim that they have custom developed each of the bulbs, and they don't want their competitors to imitate the design. So just out of respect for HPB, don't post the pictures.

Most of the custom developed kits are full replacement module instead of bulbs due to limitation of small area provided by the OE housing.

That's respectable, but if anyone wanted to imitate the design it only takes $100 to buy a set.

It is a good marketing idea so others can't have the real comparison.

[rollinstone157]

Originally Posted by jose_sonictuning

Most of the custom developed kits are full replacement module instead of bulbs due to limitation of small area provided by the OE housing.

That's respectable, but if anyone wanted to imitate the design it only takes $100 to buy a set.

It is a good marketing idea so others can't have the real comparison.

Very true, that's why I purchased a trunk module. It should provide a satisfying boost in light output over the bulb replacement method.

Understandable, that's my thoughts too. But they asked that I not post pictures of their LED modules, and I'm going to comply just to avoid unneeded conflict.

I can understand that point of view too. But I have an idea. Would it be possible to send me an evaluation kit from SonicTuning? I'm going to do an in-depth review of the HPB kit. I know how to use a camera, and I'm a photoshop guru, so I'm going to attempt to make a system that allows people to get a true scale of the brightness of the product. My plan is to put the camera on a tripod, zoom in up close to the bulb in question, take a picture of the halogen bulb in its housing, replace it with its respective LED, and then, by putting the camera into manual mode, use the same exposure from the halogen bulb to take a picture of the LED bulb. Then, I'll use photoshop to merge them into one picture, and "split" the housing diagonally. Hopefully, that will make for the most accurate review possible. If that doesn't work (because the LEDs are too bright) then I'll expose the camera to the LEDs, and do it in reverse. While this review will be tedious and time consuming, a prime example of why this kind of review is needed can be taken from those cheap eBay angel eye upgrades. When pictures are taken of them, they use a longer exposure to make them look as bright as the OSS replacement solution. Obviously that's not how it really looks, and it's very difficult to get a true scale of brightness without actually having the kit installed in your vehicle. Hopefully my method will help alleviate this problem. If you would like to put your hat in the ring, I'd be more than happy to have your product in the ring. Competition is good, it allows for better products and prices for the consumer.