C5 X7 ambient lighting (and some other bits and pieces)

[vborovic]

Currently I'm killing myself with getting the HiFi package in my car working (amp & subwoofer), but so far, no luck, so I've decided to do something to cheer me up ... ... I've installed new headlight bulbs, I've decided to try Philips Ultimate White Light, Diamond Vision, 5000K, H7s ... yes, it's questionable where and how they're road legal ... but ... they really are the closest thing to the xenons in color ... previously I had Philips BlueVision, and those compared to the regular/standard H7s are white ... almost the same jump is from Blue to Diamond ... double white ... will need to test them in night driving conditions of course, but at least they look really nice on the car, and since I'm going for a white light look if possible (exterior), this made my day ... ...

[vborovic]

I took out the interior door handle cover, to see what cable infrastructure I currently have (without taking apart the entire door cover), and not too surprising, the ambient door cable isn't there, meaning I'll have to pull wires through sometimes in the future, from the BSI or somewhere, to both door's handles ... when the cover will be taken off (I'm guessing during replacement of the door speakers with better ones) ... I'm not interested in the door pocket automatic lighting, because it would probably be too much of a hassle, and the result color is not orange, but blue, so that won't do it for me ...

[vborovic]

Small update, I've figured something else regarding the door compartment auto lighting (those two automatic LEDs xantippa is talking about) ... all the cars have the preparation in the door plates (holes and the plastic compartments where the LEDs are fitted in) ... never occured to me ti check before the situation, today I'm trying to pull through the wire for the door handle orange lifgt, and the window buttons console had to be dug out, and while looking with the torch light, found out the 2 holes in the door, which are for the compartment lighting ... now, I'm not interested int he automatic lights, but this immediately gave me the idea to grab 2 orange LED's, which would light all the time ... will try to reach a useable solution, without taking the door cover off (that's the last effort, unless I'll be replacing the door speakers, I hope I won't have to do that)

[vborovic]

Not sure about the default setup, but I've wired the door handle LED in paralell with the wire that becomes live after turning the key (when the door window buttons light up), the green 20pin connector has one negative (pin 8), one always on positive (pin 1), and I've discovered the pin 15 as the one becoming live after the key (otherwise, the LED would always light up, which I don't want) ... it was tricky to pull the wire from the door handle opening through to the door buttons opening, but I've made it, a bit of soldering and the end result is very satisfying ... will definitely do the co-driver's door as well, later on maybe even the rear doors ... in my case, the part with the LED light is 9119 EV (mistral grey, no seat memory buttons), price roughly 30 GBP ...

Pins/wires 1 & 8

[vborovic]

Something new today, I've replaced the tail gate license plate lights ... again ... the full history of the changes goes like this: genuine halogen -> Philips BlueVision W5W -> Osram W5W Cool White LED ... and today, I've installed the full LED solution (not the bulb, but the entire black block was replaced) ... and again, the light is twice whiter and stronger than before ... I think this is the best possible and will stick to it ... now, what happened is that the lights (since they shine the light straight down the rear bumper) form a light/shade segment, that follows the car's rear end nicely, making it much easier to see in the dark where the rear of your car is, and if there is anything behind it ... I was expecting something like this to happen, but the result is beyond my expectations ... now, if only I could mount the rear camera as genuine, with these new lights at the back, the reversing would be a breeze even in pitch dark situations ...

[Xantippa]

Racing Dash Led?

[vborovic]

Yes, that's the one

[Stickyfinger]

Do you now have a definitive list of the bulbs you are using as replacements (not the ambient lights) ?

It would be good to have a sticky as a list made by those who have changed them

[vborovic]

I can write down the current setup, regarding the headlamps:
- main beam: H1 - Philips BlueVision (will be upgraded to DiamondVision)
- Sidelamp: W5W - Cree True White (works in parallel with the DRL)
- Dipped Beam: H7 - Philips DiamondVision
- Bend Lighting: H7 - Philips DiamondVision
- DRL: HP24 (G4 LED white, not sure which one, I think it is 5W as the larger 7W wouldn't fit in)

- Front foglamp: H8 - Philips DiamondVision

Rear lamps as original so far, no plans on changing.

Interior (ceiling, passenger glovebox, floor lighting, pavement lighting, boot lighting): Philips BlueVision W5W

Interesting fact: all of the above (except the DRL LEDs) are ordered from the UK ... ...

Did I miss anything?

[vborovic]

Finally completed the full lighting project on one door (front passenger) as initially planned, with the outcome even better than expected (better than original IMO) ... so, the door handle cover + led light is genuine Citroen (part no. 9119EK), was ordered from the dealer, the door pocket lights are slim W5W orange LED's, mounted on a W5W type socket, everything wired to ground + live wire on ignition that power the orange light on the door window switch panel ...

[removing the old handle cover]

[one of the target holes]

[adding the required wires]

[orange W5W LED SMDs]

[W5W sockets]

[new door handle cover with LED light]

[night view - the picture doesn't do it justice, it looks much better in real life]

[vborovic]

The next step I did was adding the wire installations for both the door handle lights (near future) and the door pocket lights to the both rear doors on my car ... now, I'm not sure about the genuine setup on Exclusives, but the rear doors should at least have the door handle lights, but unknown to me if they have the automatic (or any for that matter) door pocket lights ... I had to drill one hole on each door pocket top side, to allow for the W5W socket's wires to go into the door cover ... the rear doors have far smaller window button panels, so you can't fit your hand inside the door once you get it out (if you have smaller hands that is) like you can on the front doors, so that's one extra level of difficulty ... I'll add the pictures a bit later, since I now have just the installations in place, but no lights, since I have to use order 2 more door handle covers with LEDs & the W5W orange LED SMDs ... an interesting thing happened once I tried installing one regular W5W bulb ... the both rear doors "shut down", kinda like when you enable the rear door child lock (no window, no door opening) ... but with the exception that the driver door button for that lock was blinking, not lit up continuously (like normal) ... that's some kind of an error indication, seems the regular bulbs consume lot more electricity that normal, so the doors have some kind of shut down protection ... when I tried with the LED SMDs, no issues ... now I have to order some, since I had just 2 (shown on the previous pictures), ordered for the testing ... a bit of drilling, a bit of wire stripping, a bit of soldering, and you have yourself a Christmas tree on 4 wheels ... ...

On another note, one additional thing happened, which I didn't know worked that way ... I tried locking the car during the process, with one door opened, and of course nothing happened ... but, the car alarm (genuine, aftermarket installation) WAS armed and gave me a surprise when I opened another door after a few minutes ... didn't think it would actually arm when the car wasn't fully closed (failed locking) ...

[vborovic]

Just returned from the car, fitted the new H8 fog lamps, Philips Diamond Vision 5000K ... visually, looks great, how it copes with fogs is a thing to test in practice (clear black night visibility won't be a problem, the light burns through the darkness) ... now the front end looks in sync, with most of the bulbs being 5000K, with the main beam still being older Blue Vision (H1) ... that will be changed soon as well ... the procedure is simple, but you'd better have a proper torx tool (the length is crucial, at least like an average screwdriver) at disposal ...

[vborovic]

Forgot to add, the original H8 bulbs that were factory fitted are Osrams, 35W, Germany made ...

[The Ace]

Well, I'm currently considering doing almost all of the mods/changes that vborovic did on my '10 C5 Prestige (MidHigh trim), and was wondering if some of you had any experience on the following:

1) As far as the light bulbs, according to ECE R37, halogens cannot exceed 55W and temps of 4200K. However, PIAA is advertising their Hyper+ range as road-legal, although they are promoted as 110W bulbs (but still drawing 55W). On the other hand, Philips and PIAA have me really wondering about their bulb ranges, as they advertise some of their 4300K ranges as road-legal while other are for off-road use only. What gives on the 55/110W front, and should I just go with a BlueVision set at 4000K and be done with it ? And will PIAAs cause any problems with the headlamps (which are polycarbonate and are supposed to be able to withstand up to 150 Celcius) ?

2) I would like to add the ambient lighting, so if possible could vborovic or someone else sum up the part numbers and the process needed to make it work correctly ? (if all else fails, I would like it to operate along with the roof leds i.e. when I turn on the lights). I think that I have all the Info required in order to have lighting in the door handles and door compartments.

3) I would also like to add the floor lighting (which is missing from my C5), that is the small lamps on the footwells of driver, co-driver and rear passengers, so again part numbers and process will be greatly appreciated

[vborovic]

1. The PIAAs in question use 55W (it is advertised that they "give" light output of 110W, basically they advertise that they're producing twice the light with 55W ... don't know, never seen them for myself yet, as they're far to expensive just for tests) ... Philips DiamondVision aren't road legal, so you could have issues if someone pulls you over and asks for clarification ... BlueVisions are road legal ...

2. We never figured out why we can't link them with the roof lighting for certain, the closest I got to it is that probably additional ambient lighting modules (the same units which operate reversing mirrors to lower the glass if you want by memory), which should be included in the door (meaning, removing the interior door panels) are missing (and there is no confirmation whether it would work as genuine even if we wired everything correctly). It will be hard to link with the roof orange lights (not enough power is drawn out from the pin in question, you could have electrical stability issues), consider an alternate power source (mine I think are linked to the sidelights in the headlamp).

3. I'd suggest going to your Citroen dealer/service, they have the knowledge of all the parts, and ask them for a quote to add foot lighting (it's a day's job at most, definitely not 8 hours), the front row should be easy enough, the rears will need to pull wires through the least visible spots (and also avoiding dismantling too much of the interior, you never know when a plastic clip or panel can break, then you'll have more problems than you wanted).