Upgraded trunk light

BMW i3 Forum

Help Support BMW i3 Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

WKP

New member
Joined
Nov 6, 2017
Messages
2
HI, all. New owner of a 2015 Giga Rex, purchased CPO from an Atlanta-area BMW dealer. I'm used to tinkering with my vehicles, but not much I want to change on this one!

I was a little disappointed in the mediocre trunk light, so I added an LED strip to the underside of the trunk cover. A few pics:

Before
1 by gorwell48, on Flickr

After

2 by gorwell48, on Flickr

The current trunk light just pops out, so a couple of quick splice connectors provided power.
7 by gorwell48, on Flickr

I used 3M body moulding tape to adhere a section of warm white waterproof LED strip lighting.

4 by gorwell48, on Flickr

A polarized quick disconnect (upper left) lets me disconnect if I need to remove the cover.

8 by gorwell48, on Flickr

Total time was <1 hour. Makes a huge difference when accessing the trunk when I leave for work (always in the dark).
 
Nice job!

Did you consider attaching the LED strips to the undersides of the cargo tray supports that protrude from each cargo area side wall? Doing so would eliminate the need to detach/attach the electrical connections when the cargo tray is removed/installed. I remove the cargo tray enough that I would be worried about damaging the LED strips when I stow the cargo tray, usually behind the front seats with the rear seats folded down. However, cargo area illumination would likely be a bit inferior to that of your design.
 
Thanks. I did think about adding strips under those ledges, but it would have meant running a wire from one side to the other - something I didn't think I wanted to do. As you point out, it also wouldn't have been quite as bright. The strip I used is waterproof (LEDs are encased in clear silicone) so it will take a good bit of abuse.

My "backup" vehicle is a Toyota 4Runner, so it gets most of the hauling duties.
 
Back
Top