Here you go for sharing in case anyone is interested. I love LED's as they draw very low power, they dont heat up, you can play around with any color you want and they last a long time. I personally do not like regular bulbs. They get hot and I dont like the amber color they emit so I always upgrade my license plate bulbs on all my cars to LED's. Most new cars now use LED too. For the 360, type of bulb is called "festoon", size 38mm / 1.5". You can find find LED's in eBay or Amazon that suits the brightness you want. We are all different. Some people like theirs real bright to show their personalized plate, some wants it fairly dim, some wants it medium brightness. Lots of LED's out there for you to choose from. Attached is what I used, its a 9 mini LED festoon bulb and the color and brightness is just perfect for my taste. I got mine from eBay from a US seller. Procedure is as simple as removing 2 screws for each light assembly, drop the light assembly, remove the original festoon bulb and replace it with LED bulb. While you are at it, clean the light assembly as I am certain its fairly dusty. Remember that LED's have polarity so if you install the LED bulb and it doesnt work simply reverse the orientation. Hope that helps some of you that wishes to do this upgrade too. Dan Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Hi Alan, The one I used are spares from my stock of LED bulbs that I used for my BMW's. I searched eBay and found these. Should be equivalent. Hope that helps. Xenon White 9 SMD 1210 1 50" 36mm 6418 C5W LED Bulbs for Car License Plate Light | eBay DAn
Next mod is upgrade to LED's luggage compartment light and glove compartment light. They are actually both done and upgraded to LED's already but I want a brighter bulb for both locations so that I can see better at night what's inside my luggage compartment and glove compartment. Waiting for the brighter LED's to arrive. Will post DIY on that here soon. Dan
An important note: If the LED bulb you purchased is too bright for your taste - you can very easily "adjust" the brightness of the bulb by simply rotating the bulb towards the opposite direction until you get the desired brightness that suits your taste. No need to keep replacing LED bulbs until you get the brightness that you desire. Dan
Dan Not sure if their chart is screwed up but it says not compatible. Alan Image Unavailable, Please Login
Ignore their charts please Alan, their charts are inaccurate. How about this, come over my house this weekend and I will help you update your lights to LED's. Beer is on me too. Cold beer and soda pop and Wine always available inside the fridge. And I mean that sincerely. I can eMail you my home address. Dan
I just ordered mine on eBay for F430 which is same 38mm festoon for license plate and luggage compartment. I chose the error free to avoid triggering failed lamp warning indicator. 2X 39mm 1 55" 3 SMD 5050 White OBC Canbus Error Festoon Dome Car LED Bulb 12V | eBay Personally, I didn't want it super bright so chose the 3 5050SMD LED's. Will do comparison pic when received.
Those work for sure. I installed those on my BMW M6 and they are indeed error free. However I also learned how to recode BMW software so there was really no need for me to install canbus / error free LED bulbs as I was able to turn off the bulb reporting feature of the Light ECM on any bulb that I want. Correct me if I am wrong but the 360 LCM / Light Control Module does not have bulb fault reporting feature? At least I cannot find any mention of it in the owners manual. Dan
The bulbs are different for the 360 which are r5w as standard. If anyone knows which type of led to get instead that is fairly dull then please let me know. I didn't understand the bit about adjusting the brightness. Also yes you are correct you don't need error free ones on the 360 as there is no monitoring system to tell you when a bulb is out.
Update: I am still learning about these cars. So I upgraded my license plate bulbs to LED. Also upgraded my luggage compartment light to LED. No errors for the last two days. Now I am getting the Luggage Compartment Open / Ajar symbol on the instrument panel. So I am guessing either the Spider version of the 360 or the F1 transmission has some form of bulb resistance checks that contributed to that error as I didnt get that error before I switched to LED's. I have ordered Canbus / Error Free LED bulbs, will switch them out to the regular LED's to see if the message goes away and will update you folks. Will also try putting back regular bulbs to see if the fault goes away. Still learning............. Dan
The LED's have a "face" that projects the light output forward. If you want maximum brightness you face the LED's toward the license plate. If you want the brightness to be dimmer /subdued you orient the LED's 180 degrees away from the license plate so its an "indirect lighting". If its still too bright for you you can simply apply a film similar to window tint to the light plate assembly. You can apply half a strip, full strip, etc. If its too much trouble for some - then stay with original bulbs. Different strokes for different folks. Do whatever makes you happy. Its your car and we are all different. Dan
Dan That would be more than a little jaunt as I live in NC -- thanks anyway. I'll wait to order the license plate bulbs until you determine what CANBUS error free bulbs you get for the luggage compartment. It seems very strange that Ferrari (or any car company for that matter) would monitor the bulb current draw to determine if the lid is open -- after all the switch does that. Thanks for the write up. Let us know which error free LEDs you ordered. Alan
I confirm, the Ferrari LCM / Light Control Module does not detect bulb faults, therefore you do not need CANBUS / Error Free bulbs. However it does not hurt anything to install them to your car. I just got my car back from the dealership and the reason for the luggage compartment light quit working and luggage compartment warning light coming on in the instrument panel was determined to be a faulty latch assembly which includes the hood close micro switch. Luggage compartment latch assembly ordered and will be replaced by the dealer next week. Cost in case someone is wondering to R & R luggage compartment latch assembly by the dealer =$410.00 parts and labor. I know I can order the part myself and replace it myself but I am too busy at work so I told the dealer to just go ahead and do it. Here are some additional photos with the bulbs installed: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Lots of choices on LED bulbs in eBay. Here is one: Note, I have no affiliation to the seller nor do I vouch for their products. Dan Pair of 1 50" 36mm White 6418 C5W Festoon LED Bulbs Car License Plate Lights 21 | eBay
Dan Those are half the price of the first link you posted. Any idea why as they look to be identical? Thanks Alan What luggage compartment LED did you get -- a link would be appreciated? Thanks Alan
Hi Alan, Yes, I found a better deal for the license plate LED bulbs so I thought I'd post it here for sharing. And its US Seller too instead of China. LED bulbs from China sometimes takes 3 - 4 weeks to arrive. Luggage compartment LED bulb. This is what I used: more LED's, bigger LED's so they are brighter which is what we need to illuminate the trunk at night as much as possible. And its only a little over a buck each, and its Amazon Prime so if you are Prime member you get free shipping and you get it in two days. And I think the glove compartment bulb uses the same size. Amazon.com: 10pcs 39mm White 8 LED 5050 SMD Festoon Dome Light 6411 6418 for Car: Automotive Hope that helps. Dan
