Modifying Duetto interior light lens cap

Robbie wrote:If you need to enlarge the hole a bit a dremmel is by far the best tool for the job and you wont break the housing :)

-mojo- wrote:Unfortunately there's a lot of profit being made for no added value with many of the UK-based suppliers. I'm not "undermining British manufacturers" by saying that, as these companies just buy them in bulk for pennies each from China anyway.

If you want value for money, find out the exact bulb spec and buy through Ebay. If you're happy to wait, the ones that come from Hong Kong generally work very well, and there are now quite a few UK-based suppliers that don't have such huge markups either. I've been replacing the cab lighting in the new van, and two W5W 1.5Watt bulbs cost a grand total of £1.98, shipped from a UK supplier. They arrived the day after I ordered them and work perfectly.

I also changed the DRL's (which are conventional lamps fitted within the headlight cluster on the current model T5s) for LEDs because the filament bulbs have a reputation for failing frequently, and the only reason I paid so much - at £5 each - is because they were guaranteed to work Ok with the lamp failure detection circuits that VW use.

Bulletguy wrote:I bought mine off a UK supplier after scouring the site for a similar size replacement to the halogen and there just simply isn't any. They are either too wide or too long to fit the lens cover back on.

What kind of size dimensions are the bulbs you bought? Do you have a link?

Bulletguy wrote:Update on the 'modification'.

Took ages to widen out the hole enough to get these LED's to fit through.......only to find once in the socket, the lens cap cannot be fitted as the LED bulb is too long!!!

I'm curious about this as i've read of other people swapping the halogens in their van over to LED. I just wonder if there are any Duetto owners who have, and if so.....what LED bulbs did you buy and where from?

-mojo- wrote:

I understand what you and Dutto are saying - if you put "G4 LED" into the Ebay search function you get over 7 thousand hits back!

I confess I take a rather random approach because they are seldom described well enough to be sure of dimensions. So I just buy a few of each and see what fits. So for example with my W5W cab map lights I thought these would fit:

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but they were too long and touched the plastic cover.

-mojo- wrote:

Instead these fitted, were less than half the price and arrived the following day:

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rogerblack wrote:

Bulletguy wrote:Update on the 'modification'.

Took ages to widen out the hole enough to get these LED's to fit through.......only to find once in the socket, the lens cap cannot be fitted as the LED bulb is too long!!!

I'm curious about this as i've read of other people swapping the halogens in their van over to LED. I just wonder if there are any Duetto owners who have, and if so.....what LED bulbs did you buy and where from?

These look identical to the ones on our Pollensa and I had exactly the same problems you have described. I was simply able to shorten the pins on the LEDs which then allowed the lens glasses to fit.

Bulletguy wrote:
Looking at that link and the measurements, those might fit. Certainly the length/width is ok......the only thing which does concern me slightly is the terminals and how they are encased. My bulb terminals are simply two bare wire prongs 4mm apart and approx 9mm long.

-mojo- wrote:

Bulletguy wrote:
Looking at that link and the measurements, those might fit. Certainly the length/width is ok......the only thing which does concern me slightly is the terminals and how they are encased. My bulb terminals are simply two bare wire prongs 4mm apart and approx 9mm long.

Sorry, the links were meant just as an illustration of the variation in W5W bulbs. They won't fit a G4.

The problem with your photo is that (at least for me) the right hand side of it is chopped off, so it's not possible to see the fitting that the bulb goes into.

Bulletguy wrote:

rogerblack wrote:

Bulletguy wrote:Update on the 'modification'.

Took ages to widen out the hole enough to get these LED's to fit through.......only to find once in the socket, the lens cap cannot be fitted as the LED bulb is too long!!!

I'm curious about this as i've read of other people swapping the halogens in their van over to LED. I just wonder if there are any Duetto owners who have, and if so.....what LED bulbs did you buy and where from?

These look identical to the ones on our Pollensa and I had exactly the same problems you have described. I was simply able to shorten the pins on the LEDs which then allowed the lens glasses to fit.

Did you also need to open up the hole in the reflector lens in order to get them to go in?

Bulletguy wrote:Bought some G4 LED's from a UK trader on Ebay but the bulb unit is slightly wider than the original so wont fit in the lens cap (see photo).

With a slight bit of modifying of the lens cap by widening the hole, I could get the LED's to pass through, but am a bit concerned about busting the damn things as they are only plastic and quite fragile. Are replacements available and if so where?

Any thoughts on modifying also appreciated.

Harper22 wrote:

Hi Bulletguy, I bought some of these for my harmony and found that if you take the plastic reflector out of the gold casing you can take the glass out too, I then put the reflector back into the outer bezel, attached that back to the light THEN pushed the two prongs up into the fitting, As the prongs on these are longer than halogens the glass wasn't going to fit anyway but as led's give off no heat this isn't a problem and works a treat and its still original (kept the glass) for if i come to sell her :-)

Neil

Bulletguy wrote:

Harper22 wrote:

Hi Bulletguy, I bought some of these for my harmony and found that if you take the plastic reflector out of the gold casing you can take the glass out too, I then put the reflector back into the outer bezel, attached that back to the light THEN pushed the two prongs up into the fitting, As the prongs on these are longer than halogens the glass wasn't going to fit anyway but as led's give off no heat this isn't a problem and works a treat and its still original (kept the glass) for if i come to sell her :-)

Neil

An interesting method there Neil. Must admit I had to read through your post a couple of time before I could see what you'd done!
I've already returned my LED's otherwise i'd have given that a go. However what this does highlight is swapping the bog standard G4 halogen bulbs for LED's is not nearly as straightforward as some would have you believe. Apart from those which Dutto has used, I haven't found any which are a direct swap.

I did buy some others from ebay that were smaller but still had to fit them the same way, They give off quite a yellowish light but they are only really used for bit of ambient lighting of an evening rather than reading lights. I know some people snipped the pins down to make them short enough to still fit the glass casing but removed the reflector totally. i'm happy with how mine is for the time being especially as how expensive led's can be

sherbie wrote:Hi we have the same fittings in our Sherbourne. Trying to get access to the bulb does the glass lift out or do you have to take the full front off? If so how and what with ? Any advice appreciated we are also fitting leds . Cheers Deb and Si.