BallLightning
Member
I'm a new owner of an M5 GT w/o nav thanks to the government's CARS program. I'm going to be lurking a good amount but I might as well say hello to start.
Already I've seen some useful information on the forums, but I've found it pretty scattered or incomplete for what I want to be trying to do with my car.
Here are my questions (forgive me if they're dumb I tried for about an hour and a half of searching *dawns flame retarded noob suit*):
1) Can I swap out my OEM HID bulbs for higher wattage ones, like 4300k @ 55w? I have no idea what the stock ones are rated at 4300K @ 35w(?). From my experience with fluorescent lights you would probably need a higher rated ballast, but I don't know if this applies to the stock HID system in the GT.
*edit: yep that was a pretty noob question; I consulted my buddies on the forum for my other car and they said I'd need to retrofit with a higher rated ballast, but it wouldnt be recommended because 50w+ is overkill and might burn the housing or something. for sure it's possible to swap to a bulb with a higher K temperature at the same wattage*
2)
I really want to swap out all the stock bulbs in my interior, license plate lights, and what not for LED bulbs. However I haven't been able to type in the right search parameters to obtain the right kinds of bulbs for the Mazda 5. I was reading a thread for the Mazda 3 right here but I gave up and stopped reading because of its sheer length and non-specificity to the Mazda 5. Does anybody have a simple list of LED bulb types I should be using? I don't want to buy the Mazda 3 bulbs and have them not fit properly.
*edit: Nevermind I did a cross reference from this thread and figured it out...just took a bit longer to find
*
Thanks for your help and again I apologize for being a noob and not knowing how to search.
Already I've seen some useful information on the forums, but I've found it pretty scattered or incomplete for what I want to be trying to do with my car.
Here are my questions (forgive me if they're dumb I tried for about an hour and a half of searching *dawns flame retarded noob suit*):
1) Can I swap out my OEM HID bulbs for higher wattage ones, like 4300k @ 55w? I have no idea what the stock ones are rated at 4300K @ 35w(?). From my experience with fluorescent lights you would probably need a higher rated ballast, but I don't know if this applies to the stock HID system in the GT.
*edit: yep that was a pretty noob question; I consulted my buddies on the forum for my other car and they said I'd need to retrofit with a higher rated ballast, but it wouldnt be recommended because 50w+ is overkill and might burn the housing or something. for sure it's possible to swap to a bulb with a higher K temperature at the same wattage*
2)
I really want to swap out all the stock bulbs in my interior, license plate lights, and what not for LED bulbs. However I haven't been able to type in the right search parameters to obtain the right kinds of bulbs for the Mazda 5. I was reading a thread for the Mazda 3 right here but I gave up and stopped reading because of its sheer length and non-specificity to the Mazda 5. Does anybody have a simple list of LED bulb types I should be using? I don't want to buy the Mazda 3 bulbs and have them not fit properly.
*edit: Nevermind I did a cross reference from this thread and figured it out...just took a bit longer to find
*Thanks for your help and again I apologize for being a noob and not knowing how to search.
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