About 2 years ago I read about replacing the interior bulbs in a Vantage. I did so and have had no issues since ... problem was how dim the factory lights were ... result is a much brighter "cool slightly blue tinted" light that really goes well with the stock dash lights ....so by request here is a quick recap.
The company is "superbrightleds.com" and you can get just about any kind of bulb and color from these folks. I replaced the map lights, front foot well and rear hatch bulbs - six bulbs for about $45 total.
- The map and foot well are the "WLED-W6" which is a 6-LED wedge base total of 4 bulbs
- The hatch bulbs are "4210-W6HP" which are Festoon bulbs total of 2 bulbs
The foot well and rear hatch fixtures simply pull out - do it gently and be careful as bulbs can be hot if still lit - use leather gloves if necessary. Right foot well took a little bit of hand bending of metal clip but no big deal.
The map lights need for the rear view mirrror assembly to be taken apart and then you will see how the bulbs are replaced from inside. This is actually very easy, just spend a few minutes and look over the assembly - it takes a Star socket, not allen head. Any garage can do it if you are having trouble or are all thumbs.
I tried to keep this short so PM me if you have any questions.

 

Thks for the info!

I remember reading that post on AMOC, but never got around to ordering bulbs for my car, but this should motivate me to act.

 

thanks for the pointers - will order some for mine.

the yellowing lights look like they belong in my old 190e mercedes - not the Aston with the rest of its interior being lit up in white LEDs

 

Thanks for the post Mike. Much appreciated.

 

Mike, I assume you went with the "cool white" option? They also have "natural white" (white) and "soft white" (yellowish white) options.

 

Yes I went w/ the Cool White - I actually have not seen the other "colors" in a Vantage- they might look good too, I believe they all would be "brighter". I'm kinda laughing at myself ... the package says cool white ... so I think that is what I have, but have nothing to compare it too !!! Anyway, those are the serial numbers I installed in my car ...

 

Just went on the site and I am having trouble finding those part numbers. Any direct links? Thanks.

 

I suggest calling them and telling them the model nos. The site is a mess. They're working on a more user-friendly version. Total was like $45.

 

Got the LED lights today. Began replacing a bulb in the trunk and must have blown a fuse because the other trunk light and the interior lights went dead. My problem is I can't seem to locate the in-cabin fuse box that contains the right fuse (F47). The manual says the cabin fuse box is in the "passenger footwell" but I can't for the life of me find it. Anyone know where that fuse box is? I put my head underneath the dash but didn't see it.

 

The cabin 'fuse box' is located in the passenger side, under the carpet behind the plate that is fastened with torx screws.

 

Thanks for the help gekko! Is the plate located on the left side or right side footwell when you are sitting normally in the passenger seat? And is the carpet covering the plate attached to the footwell by any fasteners? Do I just pull the carpet back to expose the plate? I'm very hesitant to just start pulling on that expensive Aston trim without knowing exactly what I'm doing. Thanks again.

 

In case anyone is interested, I talked to the Aston dealer and found out how to access the cabin fuses. First, you have to remove the floor mat and peel the carpet back from the floor board beginning at the top (it's affixed with double-side tape) to access the box, which is in the floor of the footwell. The box is enclosed with a cover that is secured by eight (8!) screws. Once you remove the screws and the cover, you need to deactivate the laser field that protects the fuses. Okay, I made that last step up, but Aston could have made it a bit easier to access these fuses!

 

Sorry for the delay, just got in - but looks like you'll cracked the mystery. Good luck!

 

Greetings all,

This morning I replaced the fuse I zapped trying to replace the trunk light bulbs, and also replaced the bulbs in the trunk and cabin. I took some pics along the way to help any of you who may need to change an in-cabin fuse or want to replace your bulbs. I provided details about the various procedures below. I don’t know how to “inline” the pics with the text, so I had to just attach the pics below. [**Just noticed I can only attach 5 pics per post so I'll provide the other pics in separate posts -- sorry for the inconvenience.] I think you’ll be able to follow along though. WARNING: If you plan on changing out your bulbs, I suggest you read the entire post before getting to work!

Cabin Fuse Panel

As I indicated in a previous post, the fuse panel inside the cabin is not as easy to get to as in most cars. To access it, you need to remove the passenger floor mat and pull back the carpet from the front wall of the passenger footwell. To do this, reach under the dash, grip the top edge of the carpet, and pull it down and away from the front wall. There is some double-sided tape that secures the carpet to the wall, but it is not extremely tacky. PIC 1 shows the carpet pulled back to reveal the front wall and the fuse panel cover (both in beautiful aluminum), as well as the three strips of double-sided tape that are used to hold the carpet in place.

Once the carpet has been pulled back, you will see that the fuse panel cover has seven TORX-head screws that keep it in place. The cover and screws are shown in PIC 2. The heads of the screws are size T30.

After the fuse panel cover has been removed, you will gain access a compartment that houses the fuse panel (PIC 3). There are many fuses in there and the labels are a bit difficult to read due to the location of the panel. I needed to change fuse 47, which is linked to the cabin lights, trunk lights, garage door opener buttons, and the seat controls. That fuse is located in the lower row, fifth from the right. The fuse contacts are the type with pointed tips (PIC 4), not rectangular tips.

The standard fuse puller tool that one normally uses to pull auto fuses was too fat to get a grip on the fuse. Since I was far from my toolbox, I improvised by using two flat-head screwdrivers to pinch and pull the fuse (being careful to only touch plastic with the screwdriver tips). I replaced the fuse and made sure the lights/seats worked, and then pulled it back out to avoid blowing the fuse again while I changed the light bulbs.

Trunk Lights

By far, the easiest bulbs to change were those in the trunk. The lights are located near the left and right side walls of the trunk under the carpeted cover that lies beneath the trunk lid. To replace the bulbs, you need to pull the light housings from the trunk trim. To do this, place the tip of a flat head screwdriver into the slot at the proximal (i.e., nearest to you) end of the housing and pry the housing downward (PIC 5). When you do this, the housing will drop down on the trunk ledge (PIC 6).

You can remove the standard festoon bulbs by pulling down on the proximal contact with the tip of your flat-head screwdriver. This will free the bulb from the housing so you can pull it out. The replacement bulbs have a circuit board with various electronics on one side and six rectangular LEDs on the other side (PIC 7). When you place the bulbs into the housings, make sure that the LEDs face away from you (PIC 8) so that they will face inward into the trunk once the housings are replaced.

PIC 9 shows the brightness/hue of these bulbs. The bulbs are of the “cool white” variety (the only color available from superbrightleds.com). I haven’t seen them at night yet, but they are much brighter than stock and provide a more modern look IMO.

After the bulbs are in place, you can replace the light housings by backing in the distal end first, and snapping the proximal end back in place.

Footwell Lights

The next bulbs to tackle were the footwell bulbs. These were a bit more difficult to access, but I was able to change them without too much trouble. I have no pics for this procedure because the footwell lights are located under the dash near the center console -- I just couldn’t get my camera up there.

The bulbs for the footwells (and map lights) are of the straight press-in, pull-out type. PIC 10 shows one of the replacement LED bulbs. The driver- and passenger-side bulbs each sit within a housing that is similar to the housings in the trunk. For the footwell lights, however, the bulbs are inserted into a fixture that seats within the housing. The fixture is directly inserted into the rear of the housing (from the top down) and locks in place within the housing with a bayonet-type fit.

To remove the fixture from either light housing, you need to reach up under the dash above the housing, grip the fixture with your fingers, twist the fixture by about a 1/8-1/4 turn, and pull the fixture out of/up from the housing. I found that the easiest way to get a grip on the fixture was to lie facing upward with my back on the seat and my a$$ hanging out of the car. You won’t be able to see what you’re doing very well, but just grip the piece sticking up from the light housing and start gently twisting it and you will feel the fixture loosen.

To replace the bulb, just pull the original bulb out of the socket of the fixture and stick the new bulb in the socket. You can then replace the fixture by inserting it into its housing and twisting the fixture to lock it in place.

Map Lights

Up until this point, the project was going pretty smoothly. This changed, however, once I started fiddling with the map lights.

To get to the map lights, you need to remove the Alcantara housing that sits behind (from the driver’s perspective) the rearview mirror. At first, I removed the rearview mirror thinking that it would make it easier to access the housing. Although this is true to some extent, it actually makes the rest of the procedure more difficult because the mirror is tethered by an electrical cable and once the mirror is removed it hangs down from the roof and pulls down on everything contained within the housing. Therefore, I suggest you leave the rearview mirror in place. If you want to remove it, however, it is secured by a T25 TORX-head screw (see PIC 11).

As I said, you need to remove the Alcantara housing to replace the lights. The housing is kept in place by a distal clip (near the windshield) and a proximal Phillips-head screw (near the rearview mirror) which is hidden by a slotted metal cover on the housing (which I believe covers a microphone for hands-free calls). The screw is visible in PIC 12.

Before you remove the screw and pull off the housing, I must warn you that I had a hell of a time getting the housing back in place once it was off. I think I actually spent over an hour on this part of the project alone. Therefore, if you aren’t mechanically inclined and/or can’t stand frustration, I would think twice before proceeding with changing the map light bulbs yourself.

Okay, now that I have provided that disclaimer, I will continue. Once you remove the screw and pull the Alcantara housing, a bunch of wires will spill out like intestines. For my car, the wires were accompanied by some electrical components which were shoe-horned in the small space defined by the housing. I’m not sure if all of the components are original to the car because at least some of them are for a radar system that the previous owner had. Regardless, the wires and those components are why getting the housing back on was such a challenge.

On the inside of the housing, there are two light fixtures that seat within associated housings. To remove the fixtures from their housings, you give them a small twist and they are freed. My biggest mistake in this whole project was not being able to determine the original orientation of the fixtures before I removed them from their housings (I actually removed them before I removed the Alcantara housing -- my error). Be sure to make a mental note of the original orientations (they will fit in two different orientations) so you can replace them in the positions that most easily enable replacement of the housing.

Once the fixtures are removed, you just pull the old bulbs out and replace them with the new ones. At that point you can replace the fixtures in their housings in their original orientations and put the Alcantara housing back in place. Now that last step is the one I wasted a lot of time on. It was just really difficult to get the housing back in place with all of the wires, electronics, and light fixtures in the way. Furthermore, one of my fixtures would not tightly secure to its housing so it tended to pop out whenever I tried to get the housing back in place. After many, many failed attempts and copious amounts of swearing, I finally got the housing in place with both light fixtures properly seated, but with an open gap between the housing and the headliner on the driver’s side. Fortunately, I was able to close that gap when I secured the housing in place with the screw (did not need to "force" the gap closed -- the screw simply kept the gap closed).

Impressions

As I said, I haven’t seen the lights at night. However, they did look pretty good when I pulled the car into my garage. The map lights are much brighter and don’t have the yellow cast they had before. I went with the “natural white” bulbs in the cabin, which complement the dash lights and the glove compartment button light nicely. Personally, I cannot tell the difference between these natural white bulbs and the cool white bulbs I installed in the trunk (which are supposed to be more blue). Regardless, the map lights were completely useless as map lights before because they were so dim. That definitely won’t be the case now. The map lights also now light up the cabin well so you can really appreciate the details of its fine appointments.

Okay, that’s it. Sorry if this is the longest post ever. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

 

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