[jrharbort]

Hello there, and welcome to my guide for LED upgrades for the interior and exterior of your Chevrolet Bolt EV model years '17~'21. Some of these interior upgrades can also be applied to the '22 and later using incandescent bulbs.

While I have shopped for and tested various LEDs thoroughly to find what works best, keep in mind that replacing the lights on your Bolt EV is not recommended by the manufacturer and poses risk for electrical interference or other issues. I do not take responsibility for any problems caused as a result of this guide. Perform only at your own risk.

That being said, I've been using the following light upgrades for well over a year, and they work great without issues.

I aimed for upgrading the interior light to 6000k color tone LEDs that support the courtesy dimming, 6000k LED license plate lights, 6000k LED backup lights, and LED blinkers that aren't too bright and don't trigger system errors. I ignored the rear red lights that only turn on if the trunk is open. The HID headlights are also already plenty bright and efficient.

Take a look (note that the night shots make the lights appear a bit brighter than in-person):

If this kind of upgrade appeals to you, links for the LEDs and important notes will be found below. But before that, here's the correct way to replace the cabin/map lights without breaking some of the clips that hold the overhead unit into place. Trust me, do it this way. Learn from my mistake of breaking two of them trying to follow guides posted by others here.

Don't try to get to the cabin lights in the overhead unit like this! It will break some of the plastic clips, and it wont seat back quite right.

Instead, use a thin plastic pry tool to pop open the lens from the middle, like so...

Once you've popped the clip free, pull the lens downwards with a gentle force to pop the clip from the other side of the lens.

Now you're in! Small fingers or even a thin screwdriver or pry tool are needed at this point to remove the old bulbs so you can insert the new LEDs. Make sure the light power is OFF to prevent any electrical accidents!

Here's the lights I used:

Interior cabin lights:
https://www.amazon.com/JSVSAL-Non-Polarity-Generation-Interior-Courtesy/dp/B07TZ5Q7B8

These lights support the courtesy dimming feature, and are plenty bright without washing out colors. You can actually see inside your car at night! The ones linked say 4500k, but trust me, they're definitely 6000k in reality. Note these are polarized.

License plate bulbs:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BDWLZHU

This one was tricky, since some bulbs don't cast their light quite right, or kept burning out. These Sylvanias, however, have been perfect. Note these are polarized.

Backup lights:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZLQ229N

These are the perfect upgrade for your backup light in brightness and color tone. The lights are not polarized, but they do angle their light differently depending on orientation (one way points a little more downwards than the other). I set both of mine in the more downward position.

Blinker lights
Amazon.com: SIR IUS LED RLS 7440 7440A Built in Resistor Anti Hyper flashing LED Bulb Turn Signal Light Amber Orange Color Full Aluminum Body Single Filament Error Free Pack of 2 : Automotive

These have a built-in resistor to prevent that pesky "check light bulb" error message as well as hyperflash, and are plenty bright. There is the potential for these to hyperflash if left running too long, but I've never had it happen yet in so-cal summer heat.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

 

[EV Engineering]

Definitely interested in this.
Thanks for getting your time to make post and all necessary things how to make it right first time.

 

[shqichiro]

Hello there, and welcome to my guide for LED upgrades for the interior and exterior of your Chevrolet Bolt EV model years '17~'21. Some of these interior upgrades can also be applied to the '22 and later using incandescent bulbs.

While I have shopped for and tested various LEDs thoroughly to find what works best, keep in mind that replacing the lights on your Bolt EV is not recommended by the manufacturer and poses risk for electrical interference or other issues. I do not take responsibility for any problems caused as a result of this guide. Perform only at your own risk.

That being said, I've been using the following light upgrades for well over a year, and they work great without issues.

I aimed for upgrading the interior light to 6000k color tone LEDs that support the courtesy dimming, 6000k LED license plate lights, 6000k LED backup lights, and LED blinkers that aren't too bright and don't trigger system errors. I ignored the rear red lights that only turn on if the trunk is open. The HID headlights are also already plenty bright and efficient.

Take a look (note that the night shots make the lights appear a bit brighter than in-person):


View attachment 46776 View attachment 46775 View attachment 46777 View attachment 46774

If this kind of upgrade appeals to you, links for the LEDs and important notes will be found below. But before that, here's the correct way to replace the cabin/map lights without breaking some of the clips that hold the overhead unit into place. Trust me, do it this way. Learn from my mistake of breaking two of them trying to follow guides posted by others here.

View attachment 46778
Don't try to get to the cabin lights in the overhead unit like this! It will break some of the plastic clips, and it wont seat back quite right.

View attachment 46779
Instead, use a thin plastic pry tool to pop open the lens from the middle, like so...

View attachment 46780
Once you've popped the clip free, pull the lens downwards with a gentle force to pop the clip from the other side of the lens.

View attachment 46781
Now you're in! Small fingers or even a thin screwdriver or pry tool are needed at this point to remove the old bulbs so you can insert the new LEDs. Make sure the light power is OFF to prevent any electrical accidents!

Here's the lights I used:

Interior cabin lights:
https://www.amazon.com/JSVSAL-Non-Polarity-Generation-Interior-Courtesy/dp/B07TZ5Q7B8

These lights support the courtesy dimming feature, and are plenty bright without washing out colors. You can actually see inside your car at night! The ones linked say 4500k, but trust me, they're definitely 6000k in reality. Note these are polarized.

License plate bulbs:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BDWLZHU

This one was tricky, since some bulbs don't cast their light quite right, or kept burning out. These Sylvanias, however, have been perfect. Note these are polarized.

Backup lights:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZLQ229N

These are the perfect upgrade for your backup light in brightness and color tone. The lights are not polarized, but they do angle their light differently depending on orientation (one way points a little more downwards than the other). I set both of mine in the more downward position.

Blinker lights
Amazon.com: SIR IUS LED RLS 7440 7440A Built in Resistor Anti Hyper flashing LED Bulb Turn Signal Light Amber Orange Color Full Aluminum Body Single Filament Error Free Pack of 2 : Automotive

These have a built-in resistor to prevent that pesky "check light bulb" error message as well as hyperflash, and are plenty bright. There is the potential for these to hyperflash if left running too long, but I've never had it happen yet in so-cal summer heat.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Can you show how you replaced the license plate LEDs? I can’t find any guides on this forum

 

[Atlant]

There's a good human factors reason why many turn signals still use incandescent lamps.

Changes in light intensity are much more noticeable than a steady light intensity so by using an incandescent lamp that brightens up and dims down somewhat slowly, the intensity of an activated turn signal is constantly changing. By comparison, if it's an LED, it spends nearly all of its time either fully on or fully off and the transition from off-to-on or on-to-off isn't nearly as noticeable as the constantly changing intensity of the incandescent lamp.

In other words, if the turn signals on a car use incandescent lamps, you probably want to leave them that way.

(And that avoids the “rapid flash” problem as well.)

 

[bbf]

@jrharbort Thanks for the post.
I ordered the same dome and backup lights that you linked.
The dome lights: Amazon.com were sent directly from China when I ordered them last week and it took about a week to get to San Diego.

I measured those "4500K" JSVSAL LEDs with my colorimeter and they were 5360K.

Also, even though the backup lights are much brighter than the original ones, because of how low they sit on the EUV and that the lens seems to point down, they don't really add all that much to rear visibility from the backup camera and rear view mirror camera. But definitely they're a whiter light and brighter, so it's easier for people behind me to see the backup lights. I also like them because they're not super power hungry unlike a lot of the other backup LED replacements on amazon that seem to want to out-bright others.

 

[jrharbort]

Can you show how you replaced the license plate LEDs? I can’t find any guides on this forum

There is a recess on one side of each of the plastic covers for the license plate lights. Gently wiggle a flat head screwdriver under the lens and pop the covers downwards to open them. When putting them back, put them in in the reverse they came out. Also make sure they're snapped in SECURELY. They might make a click like they're secure, but make absolutely sure. I had one pop back open after being careless and thinking it was closed flush.

@jrharbort Thanks for the post.
I ordered the same dome and backup lights that you linked.
The dome lights: Amazon.com were sent directly from China when I ordered them last week and it took about a week to get to San Diego.

I measured those "4500K" JSVSAL LEDs with my colorimeter and they were 5360K.
View attachment 54085

Also, even though the backup lights are much brighter than the original ones, because of how low they sit on the EUV and that the lens seems to point down, they don't really add all that much to rear visibility from the backup camera and rear view mirror camera. But definitely they're a whiter light and brighter, so it's easier for people behind me to see the backup lights. I also like them because they're not super power hungry unlike a lot of the other backup LED replacements on amazon that seem to want to out-bright others.

Thanks for getting a more accurate measurement! I could tell from my eyes they were definitely well above 4500k.

Did you try rotating the backup bulbs 180 degrees to see if that helped the angle a bit?