Led Components

[A.J]

Over the last few months i'v bought one or two LED exterior lights and have noticed that they haven't lasted very long!

Firstly a few weeks ago i found that my LED side lights had burned out. (They appear to have blown due to the heat from the HIDs!) And yesterday i noticed that two rows of LEDs have stopped working in my LED tail lights.

...i thought these were supposed to be more hard wearing than standard bulbs!

Has anyone else had trouble with these?- or is it just a coincidence!

Also has anyone got a set of the LED rears they're looking to get rid of (or even better just the driver side one!)?

[eXOBeX]

My 8-LED wide-angle ones that I fitted in the front failed within a few months. If looked after (not overheated or overdriven) LEDs should last at least 60,000 hours, though.

[Rich OB]

A.J, It seems these rear lights are failing on everyone, i bought a set last September and 2 months ago they decided to give up, i put a thread up about them and there was someone else having the same problem, can't remember his name off the top of my head, on mine it was the passenger side that failed, top 2 rows stopped lighting, i had a fiddle with them but gave up in the end i was really peed off after paying so much money for them, i put them on eBay in the end but didn't get back no way near as much as i paid, i wouldn't go near them again, stick to the late spec rears.

Do a search and the thread will come up.

Out of interest where did you buy yours from? Just that me and the other member bought ours from the same place so would be interesting to see if we all bought from the same place.

[eXOBeX]

A.J, It seems these rear lights are failing on everyone, i bought a set last September and 2 months ago they decided to give up, i put a thread up about them and there was someone else having the same problem, can't remember his name off the top of my head, on mine it was the passenger side that failed, top 2 rows stopped lighting, i had a fiddle with them but gave up in the end i was really peed off after paying so much money for them, i put them on ebay in the end but didn't get back no way near as much as i paid, i wouldn't go near them again, stick to the late spec rears.

Do a search and the thread will come up.

Out of interest where did you buy yours from? Just that me and the other member bought ours from the same place so would be interesting to see if we all bought from the same place.

For the LED rears you'll probably find that one LED has failed and is stopping a whole strip from working (you'll probably find they're wired with 5 or 6 in series). Shorting one LED at a time within the dead row will show which one's gone. Don't leave it shorted though, as it'll overdrive the whole row and take out another one. Just get a replacement and solder it in, assuming this isn't too difficult a job on these lights. You may want to buy a few different ones from Maplin and fit the one that's closest in brightness to the rest.

[A.J]

Out of interest where did you buy yours from? Just that me and the other member bought ours from the same place so would be interesting to see if we all bought from the same place.

I got mine off eBay -could only ever found them on there, but they were Depo brand ones and from what looked like an ok seller.

The late spec ones do sound like a good idea, anyone got a pic of them? price?

- dont really wanna put the old ones back, on the bright chrome will stand out too much (black car)!!

For the LED rears you'll probably find that one LED has failed and is stopping a whole strip from working (you'll probably find they're wired with 5 or 6 in series). Shorting one LED at a time within the dead row will show which one's gone. Don't leave it shorted though, as it'll overdrive the whole row and take out another one. Just get a replacement and solder it in, assuming this isn't too difficult a job on these lights. You may want to buy a few different ones from Maplin and fit the one that's closest in brightness to the rest.

Good idea, but it looks like ill have to warm up the oven to get inside because they're silicon sealed- ill keep it as a last resort though!

[Parthiban]

The late spec ones do sound like a good idea, anyone got a pic of them? price?

Have a look at this thread :winky:

Linky

[Rob's Lexx]

never had a problem with my LED sidelights burning out due to my HID's

[A.J]

The late spec ones do sound like a good idea, anyone got a pic of them? price?

Have a look at this thread :winky:

Linky

Cheers,

....hmmm they look pretty cool but the surround doesnt look as black as the Depo ones!! :duh:

[Parthiban]

Cheers,

....hmmm they look pretty cool but the surround doesnt look as black as the Depo ones!! :duh:

Yeah they're not really, the ones on my car are dark chrome (actually a bit darker than in the pic though) and the late spec ones (on the silver car) are more grey than black.

I think the dark chrome ones look great on my blue car, not so sure how they'd look on a black car - sadly if you want proper black the best way is going to be to take the lights apart and spray them black ;)

[Mr Morse]

Don't attempt to cut the lenses off the rear clusters unless you know what you are doing. The lenses are glued to the base with a poly type glue (like you make the Airfix models with) and the oven / hairdryer method won't work.

A few guys over on My.IS have removed the lenses using a diamond cutter wheel and Dremel tool, but it requires some expert experience :o

[A.J]

A few guys over on My.IS have removed the lenses using a diamond cutter wheel and Dremel tool, but it requires some expert experience :o

... I might actually give this a go! The light is pretty useless to me anyway. Might be worth just cutting in to the plastic around the LED board to access it, that way it'd be covered once its back in anyway so any unsightly glue marks'll be hidden. ;)

- The other thing i was thinking of was to perhaps tint the glass of the oem light. Anyone had any success with that before/ recommend a company in london to do it?

(btw-seen the stickers for this on ebay- but they dont look very good and look a bit dark for safe use!?)

[Mr Morse]

The problem with applying tint film to anything other than glass is the different expansion rates of the materials, resulting in the tint film splitting and cracking when applied to the outer part of a plastic lens.

I discussed this with Richard, of Tint-R in Nottingham, who is probably the best tinter in the country and he refuses to tint the outside of plastic lights, for love or money.

[A.J]

The problem with applying tint film to anything other than glass is the different expansion rates of the materials, resulting in the tint film splitting and cracking when applied to the outer part of a plastic lens.

I discussed this with Richard, of Tint-R in Nottingham, who is probably the best tinter in the country and he refuses to tint the outside of plastic lights, for love or money.

I came across this, and thought there might be other companies that offer tints that are specially for lights. (...but no so far away!)