LED Instability

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LED Instability

Postby michaelfinger » Sat Mar 22, 2014 3:14 pm

Hi everyone,

I've changed my reverse lights to LEDs and they are unstable. They either half light up, not at all or full. And its random. Perhaps its related to the quality of them? They were very cheap and I'm thinking of buying more expensive items but would like to make sure its actually a case of the items and not the wiring or anything in the car.

Has anyone else had problems like this? What do you recommend in terms of the number of diodes on the item?

These are the LEDs;

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DSC_0244.JPG (231.79 KiB) Viewed 4199 times
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Re: LED Instability

Postby zch91 » Sat Mar 22, 2014 4:54 pm

They generally have crappy contacts on them, like on the actual socket part tends to be a bit loose. This may be your issue.
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Re: LED Instability

Postby HyRax » Sat Mar 22, 2014 9:09 pm

I have a bag full of T10 lights (roughly a dollar each) cheap from FleaBay. If they blow, I don't care as I have lots of spares. So far only one has blown in a one year period.

Mind you, I use 42 SMD lights while yours is more than that - perhaps your SMD's need more amperage than the standard 12v provides, but that's purely a guess. I find the 42's are more than adequate to light up the number plate. However zch91's comment regarding contact quality is equally likely to be a cause of your woes as well.

If you feel that higher expense equals better quality, then you can buy Jaycar T10 LED lights. They look the same and are probably from China as well, but at least you have your Australian Consumer Rights behind you to replace them at no cost if they blow or are generally faulty within a year to justify the higher cost. Admittedly I have Jaycar T10's on the back of mine and they haven't blown yet after two years, nor are they intermittent with lighting up or intermittent with their brightness levels.
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Re: LED Instability

Postby weschappy » Sat Mar 29, 2014 2:53 pm

Hey michaelfinger, I'm having the same problem as you. Did any of the above suggestions work? Or are you still having the same problem. Would be very keen to find out what you've already tried so far to fix problem.
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Re: LED Instability

Postby michaelfinger » Sat Mar 29, 2014 6:30 pm

weschappy wrote:Hey michaelfinger, I'm having the same problem as you. Did any of the above suggestions work? Or are you still having the same problem. Would be very keen to find out what you've already tried so far to fix problem.


Hi Wes,

I went back took a look at the pins on the LED. With reverse engaged (so I could see how the were failing) I tried the units pushed partially into the socket, After almost a week, they are pretty stable. It seems that the units pushed in all the way the connection wasn't good. Perhaps the terminals weren't lining up properly.
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Re: LED Instability

Postby weschappy » Sat Mar 29, 2014 8:20 pm

I had a proper play around tonight and worked out that if the gear stick is in a certain position whilst in reverse, the light works. So must be a problem with the switch/sensor or whatever is connected in the gear box to register the reverse gear. So if anyone knows how to check this out further and whether I have to crawl under car, or can access from in the car.. that would be awesome :)
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Re: LED Instability

Postby michaelfinger » Sat Mar 29, 2014 10:33 pm

weschappy wrote:I had a proper play around tonight and worked out that if the gear stick is in a certain position whilst in reverse, the light works. So must be a problem with the switch/sensor or whatever is connected in the gear box to register the reverse gear. So if anyone knows how to check this out further and whether I have to crawl under car, or can access from in the car.. that would be awesome :)


I noticed this too with the LEDs. BUT it never happened with the globes in. This got me thinking it was a voltage situation, or connection with the LEDs. It came down to the LEDs not sitting right.
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Re: LED Instability

Postby weschappy » Sun Mar 30, 2014 10:36 am

michaelfinger wrote:I noticed this too with the LEDs. BUT it never happened with the globes in. This got me thinking it was a voltage situation, or connection with the LEDs. It came down to the LEDs not sitting right.


Regardless of what I use, LED or globe, it barely fits in the connector at all. So if I try move it around too much it just falls out. Will keep trying and see what happens.
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Re: LED Instability

Postby ON555 » Sat May 10, 2014 9:54 pm

Hi mate, I recently did a full JDM spec LED conversion to my BL9. It was not cheap at all but well worth the crisp instant on/off.

Philips Ultinon X-treme amber indicators
Philips CANBUS LED control units
Philips Ultinon X-treme T16 reverse LEDs
Corazza Dual Filament red brake/parker LEDs

They all work extremely well and I find that it matches the LED side mirror indicators and makes the car look newer too =) EXTREMELY BRIGHT TOO. Reverse is like as if i turned headlights on in the back! It's great.
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Re: LED Instability

Postby Brunsy3.0 » Sat May 10, 2014 10:40 pm

weschappy wrote:I had a proper play around tonight and worked out that if the gear stick is in a certain position whilst in reverse, the light works. So must be a problem with the switch/sensor or whatever is connected in the gear box to register the reverse gear. So if anyone knows how to check this out further and whether I have to crawl under car, or can access from in the car.. that would be awesome :)



I am having a similar issue but from a different cause I believe as I installed a cobb sts and reverse lights are not functioning all the time and reverse camera is only half engaging as in the screen turns black but no picture is displayed I am thinking of adjusting the sts but am also curious to see whether the reverse sensor is checkable or not would be good to know
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Re: LED Instability

Postby BE4ORE » Wed May 14, 2014 12:17 pm

I had the same issue with the wife's mazda 3... one of them never sat properly n would be on n off... so i thought, im not giving up till it works.

I took a good look at the base n there was a bit of movement there, i thought if i tightened the base teeth with a small screw driver n then fit the globe it helped, but not 100%... then i thought foil would help the contact even better, which after doing so - they're perfect now :)

So in conclusion, the globe base doesn't fully grab the LED when you plug them in... you have to snug them in somehow.

hope that helps.


P.S. now im working on converting my indicators to LED but they flash too fast... so i suppose that's a resistor issue but don't know where to start n do!
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Re: LED Instability

Postby ON555 » Wed May 14, 2014 12:40 pm

BE4ORE wrote:I had the same issue with the wife's mazda 3... one of them never sat properly n would be on n off... so i thought, im not giving up till it works.

I took a good look at the base n there was a bit of movement there, i thought if i tightened the base teeth with a small screw driver n then fit the globe it helped, but not 100%... then i thought foil would help the contact even better, which after doing so - they're perfect now :)

So in conclusion, the globe base doesn't fully grab the LED when you plug them in... you have to snug them in somehow.

hope that helps.

P.S. now im working on converting my indicators to LED but they flash too fast... so i suppose that's a resistor issue but don't know where to start n do!


The fitment issue is usually due to the LED being of lower/cheaper quality. The Philips LEDs actually click in and the base of the LED sits right up against the plug when you put it in.

Re: the indicators - CANBUS control units that tap into the positive and negative wires will fix the issue. I recommend the Philips CANBUS control units as I have heard horror stories about the cheapo ones setting on fire.

I've done the full LED conversion to my car (brake, parkers, indicators, reverse, the lot!) =)
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Re: LED Instability

Postby SegR » Wed May 14, 2014 6:03 pm

I too have had it with cheap shit (in quality, not always price!) LEDs. Time to source some bright t15 reversing lights from philips if they exist.
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Re: LED Instability

Postby ON555 » Thu May 15, 2014 10:23 pm

SegR wrote:I too have had it with cheap shit (in quality, not always price!) LEDs. Time to source some bright t15 reversing lights from philips if they exist.


They sure do. Philips Ultinon X-treme T16 reverse LED is what I run in my car.
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Re: LED Instability

Postby Shaheenis » Wed Oct 08, 2014 10:08 pm

Very interesting read. I have just been having LED issues with the parkers on my wagon. I have not changed them since I bought the car but they are aftermarket. I noticed one was coming on and off so I eventually removed it for a look and found the little contact legs that are bent over the wedge could be rotated 360 degrees (read not actually attached inside). Same problem as Michaelfinger whereby if I push all the way in it doesn't work but just part way in works. I put a tiny piece of thin card between the pin and wedge and this fixed it. What was strange is after I did this the driver side LED (which has never had a problem before) was only lit at less than 50% power. After 10 seconds of just watching it, it came good. Besides being dodgy LED could this be voltage related or red herring?

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