LED 194 wedge bulbs keep blowing out??!?!?!?!? - Zilvia.net Forums | Nissan 240SX (Silvia) and Z (Fairlady) Car Forum

iwishiwas-all* · 11-14-2009, 07:08 AM

Hey, real peculiar situation, I purchased at first 1 pair, then a second pair from a local shop of hyper white 194 led wedge bulbs, same exact ones seen below (white bulbs):

So, in a span of 2 weeks, and driving about 3 times at night with those lights, I blew a bulb out, front position light, pretty sure left side. gravy, called up the shop they were like oh thats never happened, here is a replacement bulb. Fair enough, then i purcahsed another pair for the side markers. sweeet.

well yesterday, a sidemarker one blew out, then last night a front position light blew out. So, in a span of 3 weeks, I have blown out 3, 3 supposedly long long lasting LED's that are supposed to last longer than a conventional bulb, so i thought?

Is there something with the circuit? 240's have a problem making LED wedge bulbs overheat or something???

Does the flash when i lock my car (via alarm) effect the operation of an led??

Mike @ clearcorner would prob be good for this led tech. If there is any solution, so i can put led's in these markers, please let me know.
thanks

ROIDMONKEY · 11-14-2009, 07:33 AM

i have LED all around fora year or so. never have a problem with them. try a different brand

iwishiwas-all* · 11-14-2009, 08:31 AM

everyone says the same thing! u know when one light blew out, specifically the side marker on the fender, i pulled it out and it was very hot to the touch, probably more than a conventional blub.
I am dumbfounded, but I am gonna have to justify that is the bulbs not my car to get my money back...

BTW roidy which ones you running?

YucA · 11-14-2009, 09:12 AM

You might be having some other grounding/voltage spike issue that is messing with the led's. Cheaper ones are more sensitive to that type of shit.

The ones in the picture seem to be the higher wattage leds with that heatsink around it. Those things tend to get HOT...

g6civcx · 11-14-2009, 09:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by YucA

You might be having some other grounding/voltage spike issue that is messing with the led's. Cheaper ones are more sensitive to that type of shit.

The ones in the picture seem to be the higher wattage leds with that heatsink around it. Those things tend to get HOT...

This would be my thoughts.

R33E8 · 11-14-2009, 10:42 AM

The reason they keep on dying it because they don't have a proper driver.. A voltage spike of 1V is enough to kill an LED, especially one without adequate heat sinking.. What they are probably doing is over driving the LED straight from the factory and the voltage spikes are what is killing it..

LEDs will last very long if they are made well.. 99% of the drop in replacement LEDs on the market are shit.. The only one's I've found are decent are by some guy in Asia using true high powered LEDs(*** elef ¼îÇÎ¸ô elefia¿¡ ¿À½Å °ÍÀ» È¯¿µÇÕ´Ï´Ù~! ***).. That "SMT" technology is just a bunch of marketing crap.. They are the cheapest for the companies to make.. They are no where near being the brightest led bulbs you can get..

Honestly, if you want your stuff to be bright and look good then just do it yourself with brand name LEDs.. In the market the quality of LEDs actually differs A LOT depending on what company you buy it from.. Almost all eBay no-name LEDs are absolute crap and dim compared to brand named ones like Cree, Seoul, Lumileds, Nichia, Osram, etc.. Nichia actually makes the brightest 4 pin LED's with a rating of 20lm. You would be lucky to find an eBay no name brand with 2lm.. Lumileds makes superflux and snap leds which are using in most OEM LED taillights.. The red-orange color is what you need to look for if you plan on making some LED tail lights.. Cree also makes some 4-pin LEDs in colors like white or blue for accents, amber for turn signals, and red-orange I think for tail lights..

If you get into high powered white light territory (over 1W) Cree is the king with 136lm from 1 watt which can be driven to produce around 375lm from 3.3 watts.. That's enough for a decent reverse light from 1 LED.. If you want to get really bright you can get Cree's MC-E or Seoul's P7 which both approach 1000lm from a single LED.. You can go even brighter if you want.. I plan on making some LED headlights from my Kouki using 1 Luminous CSM-360 in each headlight.. 3000lm at normal drive currents and 6000lm at high for each LED..

Thermal management and current regulation is REALLY REALLY REALLY important.. None of the LEDs I mentioned are PNP.. But this post is already full enough of off-topic LED rambling so I'm not going to get into it.. If you search Google you can find out the difference between high quality LEDs and eBay ones..

iwishiwas-all* · 11-14-2009, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by R33E8

The reason they keep on dying it because they don't have a proper driver.. A voltage spike of 1V is enough to kill an LED, especially one without adequate heat sinking.. What they are probably doing is over driving the LED straight from the factory and the voltage spikes are what is killing it..

Ok, so can you please explain what a driver is and how I may find a proper one? my alternator belt slips at startup so that is a 1v drop until it stops, but after that, my cars voltmeter reads between 13.3-8 allways. is that enough to kill it?

Anyone else have prove 194 bulb leds for position lights ( hyper-white) that they can recomend?

R33E8 · 11-14-2009, 12:39 PM

The light you probably have might just use resistors so you need to keep the voltage at 12v.. if you wireing a voltage regulator that should fix your problem by keeping the voltage going to the led at a constant maximum of 12v.. they are only like $1 or so and splice in right before the bulb..

11-14-2009, 07:08 AM	#1
iwishiwas-all* Nissanaholic! Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Oxford, UK/Miami Age: 37 Posts: 1,710 Trader Rating: (2) Rides Gallery: iwishiwas-all* Feedback Score: 2 reviews	LED 194 wedge bulbs keep blowing out??!?!?!?!? Hey, real peculiar situation, I purchased at first 1 pair, then a second pair from a local shop of hyper white 194 led wedge bulbs, same exact ones seen below (white bulbs): So, in a span of 2 weeks, and driving about 3 times at night with those lights, I blew a bulb out, front position light, pretty sure left side. gravy, called up the shop they were like oh thats never happened, here is a replacement bulb. Fair enough, then i purcahsed another pair for the side markers. sweeet. well yesterday, a sidemarker one blew out, then last night a front position light blew out. So, in a span of 3 weeks, I have blown out 3, 3 supposedly long long lasting LED's that are supposed to last longer than a conventional bulb, so i thought? Is there something with the circuit? 240's have a problem making LED wedge bulbs overheat or something??? Does the flash when i lock my car (via alarm) effect the operation of an led?? Mike @ clearcorner would prob be good for this led tech. If there is any solution, so i can put led's in these markers, please let me know. thanks __________________ IG @gabednconfused https://www.youtube.com/user/gabedm

11-14-2009, 07:33 AM	#2
ROIDMONKEY Nissanaholic! Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: HollyFLORIDA Posts: 2,027 Trader Rating: (4) Rides Gallery: ROIDMONKEY Feedback Score: 4 reviews	i have LED all around fora year or so. never have a problem with them. try a different brand __________________ TRUE thing: True ////OFFSET\\\\ is acheived without spacers Running on E85 570whp Precision 5862....laggy as fuck. hate it

11-14-2009, 08:31 AM	#3
iwishiwas-all* Nissanaholic! Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Oxford, UK/Miami Age: 37 Posts: 1,710 Trader Rating: (2) Rides Gallery: iwishiwas-all* Feedback Score: 2 reviews	everyone says the same thing! u know when one light blew out, specifically the side marker on the fender, i pulled it out and it was very hot to the touch, probably more than a conventional blub. I am dumbfounded, but I am gonna have to justify that is the bulbs not my car to get my money back... BTW roidy which ones you running? __________________ IG @gabednconfused https://www.youtube.com/user/gabedm

11-14-2009, 09:12 AM	#4
YucA Leaky Injector Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Miami Age: 43 Posts: 142 Trader Rating: (0) Feedback Score: 0 reviews	You might be having some other grounding/voltage spike issue that is messing with the led's. Cheaper ones are more sensitive to that type of shit. The ones in the picture seem to be the higher wattage leds with that heatsink around it. Those things tend to get HOT...

11-14-2009, 10:42 AM	#6
R33E8 Zilvia Addict Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: NJ Age: 35 Posts: 798 Trader Rating: (14) Feedback Score: 14 reviews	The reason they keep on dying it because they don't have a proper driver.. A voltage spike of 1V is enough to kill an LED, especially one without adequate heat sinking.. What they are probably doing is over driving the LED straight from the factory and the voltage spikes are what is killing it.. LEDs will last very long if they are made well.. 99% of the drop in replacement LEDs on the market are shit.. The only one's I've found are decent are by some guy in Asia using true high powered LEDs(* elef ¼îÇÎ¸ô elefia¿¡ ¿À½Å °ÍÀ» È¯¿µÇÕ´Ï´Ù~! *).. That "SMT" technology is just a bunch of marketing crap.. They are the cheapest for the companies to make.. They are no where near being the brightest led bulbs you can get.. Honestly, if you want your stuff to be bright and look good then just do it yourself with brand name LEDs.. In the market the quality of LEDs actually differs A LOT depending on what company you buy it from.. Almost all eBay no-name LEDs are absolute crap and dim compared to brand named ones like Cree, Seoul, Lumileds, Nichia, Osram, etc.. Nichia actually makes the brightest 4 pin LED's with a rating of 20lm. You would be lucky to find an eBay no name brand with 2lm.. Lumileds makes superflux and snap leds which are using in most OEM LED taillights.. The red-orange color is what you need to look for if you plan on making some LED tail lights.. Cree also makes some 4-pin LEDs in colors like white or blue for accents, amber for turn signals, and red-orange I think for tail lights.. If you get into high powered white light territory (over 1W) Cree is the king with 136lm from 1 watt which can be driven to produce around 375lm from 3.3 watts.. That's enough for a decent reverse light from 1 LED.. If you want to get really bright you can get Cree's MC-E or Seoul's P7 which both approach 1000lm from a single LED.. You can go even brighter if you want.. I plan on making some LED headlights from my Kouki using 1 Luminous CSM-360 in each headlight.. 3000lm at normal drive currents and 6000lm at high for each LED.. Thermal management and current regulation is REALLY REALLY REALLY important.. None of the LEDs I mentioned are PNP.. But this post is already full enough of off-topic LED rambling so I'm not going to get into it.. If you search Google you can find out the difference between high quality LEDs and eBay ones..

11-14-2009, 12:39 PM	#8
R33E8 Zilvia Addict Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: NJ Age: 35 Posts: 798 Trader Rating: (14) Feedback Score: 14 reviews	The light you probably have might just use resistors so you need to keep the voltage at 12v.. if you wireing a voltage regulator that should fix your problem by keeping the voltage going to the led at a constant maximum of 12v.. they are only like $1 or so and splice in right before the bulb..