Well a couple of leds failed in the spoiler brake light. What are my options as far as replacing the led light? I have an inspection coming up on the car and it will fail without it working properly or me disconnecting it. I really do not want to have to purchase another spoiler either for just the strip either.

 

so you're saying if TWO of the LEDs out of at least a dozen are not working, it'll fail inspection? Your state has a huge stick up its butt if that's the case

 

That is pretty much the case. And I actually believe that only 1 or 2 less are lit up currently.

 

take spoiler off for inspection and put it back on after?

 

he needs it for the third brake light. taking it off wont solve his problem.

 

but OP are you SURE they will fail you for that? and not just for it being completely non-working.

 

You should pass. Find a used one?

 

Removing it is not an option because a 3rd brake light is required for inspection. Having it not working will also fail. It would be one thing if half of the leds worked however that is not the case.

My only option is I guess to try to find one but most people wont part out the led strip from the actual spoiler. I just maybe thought people had a fix for it or a place to buy a replacement unit that is not universal.

 

It says I'm a newbie but I've been on this site millions of times just haven't registered till now. I had problems with my '90, '97 & '00 to find solutions other than the dealer. Try spoilerlights.com they sell replacements for cheap, hope this helps...............

 

wait...are you saying that only TWO ARE WORKING ??? or that TWO ARE OUT???

I read that two were out, but your last post leads me to think that only two of the 12 or whatever are working.

Which one is it?



Can you pull the Board out and look? I've read here that it's a resistor or diode or something that goes out, and not the LEDs themselves. I know for a FACT that LEDs just don't blow all at once...and they don't do it often at all, unless their supply voltage is interrupted or increased (by for example, a shorting resistor which makes current draw increase which fries the resistor which in turn burns it up, causing an open). When an open occurs there is no flow, therefore no LEDs.

 

yeah your older post makes it sound like youre saying only 2 leds are out.

 

Sorry for the confusion guys but only two of the leds are actually working. The other ones are dead and wont light up. I can take a picture to confirm this.

 

Ahh ok then

I would see if you can take the pcb out and physically look at its insides...if its only a resistor its super easy to remove and replace if u have solder iron

EDIT: have you seen this thread?
http://forums.maxima.org/4th-generat...led-light.html

 

Wait a sec... cant u jus replace the bulbs?

 

I guess the next step is to take it all apart and see if I can actually fix it. But i was just hoping that there would be a replacement led bar that was not overpriced. I know the 5th gen guys had the option of being able to buy a clear 3rd brake light.

 

Yes, but chances are the LEDs (NOT "bulbs"...) are not bad. It is about 90% likely that his problelm is the flow of voltage (i.e. open resistor not letting voltage flow) and not a bad LED. Diodes aren't like regular bulbs...they don't just "go bad", as there is no "filament" that emits the light. The emission of the light is actually a reaction from the movement of charged particles.

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/led.htm

If you wanted to buy a new one obviously it's up to you and you can, but if you wanted to fix it just post up a couple pics and we could tell you exactly what's wrong (more than likely a resistor or a two or three...)



Without actually looking at the schematic for the thing, here's how I envision it to work. You've got the supply, and return (positive voltage and ground). The LEDs are on the supply side and the resistors are on the ground side connected to the LED. So you have Supply, LED, Resistor, Ground. The LED / resistor setups are in parallel with each other. This way, if one goes bad, the others will not be affected too much.

 

Quickly drawn diagram of how I *think* the setup is