I've had these 194 LED wedge bulbs from Superbrightleds.com in my clear corners, license plate, and clearance for a few months now with no problems but I decided to take my Max for a ride tonight and noticed that 2 of them had already burned out and a third one blinked off and on right before my eyes.

Has anyone else had problems with these burning out? I really like the light they throw off but burning out after such a short period of time is unacceptable. I'm gonna call the company tomorrow and raise hell but if they are just gonna burn out again I guess I'll have to go with another bulb

 

Hmmm, well I have had mine in from SuperbrightLED's for a couple of months now, (front markers, rear markers). I haven't had any problems, knocking on wood.

 

Yup, they always burned out on me, which is why I went back to regular old 194 wedge bulbs.

 

That sucks. Aren't LEDs supposed to never burn out? The website says that the bulbs have a built-in resistor so they should not be getting too much voltage.

What 194s are you using now?

 

PIAA Xtreme white/plasma blues/ or super plasmas depending on how im feeling that night.

 

I have PIAA plasma whites in the front and some cheap red bulbs in my rear ($12.00). The rear have gone from red, to pink, to orange, and now they look like factory bulbs. The PIAA havn't burned out yet (knock on wood)

 

$12.00 = cheap

I hope I don't end up spending that much on the PIAAs!

 

My LEDs in the front clears have burned out several times. The rear ones have burned out once.

 

I thought my car was the only one. I wonder why they burn out.

 

I've put this link up in a few places. I have no affiliation with the owner...I just found cheap bulbs there (Polarg M-4 xenons - $8 shipped)

http://www.terrshop.com

The bulbs you guys are talking about burning out... did you happen to touch them when installing? If so that might decrease the lifespan of the bulb... just a thought.

 

With LEDs it isnt much of an issue due to the fact that they emit almost no heat, so oil on the bulb wouldnt affect it.

 

Ditto. They are not a bulb per say but a light emmitting diode. I spoke to my friend who has some experiance with LEDs and he said LEDs should last forever, the only thing that will burn them out is over voltage. These are supposed to have a resistor but perhaps it is just not built well? Either that or perhaps a voltage spike killed them.

I'm gonna call Superbrightleds and find out what the deal is. I'll post their response.

 

Are you guys sure they burnt out? I have a couple and I have problems with them not making a good connection with the bulb sockets so they will not light up unless I wiggle them around a little bit. The construction on them is pretty shoddy too - it's basically a giant LED glued into a plastic 194 base - I think this contributes to the loose connection. That and the electrodes on the LED bent around the base are pretty small and too flexible to stay in place.

 

I thought the same thing, so I took them out last night (a good one and a non-working one and hooked them both up to a 9 volt battery with a resistor in-line. The good one lit, the bad one did not.

*********UPDATE*******
I just got off the phone with the company (314-831-3014). They said that the bulbs are not supposed to burn out and they have not heard of any problems with them from other customers. However, they said they would be happy to replace them free of charge.

I asked him why they could burn out and he said the only thing could be either a bad batch of LEDs or a voltage spike on the car. He said that neon transformers have caused problems with voltage spikes (the only reasone they would burn out if they are not faulty).

He went on to say that I could get a "Spike Surpressor" for the car or a "Varester" (sp?) for like $0.50 that would solve the problem if it was a voltage spike. Apparently the Wedge bulb LEDs do not have any protection in them and a resistor will just pass on the higher voltage to the LED.

Anyone familar with these terms or know if such a "spike surpessor" exists for a car?

If you have had these problems I would call the company. They seemed pretty eager to help and were interested in receiving the old ones back so they could determine the cause of the problem.

 

Are your sure you have the positive and negative connections correct? LED's are different from 194's in effect that they have a positive and negative side that the 194's do not. You can install the 194's any which way. However, the LED's shouldn't work at all without the right connection. Just a thought?

 

Yes, I had them in and workign for about 2 months now. The - / + thing has to be resolved at installation. If they don't work, flip them around. Simple.

 

I think you mean, varistor. I think varistors are only used across AC inputs to suppress spikes. It's a device that rapidly decreases resistance as the voltage rises above a rated level. This creates a shunt (short circuit) path for the current, which usually forces a blown fuse situation before other components get damaged by the over voltage. It is usually connected in parallel but I only know of it in AC circuits design.

SHIFT_woosh

 

I've lost 2 in my driver side door so far. But my passenger side door is still fine on the original one. I think the cheap circuit in there is wrecked by vibrations, because LEDs don't really "burn" out. That might explain why my driver door one goes so much faster, more opening and closing of the door.

I wish they could do halogens that are as blue as the LEDs, that's the only reason I went with them, for the color.

 

I actually ordered some LED bulbs for my S70 from www.terrshop.com through eBay and they charged me like $7.99 for the bulbs, but $17.99 for the shipping!!! Of course it was my own damn fault for not paying attention to that. Shysters.

Anyway, I have the 194 LED's from Midnight Moose in my license plate, clearance markers, side markers, and doors and have had them in for quite some time (like 9 months) and they all still work fine (knocking on some serious wood).

Might be worth a look.

 

I ordered a few of the white leds from superbrightleds.com and found that they acted weird.

I have them in as my clearance lights now, and they keep going out, but coming back on!

I originally had them in the driver's doors, but I noticed that they were staying on after the door was shut, but at a lower power, so it was emitting probably 30% of the normal amount of light.

When I put them in in place of my clearance bulbs, they worked fine for a week or two. Now one works and the other doesn't. And some days when I go to my car, the one that wasn't working works that time...very odd.

I just ordered a pair of PIAA Super Bright white LEDs to replace them. I paid about $1 a piece from the leds from superbrightleds.com so I'm not upset about them being crap. They aren't bright enough (I have the single LEDs, but they have double LED ones as well).

But no, you aren't alone with the LED problems...

 

Reason I'm running LEDs, is to keep the stock colors (amber/red) to stay low-profile.

In my front clears, the LEDs have not lasted more than a little over a month. In the rear clears, the LEDs lasted about 4 months the first time. Is this the case for everyone else? The front burns out faster than the rear?

At least now I know I'm not the only one having these problems.