brettallica

I really don't know what the solution is. I was wondering if there are any lower voltage/wattage LEDs that are available that will allow the resistors to last longer. I need to figure out something, because I sure as heck don't want to go back to amber, nor do I want to keep fixing my side markers, because they're damned expensive.

Be sure to share any solutions you come up with, as I'm very interested.

aznbenz07

ok, I'll look into it but your much more familliar with all of this than me as of right now

brettallica

This question is for anyone who is smart/brave enough to answer:

What would happen if we changed out the resistors in the side marker permanently so that the white LEDs would be able to remain in the markers without frying the stock resistors? Would the added resistence do anything bad to the electronics of the car?

brettallica

OK, so I went ahead and went for it. I took apart my modified side markers (that were failing or had failed), and did a 100% replenishing of the electronics on the board inside. I replaced both LEDs and all resistors; actually I didn't replace that black diode-looking thing on the end of the board, so I guess I did a 95% replenishing. So with this new mod, I put in resistors that have more resistivity than the stock resistors do. With this, I'm hoping the current is regulated better and the board lasts longer/forever. If this doesn't work, I don't know what I'm going to do.



As you can see -- for those of you who are familiar with the mod -- the front side markers are now considerably dimmer than they were with the old resistor setup. They are almost the same brightness as the rears now, whereas before they were much brighter. Kennedy, I remember this was an issue for you. The brightness in the front and rear will never truly match, though, because the rears have three LEDs and the fronts have two (per marker). At any rate, that really wasn't the point; the point of this mod was to have this friggin' mod actually work for longer than a month or two before the board fizzles out. I'll get another pic as soon as the sun goes down a little more in a few minutes here.

brettallica

Here's one after the sun had gone down almost completely. Pretty good brightness match now; it's not perfect, but it's not bad either. At least the fronts aren't insanely brighter than the rears like they were before:

BAD DNKY

looks sweet!

DriveSlow

Did you modify them to blink also. Do you think that would lower the life span of the LEDs or resistors.

aznbenz07

Mine still didn't go, and it's been a couple of months now. knock on wood.

Kennedy

iTrader: (2)

I modified both my front and rear side markers to blink. It has absolutely no effect on the lifespan of the leds. The problem is that the Leds are being underdriven when being changed from yellow to white, which is in turn, burning out the resistors.

Azbenz, how much driving around at night do you do? The key factor is time. It took mine about 2 months of 2 hours a day of "lights on" driving to start failing.

brettallica

It's only a matter of time

jptl04

iTrader: (1)

i had the same problem on my other 04 TL side marker started flickering used 5mm leds, i changed them out to 3mm problem free for easily a year! that is until it got totalled by a drunk driver! did the same mod on my 07 type-s no problems 2 months now. i know they're not as bright as the 5mm., but they still look good. and no flickering!

brettallica

I'm gonna give that one a shot next, after I spend some money on other things for my car. So far so good with my resistors swap-out, though. The crappy thing is they're pretty dang dim, and you can only see them after dusk.

DriveSlow

Anyone figure out the exact white LEDs and resistors needed to make this work without failing. My car is going in for the works next week and want to include this.

aznbenz07

my driver side went 2 days ago

brettallica

It might be time to swap out those resistors for some new ones!

Kennedy

iTrader: (2)

Told ya...


I think the stock resistors are 3.9K (by color coding). By my calculations, with the change in Voltage with the blue/white leds, I think 3.6K resistors are what you need to be reliable...

JAZEUSTL05

Side markers have repeatedly failed with the resistors changed out twice.. Can someone please tell me where and what resistors to get to fix this once and for all?

Casper42

Damn, Brettalica and Kennedy, you guys seem to have been keeping this thread alive!

Just wanted to pop in and say a few things regarding the last 2 or so pages of this thread.

First, Thank You both for the props earlier in the thread. I didnt do all the homework on this mod but I am glad that a more detailed write up has helped so many people.

Also, I just went out to my garage and checked and both my front Side Markers are working over 2 and a half years after I modded them.

Lastly, I think the reason I didnt have any of the problems you guys seem to be having is back then, SuperBrightLEDs.com only carried the 3mm LEDs and so I didnt exactly have a big choice in what to buy. I did however do alot of research and from what I remember, the 3mm they did offer was basically an EXACT match to the OEM ones when it came to Voltage and Amperage. I think the 5mm version is really what is causing all the problems you guys have been having. Unless its a bad solder job or weak trace, but from reading your posts, you both seem like you know what your doing.

The 3mm and 5mm LEDs have the same requirements and specs according to SuperBright though. So this is very confusing to me on why the 5mms (if that is the true source of the problem) are causing such issues.

You can use 2 AAs in Series if you want to test the LEDs by themselves. They say their Typical voltage is 3.2v and 2 AAs in series will give you 3.0v which is close enough. Obviously 9v is a tad too much power :P


Anyway, good luck and if you have questions for me, PM me and it will trigger an email notice since I'm not on here that much lately.

-Casper42

foot3ch

Replaced mine with 3mm early this year and I haven't had any problem at all. Just don't use the 5mm.

IPSEC04TL

How long have you had them in? I've been holding off on doing this mod for quite some time due to fear of burn out and the related troubles...

IPSEC04TL

Did you get them from superbrightleds.com?

aznbenz07

im gonna try the 3 mm's

tehloxely

You should make them blink all the time! lol

foot3ch

Sorry for the late reply.
I had the 5mm first and they lasted 2-3 months. I installed 3mm since March/April and haven't had problems at all.

rockyfeller

iTrader: (6)

any other updates about burnouts? I am about to go with the 3mms as well. safe?

rockyfeller

iTrader: (6)

HA! Rode with the 3mm for hardly 2 months now and they flickered and they're out now. Any input guys?

BLACKURA_NY

iTrader: (6)

damn man. i just read this entire thread from start to finish.. and was hoping that the 3MM were the answer.. guess not... huh

how come some people had them last a year or two??

Kennedy

iTrader: (2)

Purely a funtion of use...
Low milage, and little time on the road at night = lasts a long time relatively speaking.

My 5mm attempts never lasted more than 6-7 weeks... but i drive 45 miles each way to work, mainly in the dark both ways...

I figure that = about 50 hours of use before failure.

BLACKURA_NY

iTrader: (6)

have you attempted 3MM like JPTL04.. he says they lasted 1 year in his AM TL, and 1 year so far in his WDP... i think i am going to attempt the 3MM job

but then rockyfeller, says his lasted 3 months... wtf?? jptl04 also said he drives alot ,and mostly at night....

Kennedy

iTrader: (2)

It's a PITA mod, very tedious work. $50 a pop too. I'm down $150 in attempt. Next one I'll do will be with larger yellows... for good.

I've done 3... I'll do no more util I see a sure thing. The inconsistency in success is enough to sway me.

Other folks running the 3mm whites report failures too - reread the thread provided earlier. I believe foot3h? failed, as well as aznbenz?

Jptl04 just has the magic touch I guess... but they'll fail.

BLACKURA_NY

iTrader: (6)

i hate un-reliable modifications.... well dont forget aznbenz was blue, dont know if thats a different draw then white or yellow


doesnt seem like too many people have conquered this

i wonder how brettalica is doing these days w/ this mod...

i am going to be doing it soon, and ill post my results... i hope to be on jptl's side, and get ATLEAST a year out of the LED's

rockyfeller

iTrader: (6)

Yeah this totally sucks because it looked so freakin good when they were working at first. Everything matched and it looked complete, every TL owner was asking me where I got them from. They were working perfect at first and I thought I was homefree. Guess not.

Once you have hacked them open like that, it dosen't sound like fun trying to open them again. It will be very weak on a second install, a new pair may be the only option.

I am thinking about 1 of 2 options......

Just making a custom circuit board with my own components resistors, LEDs, everything and mantain the stock housing. I would probably try to use 3 LEDs like the rear sidemarker has to make it worth it. Only problem? I have no freakin idea about electronic theory so I don't know where to start. I know it can be done though. C'mon you geniuses, brainstorm, I know someone out there could draw up a schematic in 30 seconds. If this don't work I'm just gonna clear out the board and put 2 3mm regular white LEDs instead of HF LEDs in there and hook them up to the power. Is the power running to them 12V or 5V as I recall somewhere? Sounds real stupid but it may work!

The other option would be to buy one of those aftermarket Ebay sidemarkers. I don't know if they glow white or amber. I would try to experiment replacing the LEDs with that unit. It just might work out.

rockyfeller

iTrader: (6)

update, anybody? I can't stand my dead sidemarkers

jptl04

iTrader: (1)

com'on kenedy! dont jinx me
it's been a year and 1 month so far still going strong with the 3mm.
rockyfeller getting the ebay markers is an idea you could swap out the circuit board into your oem one. i know they are alot cheaper. and who knows maybe better resistors.

i'll be doing another AZ members side markers next week. we'll see how it goes.

jptl04

iTrader: (1)

GOOD NEWS LED JUNKIES!
hey guys i found this led module it has 6 surface mounted LEDS on it. they looked small enough to replace the oem circuit board that everyone has had problems with. as far as burnt out LEDS. mine are still going strong i wanted to see if these were brighter. i Ordered a pair and got them in today. i already had two sidemarkers from my old TL and took out the oem circuit boardoff one. the LED strips were just a little too fat, so i just dremeled or shaved off just a little material off both sides and it was a perfect fit. i dont think these will burn out, since they are made to run off 12V.






i just connected the + and - , IT WORKED!!!! i did the LED mod a while ago. so i had one side with the super flux LEDS and the other with the new surface mount LED module to compare the two. the surface mounted ones shine nice and even though the lens. with a bright white light. the super flux are more concentrated and you can see where the LEDS are mounted through the lens more concentrated in those spots, not an even dispersion of light. i like the strips alot better so i'm gonna change out my old LEDS out for these.
i'll post pics of what i did. and before and after shots for all to see

Kennedy

iTrader: (2)

Got your PM JP... had the same thought a while back, just hadn't explored it yet, not had time to repsond. Good work.

Great job, I look forward to seeing how it looked.

biosys

Any updates on who's LEDs have gone out? And any ideas on how to make it work?

CrazyFresh

iTrader: (1)

Well, I also butchered my front side markers, with the new leds that jptl04 used above, and one works fine, the right side doesnt. Now all my lights on the interior were out and also my taillights are out as well [only coming on when I brake]. Anyone know where I can buy some stock front side markers? I think I'm going to put them back to stock and leave it alone. LEDS for sale also.

rockyfeller

iTrader: (6)

My problem with buying the modules that jptl bought was they were $25 a pair. I know these strips are really worth next to nothing. I thought there HAS to be a cheaper easier solution. I looked and looked and it's so hard to find strips that are less than 2.5" long and thin like that. There are many made in China and you could probably buy them in bulk in a set of 50 but US distrubutors don't carry them.



I give credit to jptl for jumpstarting my brain. I initially was about to go with these but they are a smidgen to big. The clearance is tight with no tolerance.
http://www.oznium.com/rectangular-channel
Then I found a solution and it was cheaper than jptl's idea. I bought these LEDs. They had all the properties I was looking for. I also bought a pair of strip power connectors:
http://www.oznium.com/led-strip-flat-head
With these, the strip can be cut into 3-LED units and from 12" you can have 6 units! I can keep extra units if I screwed up or if they burn out in the future. The 3LED unit fits PERFECTLY into the sidemarker. The circuit board is flexible and has a simple design with just 1 resistor. I took the 3 flathead LEDs and angled them 90 degrees. The circuit board is the same width as the original. The only problem is the power connector emerges from the FRONT of the board. You have to run the wire backwards but there is no clearance to close the sidemarker back up together. I actually dremelled a small notch into the circuit board to run the wire backwards and I soldered the positive and negative wires of the trip power connector into the power contacts of the original circuit board. I was wary of doing this as it cuts into the tracing in the circuit board but the tracing were wide enough to allow this and still work. I sandwiched and levelled off a few layers of double sided tape between the 2 circuit boards and sealed off with some silicone just for insulation and weather proofing. (not necessary) I epoxied the whole thing back together and it's double water proof. This did the trick and the sidemarker just connects up to the factory harness with no splicing!

The light output is just like before. maybe not as bright as jptl's but about the same intensity as the original hi-flux LEDs. Now there are 3 LEDs in there instead of 2. Similar to the rear sidemarkers but the diffusors in the lens of the sidemarkers and the flathead LEDs prevent hotspots.

I am happy to have finally found the definitive efficient solution to this.......all under $10!

jptl04

iTrader: (1)

it's only a fuse you burnt out. check under the hood fuse box. i dont know how you butchered them. this way of modding the side marker is way easier than the original way. i've done a couple of these and all was fine.

anyone else done the mod and had problems?