I know a lot of you put the leds from autodynamic in your roadlamps awhile back and thought they were dim so i never got them. Than they came out with super bright leds in 168/194 so i finally ordered some to match my HIDs. Problem is they wont light up. They should just slide right in like that regular bulbs right? Any ideas The polargs work fine but the freakin LEDs just wont work

 

168/194 are wedge bulbs....

I hope u didn't fu*k them up. LED only take polarity one way, meaning positive HAS to go with positive and negative HAS to go with negative. I don't konw if the LED has some sort of "protection" again reverse polarity...if they don't, the LEDs are probably toasted...but if they aren't insert it the other way.

With conventional bulbs it doesn't matter what polarity u put where, as long as u get current going through it. LED are "Light Emitting Diode", diodes only let current flow one way and block current from flowing the other way. So if you accidently apply the wrong polarity to the wrong node *with a 12 volt power source*, the LED are gone.

 

that fucken blows. leds suck ass due to lack of easy use.

 

Well that sucks but there is no way to tell which side is positive and which is negative. The bulbs have to wires coming off them (both same length) and go up the sides of the 168 adapter type thing. There is no way to tell which side is positive and which isnt. I even took them out of the 168 housing and they look exactly the same on both sides. Also how do you tell which side is positive on the car side

 

LED are bright and nice looking but they don't last long if you using them for roadlamps or for lights that need to be on constantly... i used to have super white in the roadlamp and they lasted for only 1 week.... they were cheap brands though... you can try using the PIAA LED bulbs... my friend with a Golf IV bought a few pairs and planning on using them for the headlights and sidemarker... I'll see how the look and report back... they are damn bright that is all i know...

 

This is not true! LEDs will out last any conventional bulb...they will last 10 years with no problem. LED use semicondutor material/technology, they are VERY effiecent, about 80-90%...they pull about 20 mA at 4 Volts meaning .08 Watts. your typical 194/168 use 5 watts, pulls about 410 mA at 12 Volts...most of the power is lost as HEAT, they are about 20% effiecent...LED stay cool to the touch. LEDs can stay on or blink...it will not affect is life.

If your LEDs fried...that may be due to that you were running them at a much higher voltage then rated...they will burn out. Usually you will see a little resistor or some kind of voltage regulator chip...this will covert 12 volts into 4 volts.

To identify which node goes where....look at the LED, there should be a "FLAT or NOTCH" edge, that is the Cathode or Negative, the other is positive. If the leads were exposed, the shorter lead would be negative and the longer one is the positive.

 

I'm working on some of this now and
there are two ways you can wire your LED's up.

First, you can divide the supply voltage (12 volts) by the LED's operating voltage. The number you have is the number of LED's you can wire in series and connect to 12 volts.
The better method is to calculate the resistor you will need. To do this, you first subtract the LED's forward voltage from 12 volts. Then, you take the result, and divide that by the LED's operating current. The number you have left is the number of ohms of resistance you will need in order to safely connect your LED. If you get a number for which you don't have a resistor, you can use slightly higher resistor. If you don't even have one close, you can use resistors in combination to get the proper value.
When wiring your LED, it is important to observe polarity. Often, the positive and negative legs are different length. The package will show you the polarity. Wire your resistor in series with the LED, on the positive leg.

Good Luck with it

 

i don't know i had them in the roadlamp... and lasted for only a week... maybe it was just poor quality since the clearly said "made in taiwan" hahaha who knows..... well i hope the PIAAs that my friend got will be better... might switch back to LED if they are good because i am using 18W PIAA at the momment... the LEDs i used before were 5W only...

 

They look just like this


They have the one little wire on each side that are exactly the same length. Why dont these things work?

 

i know how the look light casue i had them before... just that they are taiwan brand... and they kinda look like those in the pic.. during the night i think they didn't light up the housing in there compared to the 18W i am using right now. All you see in the night is a faint colour in the housing dependin on the LED you got and 2 little bright dots... didn't like the looks of it...

Now i wanna see if the PIAA LED will light up the housing better compared to the cheap taiwan brand ones....

 

Did you just slide yours in or is there some special way? TIA

 

i took the socket out of the housing... pulled the bulb out and put LED in... and put it into the socket... easy as 1 2 3

 

Thanks I guess there is no certain way to put them in (positive negative side) and i should just get mine exchanged out because they dont work. Thanks again

 

oh you asking about that... yes... if one way doesn't work take it out and try the other way.... are you using those as your roadlamp or signals?

 

those stupid things only work one way.. unlike the peanut bulbs we use which works either way you one in...

 

Thanks i have tried them both ways and in different places but they still dont work. I called autodynamic and he said they would test some out and send me some new ones Thanks for your help