WDP-Acura TL

My car has 29,830 miles on it. On my steering wheel 4 LEDS blew out and I had them replaced about 3 months ago. Now my Maximum brightness button to the left of my steering blew out. How long do these blubs normally last. I thought LEDS last a pretty long time. I'm not going to give them my car again for one bulb but I hope no more blow out , like the radio button controls that would suck. Anybody radio control buttons blow out on their car yet?

ImPo Skyline

LED's will last 10,000 + hours easy. Sounds like you have a voltage issue. If a LED is overpowered for even a second it will most likely burn out.

rbf351

you need to search, they are not LED's. they are regular bulbs.

there is only a few spots in the car that has LED's

they are the following:
gauge cluster
ambient light
radio knob (light up blue)
secondary display (above center vents)

everything else in the car lights up via a regular bulb, and can easily be replaced

dsc888

I'm going to my dealer to replace the mirror light switch, door memo button and to re-replace my HFL button bulb which they messed up on last time. I have a total of 7 blown bulbs already! I have an '04 and have a little over 23K on the odo. These bulbs are cheap quality! I never had as many bulbs burn out in my 97 Camry as in this car. I asked the dealer to actually replace ALL the bulbs in the door since they have to pull the trim. It cost them peanuts so I would strongly suggest you ask them to do them all.

dsc888

ACURATECHTX

i agree there are no LED's there just regular bulbs

jjh1234

Don't complain, it cost me $250 to have one bulb replaced in the dashboard of my Mercedes.

AcuraVic

Sounds like you may have some sort of electrical problem. 44,000 plus and no bulbs burnt out.

rbf351

i doubt he does

bulbs can burn out at any time. could just be shitty bulbs

JohnDoe2

That is true. But when so many of his bulbs burn out in such a short amount of time, it is more likely a voltage problem. It is more likely the battery is failing.

NoRespect

Are they all the same bulb/fixture? If so, I hear an opportunity to sell aftermarket LEDs to replace the bulbs

rbf351

good luck doing that, LED's do not distribute light like a normal bulb does, and the buttons will not light up correctly if LED's are added (i already tried doing this a while ago)

rbf351

since i can't edit my post, here is what i did to my old car which was a 03 CL-S

http://rbf351.com/rob/me/CL-S/?path=./cluster/

as you can see in the pic, i changed every bulb in the car to a white LED, there are hot spots, and since most main parts have bulbs that are soldered onto the circuit boards, it takes alot of time and patience to do it correctly

NoRespect

I'll take your word for it. Damn, that tear apart on the dash shows you know more about it than me.

Actuary

why dont they use LED for everything. Aren't LEDs cheaper than bulbs in general?

rbf351

in the long run they are cheaper, but price per peice is usually double to tripple depending on the color

Atrain

Burn out? I don't think so. An LED is a Light Emitting Diode (hence the name LED). It cannot burn out because it doesn't illuminate like a light bulb does. The circuits can fail and the diode itself could fail, but it's rare. However a failed LED can never be a burnt out LED.

A-Train

bf17738

I have the SAME problem with my 04 TL.... the dealership has replaced so far: passenger heated seat light twice, the SELECT and the other MID button, the mirror button, the VSA button and it was just in the dealership to fix the MID buttons when they blew out the dashboard brightness MAX and the button under it for the dash AND they blew out the red HOT and blue COLD and the AUTO button on the HVAC!!!!!!!!! They laugh when i come in b/c it's ALWAYS at Acura fixin the bulbs....

When i brought up the voltage/battery issue... they checked it and everything was found to be OK... So we have no idea why they all burn out... i'm still waiting for the bulbs to come in for the HVAC hot and cold and AUTO and the MAX and brightness selector... it's been 3 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bf17738

anyone have ideas on what it could be that is causing this?

Actuary

only thing I can think is bad electrical system... no steady voltage

I believe green LEDs are cheapest. why dont acura just put green LEDs all around. It would cost them cheaper to do warrenty work.

RareBear99

Starting at 49,000 miles, I have a recurring problem with fuse #4 blowing out, affecting all the LED lights, the glove box light, and (unfortunately) the rear tail lights. Have had the car in to Acura service 4 times. They can't locate the problem and have even replaced the whole wiring harness in the dash. No luck. They have increased the fuse from 3-amp to 15-amp, and it still blows. Works for a couple of weeks, but finally blows. Most recently, they put in a 25-amp fuse, just so I'd have tail lights at night. So far, after a week, I still have lights, but don't know for how long. Have contacted Acura Customer Relations in L.A. and am waiting for some action. Very frustrating.

dsc888

Thanks for sharing the information. I got back from the dealer after they replaced all 2 seat memory bulbs after the "memo" bulb burned out. I asked them to do them all as a precaution. The new bulbs seem to be dimmer. I am keeping my fingers crossed. I guess this is one of the issues that creep up when you buy a car in it's first model year. Please keep us all updated.

dsc888

Brettg

Bulbs burn out for 3 reasons:

over voltage (weak battery, loose battery connections, voltage regulator problem)

Vibration (shakes filiments apart),

Use (run time, on off cycles).

If you reduce the voltage a light runs at by a small percentage, life goes way up.
Exceed the voltage by a slight percentage, and life gets shortened quite a bit.

If I blew out a lot of bulbs, I would check the battery, a weak battery will allow wide voltage swings, and I would also check the voltage the alternator puts out
(peak voltage).

In order to fully charge a battery, you have to exceed the battery voltage a bit,
that is typicly 14. something volts.

Brett

RareBear99

Yes, I suspect it's a first-model-year bug. I keep telling myself not to get a car the first model year, but the 2004 was just too cool looking. Plus I had 115,000 on my 2001 TL so it was time...

junyoure

Have any of you that are blowing bulbs done the LED mods in the past?

Could replacing OEM blubs in the doors, domes, etc. with multi-diode LED bulbs cause the voltage problems that are trashing all the other bulbs?

curiously,

-Jr.