Hey guys I may have a problem. This morning on my way to base I noticed that my passenger side switchback was not on while the driver side is on. When I say on i mean the white/blue led light. But, when I turn my singnal light on I seen the blinker working. Whats this about? I checked all my wires they are fine and it is plugged in all the way. Still no white light. If anyone has experienced this before or have any info feel free to comment.

 

Reseat the LED in the harness. You could have a contact problem.

Just pull out the LED and put it back in. See if that helps. While you have it out, check the contacts and make sure they are ok.

 

hey trew did you do you headlights your self the clearing it

 

^ Ya I did. Took me about 5 hours because I was afraid of breaking something. It wasn't hard at all.

 

I was going to start a thread on this but I think this is a good place to start. I have been slowly having problems with my switchbacks over the last month. I know that my bulbs are now 16 months old but I expected them to last longer than that! LEDs supposedly have 1000s of hours of life.

Both bulbs appear to be slowly failing in it's "white" phase. On one bulb a couple banks of the LEDs have started to flicker and are now they are not turning on at all. The other bulbs is even worse. Only ONE bank is actually working and the rest of it isn't even lit! It flickers a bit once in awhile but the output is really dismal. When the bulb is put in "amber" phase (turn signal on) it turns on completely with no problems.

The bad one:




The worse one, only 1 bank lit!:




As most of you guys know my car is COMPLETELY LED'd out. Granted I DO have a sound system pushing 1000W. I have a very good feeling that is the cause. (because I am ultra careful otherwise. I NEVER start/turn off the car with the lights on.) If this is a problem with voltage spikes etc. (that's what autolumination "auto-replied" me) then I would be having a lot of other failures on other bulbs all over the car. Yet these LEDs are the only ones with problems. And not just 1 side but BOTH! Something is wrong there. On TOP of that I know I am not the only one. I did another set on another car and he tells me his are starting to go out now too, and that in 6 months! So something is shoody about these bulbs. I have the older 20LED 1" model with hi-flux LEDs. As you guys now there's the newer 3/4" 30LED model. I just ordered the newest 48LED model. I have a feeling that the newer SMT LEDs are more durable. It sucks that I have to shell out the dough again but I love these bulbs that much! This time I am going to wire in a set of "LED protectors", they tell me this should cure the problem. If it doesn't I'll be PISSED having spent $100 on 4 bulbs!!

I can't be alone here. How many others are experiencing this problem? I want to know so we can all complain to autolumination about this if it widespread. (I have a feeling it is.)

 

Common causes of Premature LED Failure

• Switching on the ignition & starting the engine while the leds are switched on.
• Changing or disconnecting the battery while the leds are switched on.
• Charging the battery with an auxiliary battery charger, or revving the engine hard with a weak or dead battery while the leds are switched on.
• Using jumper cables while the leds switched on.
• Excessive AC voltage due to damaged diodes in the alternator.
• High system or circuit voltage.
• Voltage surges caused from switching on and off amplifiers or other peripheral add on devices that use a lot of power.
• Faulty or out-of spec. voltage regulators.

You can install LED protectors to help protect against surges and sudden drops.
http://autolumination.com/equalizers.htm

 

YEah man, trust me, I read all that fine print that most people don't. I have LEDs everywhere on my car, just search the forum. I have been installing LEDs for quite awhile, before most. And those are the LED protectors I was talking about above. Probably the only one on this forum who knows more than me admittedly is Kennedy the guru.

I use all those precautions listed in that post, I am always mindful of all the mods on my car. (people who ride with me think I am some weird OCD character because of my abnormal routines). I really think if anything contributed it's the heavy bass that hits and my lights do tend to dim at idle, like at a red light. (I even lower the volume mindful of this, lol)

But like I said this still does not explain how it can happen to both sides, or how it doesn't affect other LEDs like my rear turn signals or my DRLs. My DRLs undergo the most abuse because they are on ALL the time 24/7. They are on 100% power when the lights are on. 75% power when the headlights are off and even 10% power when the car is off!! They go through all this yet operate perfectly. They are SMT LEDs so that's why I said I'd rather put my money on those from now on.

Another thing is that this has happened to other people's car's too so my hunch is: It's not my car, it's the LED bulb.

 

i had this problem with the 20LED tower in less than a month, then i switched with the 30LED towers... now, my friend had to reorder another pair and have to return the defective one...

 

Forgot one

• LED Usage

Appears if you don't ever turn them on - you're safe

 

Yea thanks. That was the most important one, too!

Well I knew what I was getting into when I got mine. I try not to turn up the bass too loud when the switchbacks are on and I never start the car when they are on. That's about all I can do to prevent suffering the same fate as rockyfeller. Unfortunately, I know that my luck will run out eventually.

 

Eh - just think of it this way. If mods were easy - everyone would have them. Sometimes it's a pain in the ass to be different.

 

I have the same issue, passenger side too. I find myself second guessing if the light is on so I now flip the switch to on, then off then on again. I find that it always works the second time. I also notice the passenger side will not flash the first time when I arm or disarm the vehicle, but again will flash on the second flash.
Anyone have any thoughts about this? I'm going to try and switch sides and see if it's the bulb or something else possibly.

 

If you are talking about the 30LED model, I heard it does that....the 20LED model shouldn't be doing that.

BTW I have the 48LED model in my hand right now and it is BADASS. They better not die this time!

 

i had that same problem i turned the lights off and on still didn't work then i turn the car off & then back on and it started working don't know why