LED bulbs no good . . .

So these are the ones I ordered off of ebay. They worked great the first few months and now some are dim all the time, one of them is off most of the time, flickers the rest of the time.

 

Thats frustrating. So hard to buy good products now. I dont mind paying extra for a good product but its getting harder to find. You can pay extra for what used to be a good product..eg. Maytag. Now its junk. Makes me nuts.

 

Oh god I hope those aren't the ones I put in all my stuff! I got like 10 spares though.. That sucks

 

Did you paint the inside of the housing? It will make big difference with any type bulb. Search "brighter dash lights" and you'll get more info.

 

well they looked amazing when I first installed them, I think there must be a good reason why they are going bad so quick.







I might go back to the old lights since they actually looked really nice too. The old ones are the yellow ones in the pic.

 

I don't know LEDs but could there be too much voltage?

most LEDs last a long time...

 

Got a warranty? Contact the MFG. Get replacements.

 

address: Ching Chong Chang, LTD.
BR549 China


......

 

Exactly.

 

hehe, yeah that was kinda my point.

Sylvania makes LEDs: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2x-W...r_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item4159ba5518

I would just but something with warranties. Electronic supplies can be super bottom barrel.

 

My experience with an established, reputable company, is to contact them. Tell them what product you have, how long you have had that product, and your displeasure with the lack of quality or short service life of that product. Keep in mind that kindness and a good attitude go along way, when you are speaking or writing to them. Most of the time, they will make it right with you, some how, unless they can prove some kind of misuse. I would contact AutoMeter, no matter the name of the actual entity you bought the guages from, and explain to them your situation. I bet you're not the only one having problems with them and odds are, they have heard about the problems already and will know you have a legitamit complaint. I think it is worth a try.

 

those bulbs are not factory autometer. they are cheap Chinese specials. i like the sylivania idea. ill check those out for my car. ive never been happy with the lighting on any of the autometers in my car.

 

I've had several problems with LED lighting as far as quality from the off brand stuff. The lowest bidder usually gets the contract and it's hard to compete with a $5 a day 5 yr old laborers from China.

some LED's are very sensitive to voltage changes, so I put just a touch of electrical contact grease on the terminals of the bulb before installing them and so far I haven't had any concerns with the higher quality stuff.

 

I get in the bad habit sometimes of ordering the cheapest most accessible parts. I'm going to try a different brand and I'll try the grease trick.

 

It's not a matter of bad LEDs, it's how they're CONTROLLED. Those look like they're just a bunch of LEDs in series with no current control or dropping resistors. LEDs are different from many electronics we're used to in that they're CURRENT driven, not voltage. Voltage does play a part, and it may be the manufacturers were too cheap to consider that the running voltage in a car is about 13.5v, not 12. What you want to buy are "regulated" LEDs, which use a solid-state circuit to regulate power and so the LEDs don't burn out.