LED Bulbs for tails

[270_BMW]

Originally Posted by wpoll

It's not moisture that causes the melting issues in the tails - it's the high-resistance bulb connection and poor conductivity of the steel assembly. The high-resistance connection gets hot and melts the plastic, decreasing the connection tension, which causes the connection to get worse...

The LED flickering is caused by two things - the cold monitoring of the lamps and on the later LCI cars, the PWM power being used to run the lamps.

The dash warnings are due to the reduced lamp load, causing the LKM to determine the lamp is blown/missing.

And yes, all of these issues can be addressed, if you really want to throw more stuff at it.

Mayhaps when I find another job down the line... been out of the job since August, so any large projects will have to wait that aren't necessary. LOL.

I may take you up on that down the line. I appreciate the info.

[wpoll]

It should be cheap to sort - the flicker (on a 2002) can be sorted via coding (turning off the cold monitoring), the warnings can be removed by coding off the hot monitoring. Both of these are "free" if you have the tools.

You should then have a set up that works well and won't melt the housings!

[bcredliner]

There a couple of sources for LED bulbs for all applications that are plug and play. No error, no flickering.

[crystalworks]

I've been very happy with my LED signals vs. halogens. Having to run a resistor does suck as it certainly reduces on of the biggest selling points of LED. But it looks better and has instant on/off which is important to me. Here are what mine look like:

https://youtu.be/wRsffhlywv0

https://youtu.be/iTAnWuX3f8g

BTW: Why are you guys spending so much money on bulbs? Mine were $25 a pair I think? And resistors I bought on Amazon for $10 for a bunch.

[BigBody]

Originally Posted by crystalworks

I've been very happy with my LED signals vs. halogens. Having to run a resistor does suck as it certainly reduces on of the biggest selling points of LED. But it looks better and has instant on/off which is important to me. Here are what mine look like:

https://youtu.be/wRsffhlywv0

https://youtu.be/iTAnWuX3f8g

BTW: Why are you guys spending so much money on bulbs? Mine were $25 a pair I think? And resistors I bought on Amazon for $10 for a bunch.

Thanks for the videos, I've been looking for someone with led's in oem housing to post up their results for a looooong time. Have you done your brake lights? If you can make another video that would be sweet

[wpoll]

Originally Posted by crystalworks

I've been very happy with my LED signals vs. halogens.

Just FYI, the regular incandescent lamps aren't halogen - they are just normal tungsten lamps.

Halogens lamps generally have a "pinched off" glass envelop, part of the manufacturing process.

Tungsten...



Halogen...

[crystalworks]

Originally Posted by wpoll

Just FYI, the regular incandescent lamps aren't halogen - they are just normal tungsten lamps.

Halogens lamps generally have a "pinched off" glass envelop, part of the manufacturing process.

Tungsten...


Halogen...

Yes. I'm aware. I use the two interchangeably on auto forums because others do as well. It's a bad habit.

[wpoll]

Originally Posted by crystalworks

Yes. I'm aware. I use the two interchangeably on auto forums because others do as well. It's a bad habit.

And halogen is easier to type than incandescent...!

[jsoto]

Great Video Upload CW.

I went the Prime route - not so much for it's speedy delivery, but the easy return guarantee from 'zon, even if fulfilled ~by prime but sold on Amazon".

In my case, the front and rear turns, I bought specifically canbus ready.
The brakes and such, no, but I guess I'm taking a roll of the dice to see the behaviour as such. The brakes, backups, rear fogs were all $20 a pair. The canbus ready ambers were more like $55. Here's hoping for a CAP free pNp install

[crystalworks]

Originally Posted by jsoto

Great Video Upload CW.

I went the Prime route - not so much for it's speedy delivery, but the easy return guarantee from 'zon, even if fulfilled ~by prime but sold on Amazon".

In my case, the front and rear turns, I bought specifically canbus ready.
The brakes and such, no, but I guess I'm taking a roll of the dice to see the behaviour as such. The brakes, backups, rear fogs were all $20 a pair. The canbus ready ambers were more like $55. Here's hoping for a CAP free pNp install

Mine were Prime as well from seller SiriusLED. I buy most of my auto LEDs from them. They seem to be quality bulbs and haven't had a failure yet.

Front Turn Signal Bulbs

The white switchback function of those bulbs doesn't work in my truck, but that's fine. The signals are bright and function properly which is far more important to me. Installing the resistors is a nuisance though. They were a 4 pack for $7.99 also on Amazon prime. Just went through my orders to find them.

Let us know how you get on with your canbus versions. I'm sure they just have resistors built into their circuitry to fool the canbus, but the ease of install will be worth the higher price and easier install for most.