Ordered Some Non-LED Super White Bulbs For A3/S3 2010+ Number Plate Lights

[warren_S5]

W8 Performance are sending me an offcut of tinted Lamin-X to put over the rear number plate LED's to tone them down a bit. I'll put some pics up when it's on to show if it's improved things.

 

[Paullie]

W8 Performance are sending me an offcut of tinted Lamin-X to put over the rear number plate LED's to tone them down a bit. I'll put some pics up when it's on to show if it's improved things.

That's a really good idea, Warren. I'm sure I have a bit of light smoke tint in the garage, so if it works for you I may pop my LED's back in and do the same :icon_thumright:. I really love LED's, but I have to say I do find these 18 SMD units we have, a tad too bright. xx

 

[warren_S5]

I'm with you on that, they're just too bright, and I wonder whether they got round the error code issue by bulking out on bulbs and increasing voltage / current etc.

I think I get away with it slightly easier on a black car as it's harder to light up black paint! That said I hear my cars rear plate can be seen at night from the international space station!

 

[Paullie]

I'm with you on that, they're just too bright, and I wonder whether they got round the error code issue by bulking out on bulbs and increasing voltage / current etc.

I think I get away with it slightly easier on a black car as it's harder to light up black paint! That said I hear my cars rear plate can be seen at night from the international space station!

Hehe, yeah the only things visible from space are the Great Wall Of China and our LED number plate lights . I think you're 100% correct about how they managed to get round the Canbus issue by increasing the number of bulbs (and therefore the power draw being detected by the Canbus system) as we had the same problem with LED sidelights and fogs on the VXR's. The only fogs that worked were 68 SMD ones and 'tower' LED's for the sidelights with at least 10 SMD chips on. xx

 

[t8ups]

i had some LED's with the smaller LED 3528's on them, basicly the smaller ones like on your units, with 3 differant resistant levels, getting it right is the hard part, anyway for some reason the factory sent me 1 of each, this dont help as in the 2009+ you have to change both bulbs to get the error, if you leave 1 halogen in and put 1 led in you wont get an error so i have asked the factory to send me a pair of each out so i am trying to solve it.

sometimes if the resistance is too high it will put an error up also.

Also Paulie, when i sell to astra owners i use a 1 led non canbus bulb for the sidelight, works without issues. the plate lamps have to be canbus on them.

not tried fogs, but i have 1 in at the weekend so will have a go.

Thanks
Trups

 

[Paullie]

Also Paulie, when i sell to astra owners i use a 1 led non canbus bulb for the sidelight, works without issues. the plate lamps have to be canbus on them.

Thanks
Trups

That's weird Trups, is this Astra H's (MK5)? Your single LED bulbs must be more advanced than the earlier ones myself and other lots of VXRO members tried (in 2008-2009). I tried 3 different non-Canbus LED sidelight bulbs and was so disappointed that none of them would work, ..they would light up and immediately go out. The other guys could only get the single LED bulbs to work if they had in line resistors fitted, but then one of the lads discovered the 'tower' type LED's with lots of SMD chips on and these worked fine for everyone who wanted them. I bought PIAA Hyper Tera Euro LED's for my car in the end. They only had 1 LED, but they had a round metal disc resistor pack wired into them. They were extortionately priced too.

I really hope you can sot out some not quite so bright LED's for our plate lights. Goodness knows how many orders you'd get for them! xx

 

[downtothebone]

Those of you who ordered the 'uprated' festoon bright white bulbs from EM Tuning should check your housings. The ones I received were rated 10W which at the time I did not realise were far higher than the 5W OEM rating (Homer moment but I was trusting the supplier). Anyway after one bulb blew within a couple of months I went to change back to the OEM units and found this ...

This is only my experience with these bulbs on a 2011 A3 so I cannot comment on the product as a whole. EM Tuning did offer to replace the housings. Anyway just a warning for those who deviate from the OEM products - you take your chances.

 

[rdfcpete]

1) Yes they work
2) No error codes
3) Fitted by an idiot
4) Subtle they are not

Not sure there would be an any way to dim these down so maybe consider Polarg bulbs unless you want your number plate readable from the moon. One step forwards....

These look superb Warren

Is it a fair assumption that given that these work on your 2011 canbus, that they'll be error free on the 2010 A3 8PA canbus too? (I've got a March 2010 170TDI Black Edition).
I should have seen this earlier and saved myself £25 on the OEM Audi ones I bought - oops.

The seller doesn't seem to have any available at the moment either. Are they regularly re-stocked do you know? Hope I haven't missed the boat!

Thanks.

 

[RYes3]

Those of you who ordered the 'uprated' festoon bright white bulbs from EM Tuning should check your housings. The ones I received were rated 10W which at the time I did not realise were far higher than the 5W OEM rating (Homer moment but I was trusting the supplier). Anyway after one bulb blew within a couple of months I went to change back to the OEM units and found this ...

This is only my experience with these bulbs on a 2011 A3 so I cannot comment on the product as a whole. EM Tuning did offer to replace the housings. Anyway just a warning for those who deviate from the OEM products - you take your chances.

I think i may too have had this issue as my EM Tuning bulbs keep blowing! I will out and check shortly!

 

[Ben S3 8P3]

Ive just managed to strip one of the screws on the number plate lights. Any advice on how to now remove it? Not happy

 

[mike foster]

No need to post twice - see answer in other post - drill the beast out !!

 

[MattyW19]

Guys i've done exactly the same thing, i had these similar bulbs and i was told to get a screw which didn't strip on here off ebay when putting them in - It has I'm currently running on one standard one and another which has been bashed out and the screw left in there

 

[sliced]

Anyone want to do a group buy for these?