Fitting LED sidelights bulbs leads to failure

[heeman10]

Hi all. Fed up of the "standard yellow" appearance of my lights, I upgraded my main and dipped headlight bulbs to Halfords Super Brilliance Blue bulbs a few weeks back. I am very happy with them - the light is a good crisp white, and visibility at night is a dramatic improvement over the standard issue bulbs.

The only problem now is the yellowy sidelights. First up I tried fitting some single LED sidelight bulbs, but after five seconds, the car detected the low current draw and switched them off, indicating a "bulb failure". So I tried some "blue" (not chav LED blue) bulbs, which are slightly less yellow, but not exactly white. I was advised to try the "four LED" bulbs, which have a cluster of four small LED's in the head of the bulb, as they would not trigger the bulb failure warning. Well...I fitted them yesterday, and the car "saw" a failure and switched those off too.

So, I ask; what is the solution? The sidelights are the last bit of yellow in my pretty white jigsaw!

 

[Khufu]

IIRC Piaa do led side light bulbs that work with the bulb monitoring system. Only problem is im sure they were about £60 the pair!!!

 

[bluequattro]

Hi m8, can you not just wire in a resistor to stop bulb failure?

cal

 

[Ads]

I've got some Philips X-Treme Power dipped headlights, and with them you get a couple of free Blue Vision sidelights. They all give off a brilliant white light, and not a bit of yellow.
All for £27.85 deilvered next day, from Powerbulbs. http://www.powerbulbs.com/product_detail.asp?prod=81

 

[Lee_R]

I've got some Philips X-Treme Power dipped headlights, and with them you get a couple of free Blue Vision sidelights. They all give off a brilliant white light, and not a bit of yellow.
All for £27.85 deilvered next day, from Powerbulbs. http://www.powerbulbs.com/product_detail.asp?prod=81

Exactly what i have, they look great compared to the originals. No hint of blue but definately a bright white colour. No yellowness at all.

 

[heeman10]

Khufu - Indeed. £60 for two poxy little bulbs is getting into the sort of territory where you're happy to buy a pair of trousers to wear once, then bin them!

aythreee and Lee_R - Thanks for the feedback guys. Bulbs now ordered. Hopefully they're better than the blue (to appear white) bulbs I bought from Halfords. They are less yellow than the factory bulbs, but not crisp white.

 

[Ads]

No problem mate.
I'm sure you won't be disappointed with the new dipped/sidelight bulbs.
Let us know what you think once fitted.

 

[heeman10]

I already have the Super Brilliance Blue dipped and main beam bulbs, I've just ordered the sidelight bulbs from Powerbulbs. Now I have coming home/leaving home lights, I don't want to have to walk towards/away from my car cursing the yellow sidelights!

 

[Ads]

I already have the Super Brilliance Blue dipped and main beam bulbs, I've just ordered the sidelight bulbs from Powerbulbs. Now I have coming home/leaving home lights, I don't want to have to walk towards/away from my car cursing the yellow sidelights!

lol. I know what you mean, i dreaded my YELLOW leaving home lights coming on!!

But £28 for the dipped and sides is a very good price though.
How much you pay for the sides on their own?? About a tenner??
Might have been worth it to purchase the set for an extra £18 and keep the philips dipped as spares.... or better still, swap out your halford dipped and keep those as spares.

Can always cancel your order and re-order the set if you decide?!?

 

[heeman10]

I'll leave it as it is for now matey, always plenty of time to try new bulbs. I have my sides and headlights on all the time anyway (comes from riding a bike I think, and seeing JUST how many people seem incapable of seeing there is a car behind/next to/in front of them), so the bulbs will probably expire before too long for me to try something else. I'd rather pay out for a £20 bulb that's expired than have someone drive into me!

 

[Gryphon001]

If you are dead set on LEDs, there are these on eBay

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140313796665&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

been meaning to try them out myself but haven't been brave enough yet to spend the money...

 

[rossbrownlee]

Just a quick question, if you change from a filament type bulb to a LED then is it not possible the LED is in 180 degrees out? I know when i have used LEDs elsewhere they are polar i.e. they have both a pos and neg tail and the incorrect polarity gives problems.
Is it possible that you are getting a false indication of a failed bulb for this reason?
especially with a d.c. system?

 

[rossbrownlee]

fyi I have a pre facelift and use these with no issues at all:
http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/ultimate-501t10194-watt-ultra-xenon-white-p-1684.html

These are bright white and have a very very slight blue hint, i don't like the blue light look by the way. go great with my oem HIDs.

 

[gixxer600k4]

when the cars ignition is turned on, it sends out a check to every electronic component on the car, when it checks the bulbs it measure the resistance, with a filament bulb there is resistance which shows that the bulb is there, and obviously if it creates a circuit it shows all bulbs are working, when an LED is fitted in place, the resistance is much much much lower which makes the computer think there is no bulb in there, so the bulb will work for a few seconds but the computer will cut the power to that bulb causing it not to work and causing a warning on dash. the only way to get around this is to fit some resistors, i fitted 330 Ohms on the interior ones but i needed to fit a few per bulb so maybe something with more resistance!

hope that makes sense!!!

 

[rossbrownlee]

Yes it makes sense.
However, I do find it quite strange that the loop self check is a measure of resistance rather than a continuity check. This would mean that replacing the main and dipped headlamp bulbs has also changed the resistance of their respective circuits through changing the power wattage rating of the bulbs. maybe there is an alllowable tolerance?

 

[gixxer600k4]

but when you change the bulbs, you have to change it for the same bulbs, we all run mostly H7 which are 55w and H7's are all 55w unless you get the offroad one which can be 80-100w. but then there will still be resistance and a complete circuit

 

[heeman10]

I have now swapped out my sidelight bulbs for the bulbs recommended, and they are significantly less yellow Not a crisp crisp white, but probably as good as you'll get from a filament bulb. I'm now greeted by a fairly pretty white-lit front end when my leaving home lights greet me. Thanks guys

 

[Gryphon001]

If you are dead set on LEDs, there are these on eBay

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140313796665&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

been meaning to try them out myself but haven't been brave enough yet to spend the money...

I GOT THEM!!!!!! and they work too... First ever LED ligths I've found that really do not throw any error codes.

Went from this...

to this...

 

[Staz]

We're just looking at the side marker lights here yeah?

What bulbs are you using for fogs?

 

[Gryphon001]

I believe they are the Nokya arctic white, 7000K 80W. Not too pricey either, only a bit more than half of what the PIAA ones cost here.

 

[Staz]

I believe they are the Nokya arctic white, 7000K 80W. Not too pricey either, only a bit more than half of what the PIAA ones cost here.

80W?!

 

[Gryphon001]

that's what the box says... can't say how true that is though, they are probably made in china...

http://nokyausa.com/aw/aw7218.htm