LED porn

[M-A8]

Originally Posted by ScottB5

My main issue with DRls really is the fact that they are normally brighter than any other light on the car.

I've seen a couple of people driving round when its getting dark with the DRLs are and no side lights. so you can't see them from the back.

Never used the parking light side of things on the cars.
Worked with a guy in a garage who use to use his all the time when parked on the side on the side of the road but he was from germany, so I guess they used it all the time?

In the day light they are OK, but driving with DRLs on during the night or evening , stupid really.

I think they are designed mainly for dark conditions when you are parked on side of the road - side lights, which is safe as it makes other users in dark conditions aware of your car from distance because don't forget when they are on the tail lights lit up as well.

[johnny_quattro]

I do tend to use the old indicator trick when leaving my car on a road at night. Saves battery by only having one tail light and one sidelight in the headlamp lit.
What never ceases to amaze me is that of all the cars I see using this method, 80% of them seem to have the nearside tail light lit which is completely illogical. I always put the indicator stalk to the right so that the lights on that side of the car are illuminated, and hence stop my car from being hit or scraped by a passing car.

[johnny_quattro]

The OSF LED has now started flicking on and off, which is very annoying. I think the quality of the LEDs must be suspect. I'm now going to order those ones suggested by M-A8 earlier in this discussion, as I simply can't accept the reduction in quality offered by my new headlight/disco light show. The LEDs will now be placed in the dustbin of shame.

The LEDS as suggested are a tad expensive but then I guess you do get what you pay for. Plus, the design of them tends to offer my light from the shoulders which should result in a more even dish of light compared to my current LED 501s.

[M-A8]

Originally Posted by johnny_quattro

The OSF LED has now started flicking on and off, which is very annoying. I think the quality of the LEDs must be suspect. I'm now going to order those ones suggested by M-A8 earlier in this discussion, as I simply can't accept the reduction in quality offered by my new headlight/disco light show. The LEDs will now be placed in the dustbin of shame.

The LEDS as suggested are a tad expensive but then I guess you do get what you pay for. Plus, the design of them tends to offer my light from the shoulders which should result in a more even dish of light compared to my current LED 501s.

By the way...do you have resistors installed or do D2 gets bulb warning with LEDs ???
It might be worth spending extra 5quid and get a pair of 10w resistors from same website. You will also need 4x scotch locks IF resistors are required on D2s.

When you get them to work you'll be well pleased

[HPsauce]

You don't generally need resistors with LED's in the D2.
But I try to buy the so-called canbus-safe LED's (with resistors incorporated) as I find some of the circuits seem to work better with them.

For really basic switched circuits like the rear numberplate lights it's probably irrelevant, but some of the interior lights do sometimes seem a bit problematic due to the electronic control circuits.

My rear centre interior lights for example don't always work properly now they have LED's in, but they're old non-canbus ones reused from my PF D2 which I'll probably change in time.

And strangely my LED numberplate bulbs both failed recently. I wonder if that's anything to do with my boot lid water ingress issues? As they're a legal/MOT issue I've just got filament bulbs in there at present.

[M-A8]

The ones from the link 501s are so called can-bus ready so that would be a good start for Johnny then so resistors could be just a waste of 5quid if thats the case with D2s.

I swapped all 15 or so interior for can-bus ones and they work very well, they dim as they should, don't flicker etc for over a year now, or even 18months.

Plus the ones from the link will use more power than the original he tried purely because of having 30 chips not only 8, so consumption closer to original halogen

[johnny_quattro]

I was so annoyed last night on the way home that I pulled over when it started flicking on and off again. They seem to be OK for a while, and then start to play up. I pulled both bulbs out and was surprised to note that I didn't see any bulb warning lights illuminate on the dashboard. Oh well, not a problem as I made the journey home with no real loss of illumination.

Replacement super tower multiple LED lights ordered as suggested ;-)

[johnny_quattro]

My tower-style LEDs turned up on Friday and are now installed. Cheers for the helpful links M-A8, the output from the front headlights is now much improved. Like I said, I've binned the noddy ones from eBay. The chaps event sent me an air freshener in the jiffy bag :-)

[HPsauce]

Originally Posted by HPsauce

My rear centre interior lights for example don't always work properly now they have LED's in, but they're old non-canbus ones reused from my PF D2 which I'll probably change in time.

And strangely my LED numberplate bulbs both failed recently. I wonder if that's anything to do with my boot lid water ingress issues? As they're a legal/MOT issue I've just got filament bulbs in there at present.

Just a quick update on this as the rear interior light was getting worse, rarely working unless switched on locally.

I have a spare light unit with filament bulbs in so spent some time playing around just now, swapping them and wiggling bits about. Behaviour was very odd, usually OK when hanging loose on the cable and less reliable when pushed into place with the filament bulbs more reliable but exhibiting similar symptoms occasionally.
I decided it was probably a bad contact (or even dry solder joint) in the small PCB that the cable plugs onto (under the switch).

In the end I totally dismantled the LED-fitted unit and examined the PCB finding nothing untoward as it's extremely simple. So I gently cleaned and slightly bent the pins in the socket, by about 0.5mm at the tip, bending half way along, in order to make better contact with the plug.

Put it all back together and plugged in, all seems to be working perfectly.

Still need to do the numberplate bulbs. However as the numberplate itself is yellow I'm not sure it makes much difference.......

[HPsauce]

Originally Posted by HPsauce

seems to be working perfectly.

Or not, gone out this evening. Will investigate tomorrow.