For a few days one of my white LEDs (from superbrightleds) was not turning on whenever I pushed the button. I didn't have time to deal with it, but then suddenly it came back a few days ago, but much dimmer than it should have been.

I popped off the housing, tried switching the led with another led that was working fine. By doing this I confirmed it was a fault of the LED, and not anything wrong with the car.

Then, after I switched it back to my regular set up, it suddenly was at 100% brightness again. Anyone know wtf happened? It wasn't loose or anything.

 

.. *shrugs*... just a little bad connection.. my guess..

 

Dude, this started to happen to mine like a week ago. I went to get in my car at night and when I unlocked my doors I noticed the car was dark. I got in the car and the light was real dim. The next morning I get in my car and the light is off, I switched on and off and nothing came on. I was gonna order a new one but just yesterday it was back to normal but now today it's normal when I turn it on myself but dim when I first get in the car. It's really strange.

There's a sponsor on here selling really good really bright LEDs for $35 but I'm not sure I want to spend that much. Mine are a year old cost $5, if the $35 ones go out after a year I'd be ____ed.

Oh yeah, so when you replaced it with a new one it works fine? I wasn't too sure if it was the bulb or wiring.

 

leds aren't supposed to go out.. its due to other reasons.

 

Crap! I guess I got to check it out. I hate car electrical systems. Any ideas so I don't waste time?

 

no.. i meant leds last a long time... however building a "replacement bulb" is where the issue comes to play...

sorry for being vague.

 

Yea, I swapped it out with the bulb that was lit at correct brightness, and it was still dim. So it was something wrong with the bulb.

It's been working fine ever since then, though, so I hope this was just a random, isolated incident! I can't have my LEDs that I paid some crazy shipping for randomly fail on me

 

Ok, its doing it again. I investigated it it further and found that when there's power running to the LED in question, it barely lights up... like a really weak flashlight, but LED style. When you first try it, only one of the LEDs in the overall LED (someone have better terminology here please?) barely flickers. You can only see it by looking directly at it with the cover off.

The connection is fine... I'm pretty sure its just a defective bulb.

Does anyone have any experience with Superbrightleds.com warranty? Are they good folks to deal with when it comes to warranties?

Their warranty is one year

 

i never had any problems out of mines and they light up my car and nice solid blue with the cover on but i also bought mine from pep boys maybe it's not all the way in or it not the actual size you need not really sure but that's all ican think of if that helps any ....

 

That sucks! Good thing I didn't order a new one yet. By any chance, do you have an aftermarket alarm system?

 

Nope, I have nothing non-stock as far as the electrical system goes.

I should probably get around to sending out an e-mail for the warranty. It's weird, though, because it seems everyone else has had no problems with their LEDs. Maybe I just got a bad one

 

nope not yet i'm waiting until my warranty is up so i can put an automatic starter in my manual tranny and yes i can be done folks.

 

Now my passenger map light is dim, out, working, out, dim... I have to really check this out tomorrow and not put it off anymore. I'll give an update.

 

Ok, I hooked my multimeter to all three lights sockets and all read a good 12.89 or 12.90. I even had it hooked up to the dome when opening and closing the door and you can see the power go steadily up and steadily down for the dim. So in conclusion the bulbs are the problem. I have one working bulb left in the dome light and I'll use that now until I get new ones. I guess lasting a little longer then a year is ok.

 

No way man! LEDs should last for at least as long as you own the car... I think technically they're actually never supposed to die as long as they are operated in a proper environment. You should warranty that sucker... you shouldn't have to put up with faulty components.

Just an update... I e-mailed superbrightleds on Thanksgiving morning and they got back to me the next day! I'm getting a new white LED

superbrightleds has a new customer for life

 

Cool, I guess I'll try and get new free ones also. I think I got them from the same place.

 

cool... just e-mail them at support a.t. superbrightleds.com and explain your situation and that you would like to make a warranty claim