LED sidelights that WORK

[belfastchris45]

I'm enjoying mine as far as that's possible, yup. I got quite excited when they first lit up but then last night I caught myself wondering if I should try turning them 90degrees in the mount to see if that looked better... and thought better of it and went off to do something more productive!

What could be more productive than playing with your LED lights lol. What way have you got yours mounted. Mine have the lED pointing up and down (if that makes sense) Towards ground and sky lol

chris

 

[GainfulShrimp]

Yup, same here. I did actually try one in left-right configuration but thought it looked a bit odd so switched it again.

As for more productive activities, it was story time for my 23mth old...

 

[james.milroy]

Hi Guys,

Well after a lot of faffing about (in the rain again I might add) I have come to the conclusion that one of my modules is faulty. I have mailed autobulbsdirect to see what they say. I've also alerted them to the problems we've all been having. I'll expect a reply tomorrow. On closer inspection of the bulbs, you'll notice that the pads used to make connections have a white line on one pad like a minus sign. This is the negative connection. The wire that BelfastChris was referring to is the ground. So this side of the module should connect to that wire to be polarised correctly. I've also located the Byte in the coding for the CECM to turn off cold diagnosis to the side lights. I'm gonna give this a try for fun to see if it helps with the problems we've been having.
As usual, i'll keep you posted of developments. I didn't want it to look like I was recommending these bulbs to everyone. I like yourselves thought this was the answer without resorting to resistors, overpriced PIAA stuff or other cludges. Hopefully once I get replacements, everything will be OK.

Cheers, James

 

[GainfulShrimp]

Bummer to read you can't get your 2nd unit working James...

Mine seem to be working fine, judging by the reflection in the shiny car I was queueing behind this morning. Only trouble is, now I want some HIDs to go with my nice white sidelights.

 

[Throbbs]

Hi

I also bought some of these bulbs thinking that they would work, but after numberous times I gave up. I emailed the supplier and got this responce

Many thanks for your enquiry. These bulbs are quite sensitive when you put them in. If you push them in too far they will not work. Can I ask you to try moving the bulb up and down in the holder to see if this makes a difference. Please also note that LED's are polorised and will only work one way so if they do not light you will need to turn them round 180 degrees. Hope this helps.[/I][/I]

 

[Throbbs]

Hi

I also bought some of these bulbs for my 08 FR thinking that they would work, but after numberous times I gave up. I emailed the supplier and got this response

Many thanks for your enquiry. These bulbs are quite sensitive when you put them in. If you push them in too far they will not work. Can I ask you to try moving the bulb up and down in the holder to see if this makes a difference. Please also note that LED's are polorised and will only work one way so if they do not light you will need to turn them round 180 degrees. Hope this helps.

I will have another go tonight and see if not pushing the bulb to far down in the holder works.

Regards
James B

 

[GainfulShrimp]

You can easily see the connector in the holder if you peer down into it. Should be obvious if it's in too far or not far enough.

I think the trouble is that the car 'gives up' on the bulb if it doesn't work straight away. Hence the key to success is to make the car re-try the new module by doing something like:

1. switch off lights
2. switch off ignition and wait a few secs
3. turn ignition on (no need to start the engine)
4. switch on lights

If the above doesn't work, switch off the car and lights and then physically swap round the LED module so it's the other way round in the holder and then retry as above.

If still no joy, replace the glass/tungsten bulb and make sure that's working (thus convince yourself it's not a bad connection elsewhere) before retrying the whole thing.

I got mine working after some trial and error using the above steps. Good luck!

 

[warren_cox]

hmmm, reading this makes me glad I avoided this route as I lack patience for this sort of thing.

Motaman has a limited period offer on wedge sidelight bulbs, but they are still 40 odd quid: link

When I did mine I ended up going for the mirror white for my DRL's and sidelights (although I seem to remember I had to source my sidelights from a place in Manchester). I didn't want that blue look in my headlights, and these look far less coloured. Blue ones are in the boot and glovebox lights instead now.

 

[GainfulShrimp]

... but those LEDs you linked to at motaman are just standard LEDs - they're not the CANBUS compatible ones. So you need even more patience for those, as you have to fart around with wiring in your own resistors or connecting the original bulbs inside the engine compartment etc etc.

The LEDs I fitted were more faff than I expected but I still got them working within 20mins or so and didn't need to do any splicing/cutting/modifying of wires at all.

 

[warren_cox]

... but those LEDs you linked to at motaman are just standard LEDs - they're not the CANBUS compatible ones.

Wow, my mistake, I thought they were compatible.

Are these any good? link

 

[GainfulShrimp]

Dunno. I'm not knowledgeable enough about canbus to know whether internal bulbs are subject to the same bulb errors etc... but the standard bulbs using xenon gas on that page should be fine either way.

It's just the LED ones which tend to trip the error because they draw much less current than normal bulbs so they appear to the computer to be a faulty bulb.

 

[Moley RUFC]

My PIAA seem like a bargain now! 5 mins to fit and still look awesome

 

[Tfsi_Mike]

My PIAA seem like a bargain now! 5 mins to fit and still look awesome

Me too

 

[ross27]

The solution from the other thread, for "Loading" circuits, works fine.
I bought my LEDs from the other thread, for £20. That was my final cost.


People say putting in resistors, or additional bulbs is a hassel, well this seems to be a hassel too.

 

[GainfulShrimp]

Agreed. lol

It seems that the holy grail of "plug and play, reliable, nice looking LED sidelights for under £30" is still not available.

You can have a decent price, or ease of installation, but not both!

 

[Nath.]

I'm wondering if the problems people are having are due to the PCB that the LED's are fitted to is slimmer than the original bulb. This could be causing poor connections?

Maybe use a small hook type tool to slightly bend the contacts inside the fitting for the bulb. (do this with the lights off and/or the battery disconnected or you may blow a fuse).

EDIT

Or maybe put a solder blob on the 2 contacts on the PCB to make it fatter

 

[GainfulShrimp]

I'm wondering if the problems people are having are due to the PCB that the LED's are fitted to is slimmer than the original bulb. This could be causing poor connections?

Nah, that's a sensible suggestion but the module is actually quite thick - I found it needed a decent shove to push it in to the holder and once in there had a firm connection. I could understand it being pushed in too far (thus the connectors in the holder missing the contact areas on the module) but not if you're careful. You can easily see the contacts/PCB if you peek into the bulb holder once the PCB is pushed in.

 

[Nath.]

Nah, that's a sensible suggestion but the module is actually quite thick - I found it needed a decent shove to push it in to the holder and once in there had a firm connection. I could understand it being pushed in too far (thus the connectors in the holder missing the contact areas on the module) but not if you're careful. You can easily see the contacts/PCB if you peek into the bulb holder once the PCB is pushed in.

Oh well, I was just thinking out loud

 

[james.milroy]

Hi

I also bought some of these bulbs thinking that they would work, but after numberous times I gave up. I emailed the supplier and got this responce

Many thanks for your enquiry. These bulbs are quite sensitive when you put them in. If you push them in too far they will not work. Can I ask you to try moving the bulb up and down in the holder to see if this makes a difference. Please also note that LED's are polorised and will only work one way so if they do not light you will need to turn them round 180 degrees. Hope this helps.[/I][/I]

I got the same reply from autobulbs. They obviously didn't read my email fully and sent out this 'stock' reply. I asked about returning the bulbs for replacements since one of them wasn't working and when it did (sort of) only 2 of the 3 segments in the LED flickered. I'm gonna mail them again, tonight. When I eventually get my replacement set, i'll be using VAG-COM to turn off the cold diagnosis for the sidelights. This should help a bit.

 

[thestonegate]

They don't work - unless you buy XE LEDS - £58.00 for the pair...same as I have in my K1 - put them in, in January this year...still working lovely as new today...