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Ordered a set of led's for my parking lights, got them quick..... and just as quickly they failed. Tried to resolve a return/exchange and when I contacted them, they seemed helpful. Gave me all the info on how to do the RMA and the address to ship it to. I shipped from San Antonio, Texas to an address in AZ on the 6th of May, when I hadn't heard anything by the 17th I sent another email to inquire what was going on. I got a reply that they had since moved locations to MI for the summer, and that they still hadn't received anything. Its now the 28th and still nothing.... opened a Paypal dispute and it was quickly closed because they don't deal with the quality aspect of the product only that you received the items.
Stay away from these ******* crooks.
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only led's i've ever had go out were from there. There's a reason their prices are cheaper.. and with the PITA factor most of our bulbs have in getting to them, it's worth the extra money to have it last.
__________________ 2004 Titanium gray 6MT My Garage
"A man is the less likely to become great the more he is dominated by reason: few can achieve greatness - and none in art - if they are not dominated by illusion." (Mr. Doctor)
I've had a 100% failure rate with them - some right out of the package.
Their response: They've never had a failed bulb and I must be doing something wrong with them.
Of course, they had RMA'd some failed "never failed" bulbs in the past for, well, failing.
DOA
I did biz with them because they were local, but they are jackasses and their stuff is crap.
> Chris -
>
>
>
> I ordered 3 LEDs from you back on the 2nd. (PayPal Transaction ID
> #7SX45890UH585561T)
>
> The 194 Superstar Super White W/Heatsink worked for about 2 days and
> then quit.
>
> I've ordered that bulb from you before and had about a 50% failure
> rate with it. The last set I ordered (PayPal Transaction ID
> #52V90154TS3563031), one of those bulbs was DOA (you replaced it for
> me). The bulb that this order replaced was one of those, having died after only 7 months.
>
> Is there something that can be done about that? It's a real pain to
> get those bulbs in an out and having to do it over and over again is
> getting annoying.
>
>
>
> Thanks.
Quote:
Jeff
Wow. We have sold that particular bulb for about four years and have had absolutely zero come back. I am floored you have had trouble with it. It is one of the most reliable 194 bulbs made. I personally process every single return that comes in here so I know what is good and bad among the bulbs we have carried over the years. That bulb is Mr Reliable.
Somehow, your car is putting way too much voltage to that circuit. Either that, or the bulb is installed someplace where the temperature is too high for it to survive. For that kind of multiple failures of this bulb, something is going on in the application.
Quote:
> This LED is being used in a marker light, so temperature is not an issue (other than ambient, and it hasn't even gotten to the 70° mark yet). The alternator is providing the usual 13.7 - 14.2 volts for charging. There are a LOT of very sensitive electronics in this car, so I am critical of charging voltage and current.
>
> The other marker LED is still going strong, even though I swapped it into the position that failed.
> The bulb that failed (from the May purchase) started strobing. It was pretty amusing. That was a replacement unit for the LED that showed up DOA.
> This new one was installed and the car essentially sat on the driveway for two days. I drove it to the Scottsdale Pavilions last night and on the way, the bulb quit.
> Just to summarize - I bought two bulbs in May, one was DOA. It was replaced by you immediately. Now, 7 months later, the replacement bulb failed. I just received a new bulb for that. I moved the other, still operative bulb to the position that just failed and installed the new LED in that position (to eliminate the possibility of the failure being related to that particular position) That LED lasted 2 days and failed.
>
> I have several other assemblies from you elsewhere in the vehicle that are all going strong, including the tail lights, the gauges and the interior lighting, but they are all a different model of LED. It is interesting to note that the design of this particular LED has changed since May. Those LEDs had 6 SMTs with a single resistor while the newer version only has 3 SMTs and two resistors.
> BTW - I check each LED when it shows up with my Fluke meter and a 9v battery so that I don't go through all the trouble of installing a bulb that is DOA, regardless of where it comes from.
>
>
> - Jeff Abrams
Quote:
Jeff
As I said, we have never ever had one of those come back as having failed in use. That is a fact, and I would not be so surprised about your problems with it if that were not the case. It is always possible with any bulb to get a DOA. Generally a solder issue. But to have it fail in the exact same location time after time, when no others are failing, it is pretty clear the issue has been isolated to that circuit. The strobing you are describing says it is voltage, not heat that is the problem.
I think adding an led protector to just that one circuit will do the trick.
Tracy
Quote:
> I don't think you are hearing me, exactly.
> This LED didn't fail "in the exact same location time after time". The first one was dead when I got it. The second one failed in a marker light on the right side after 7 months. The third one failed as soon as it was turned on for the first time after the car sat for 2 days, after being installed in a different position.
>
> I have LEDs from your company in nearly every other incandescent position on the car, including several 194 variants. The electrical system of the car is absolutely not an issue - I tune engine management systems for a living and this car is a test-bed for a lot of very sensitive electronics and is heavily damped and regulated. The marker lamp circuit that this bulb failed in is in parallel to 3 other lamps - all of which have LEDs and none of which have failed.
> Just as a test, I took two other bulbs of this type and hit them with short and long duration over-voltages and it took nearly 20 volts to smoke one. The alternator in my car is not capable of generating more than 18 volts, even if the field circuit is completely violated and anything over 16v or so would have taken out the LCD of my boost controller
>
> All I want are 194 equivalent LEDs of this color temperature and brightness in those positions on the car that last at least - if not longer - than regular incandescent bulbs. Despite your protestations about quality control and past performance, this particular model bulb has performed at less than 50%. Which, in light of the capabilities of your other products, is well beyond a statistical anomaly.
> If you are telling me that this is my problem and tough luck, then just say so and I'll take my business (and that of my customers) elsewhere. This is not an argument - I just need to plan accordingly.
>
> Thanks.
>
> - Jeff Abrams
I'll have to try Superbright one of these days Jeff.
I got another order at V-LED's right now at $160.00 as I'm changing things up, so we'll get another data point out me fairly shortly on how they are doing!
__________________
05 TiGray, 6MT...GT.
Mods..........too many to list, so.......View my garage
Location: South Jersey near Philly working in Doylestown
Posts: 566
I hope you have better luck with V-LEDs than I did... super nice guy, but over 50 percent failure rate with the bulbs. I've been hearing good things about superbrightleds.com.
My experience with them is they are cheap and seem to have fast shipping and good "customer service" on the surface like the email above, but have parts of highly questionable quality and source. So if youre comfortable buying stuff from race roots you'll enjoy your experience with them (ZING...haha sorry, had to do it.)
In short, most of the bulbs I've bought from them worked fine, but shouldn't all of them work? So yeah, i wouldnt order from them again...
__________________
"We've got enthusiasts here. We've got hobbyists here. We've got engine builders here. We've got poor people. We've got rich people. Most importantly we've got the best resource of rotary people on the planet and there is very little that hasn't been imagined, talked about, discussed, or improved here. Changes have also been made as a result of our discussions. Give us a bit more credit. We aren't the Civic forum." -RotaryGod
I hope you have better luck with V-LEDs than I did... super nice guy, but over 50 percent failure rate with the bulbs. I've been hearing good things about superbrightleds.com.
Wow.....I've had one partially go out in over 5 years and I have about twenty in my car. Go figure.
__________________
05 TiGray, 6MT...GT.
Mods..........too many to list, so.......View my garage
Since i really dont like being able to see the LEDS i went with stealth bulbs in my turn signals (front and back) and side markers. I've had them in forever without issue. I really like the stealths in my sidemarkers since the light is very subtle compared to the "in your face OMFG i'm an LED" of the other options.
Worst experience for me was from rotaryfx quality and fitment. My autoillumination and vleds are fine so far... Will need to check out superbright when I convert my signal bulbs
__________________
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We are a family like a pack of coyotes is a family; we roll together but we are totally willing to eat our young. -Kane
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The reason i asked to listen experience show me your experiences ? Know is different thing, you know but you are not experienced ! -thunderberk
so i was driving around last night and noticed the other bulb failed from autoposlumination.... i quickly sent them an email about how their product sucks....
i got this:
Quote:
There are several causes of voltage related failures on leds. Some vehicles chronically cause premature led failures. This is normally related to excess voltage, voltage spikes, high levels of AC current being generated from the alternator, or excessive ambient heat. While glass bulbs are slow to react to rapid surges, leds can be destroyed in milliseconds from a sudden spike or chronic high voltage, or excessive AC current from an alternator that has one or more burned out diodes. Additionally, led bulbs should only be used in areas where the ambient temperature is less than 150F.
If the bulbs are being used in DRL positions, especially GM DRL's, we highly recommend using only our patented 30 led SMT, 20 led tower II or 48 led SMT bulbs in combination with an led protector. If these precautions are not taken, the leds will fail prematurely in most DRL applications.
If the bulbs are being used in gauges with a dimmer, always set the dimmer to 80% or less. This minor adjustment will make the leds last ten times as long in some vehicles with chronic voltage issues.
If the bulbs are being used in an application with no dimmer, we have a new led protector that can be spliced into the + wire to protect against minor voltage surges. These work great in vehicles that have high voltage, or are prone to voltage surges. They can also help protect the leds from:
1. Switching on the ignition & starting the engine.
2. Changing or disconnecting the battery.
3. Charging the battery with an auxiliary battery charger, or revving the engine hard with a weak or dead battery.
4. Using jumper cables.
These are +$1.99 each, and can be purchased from the Load Equalizer page here :
I get my bulbs from ijdmtoy.com and I love them, going grest for a.couple months now
damn your lucky. i ordered the same high power 194 bulbs as you and my set died within days. they sent me a replacement a week later and they died the same death. i drove over there [close to my school] and i showed them the bulbs and of course they were dead. they replaced them with brighter 194s. i loved them but now one of the 194s is a bit dimmer than the other. i took a look at it and it seems that some of the LEDs are dying.
__________________
2005 Mazda RX8
1993 Mazda Miata
1992 Toyota MR2
I noticed the switch back leds went bad within a month or so. After that I just went back to stock turning.
Man, it's a drag just thinking about that.
__________________ 2008 VW / Jetta Wolfsburg 2.0T / Reflex Silver Metallic Clearcoat. Current.
2009 Mazda / RX-8 R3 (FE17) / Aurora Electric Blue Mica. Traded
2001 Toyota / Corolla CE (E114) / Sandrift Metallic. Totalled - Not at Fault.
"My happiness can be measured by my odometer."
I've had my superbrightled's over 2 years so far and no problems other than at some point I need to add some resistance to slow down the speed on the turn signals, so far so good but I don't drive the car every day so that definitely goes into account.
a lot of cool dudes will answer your questions accordingly 
Owndeded since 3/10
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