Tonight I was driving on the highway when a bunch of youngsters passing by me started hooting and hollaring. I chalked it up to them just being stupid, until I got home and saw that my left side marker, which is a clear corner with an autolumination 5 bulb superwhite LED, was flashing rapidly. That must've been quite a show.

Anyways, I started to remove the clear corner...and when I got to the point where you twist the bulb housing out, I found it stuck tight. I was quite baffled of course since I know that it normally comes out very easily. I finally had to take a pair of pliers to it and use quite a bit of force to twist it out...to find that the bulbs sticking out of the side of the 5 bulb LED had melted into the square clutches that go inside the grooves. I proceeded to go to my right side to check it out and sure enough, one of the side bulbs had already totally melted apart. The heat generated by what's under the hood along with the sealed housing obviously was too much for those puny little bulb housings. The actual plastic stem that goes into the socket was fine though.

That's definitely the last pair of multi bulb LEDs I'm putting into any external light socket...stick to single bulbed lights, especially if you're in a hot environment!

 

Thanks for the heads up! yeah I'm in a hot environment at 110+!
I just want clear courners

 

thanks for the advice. i was just about to buy some. now ill look into seeing what else i could use.

 

Do you think this wil happen with the single bulb leds? I have them from superbrightleds in my side markers. I read somewhere that they burn out fast if they are constantly on (side markers at night). I want to find some that won't burn out as easily and still shine white and aren't too expensive.

 

The melting problem shouldn't be an issue with a single bulb LED...the problem with the multi bulb LEDs is that the side exposed bulbs are extremely tiny, meaning that their housing is also very thin and tiny. When in close proximity with the housing socket, it can melt from the high engine bay temps and exterior temps on hot days. A single bulb doesn't have anything sticking out really that can come in close contact with the rest of the housing socket, and the bulb housing itself should be thick enough to withstand the heat.

I actually haven't had a single problem at all with my LEDs bought from autolumination, and it's been a year now at least. Even this incident isn't a fault of the LED itself. Even though the right side had a bulb that had aleady melted, the LED was still working just fine, and I probably would've gotten a pretty good life out of the LEDs, melting aside.

 

I installed those LED's about 2 weeks ago. I will do random checks to see if this issue will arise.

 

I had the same thing happen with a blue multi-LED (9) cabin light.
Fortunately the fuse blew before any damage was done!
I'll stick with my OEM bulbs from now on...
I can see it now...
"Well Sir, your car burned up due to the aftermarket LED so we won't be able to honor your insurance claim..."

 

interesting... I'm thinking about doing 5 or 6 LED's in the side markers...

 

i've never that kind of a problem w/ the bulbs from autoillumination & i have 194's everywhere all over the car...

 

i ran into that problem also...

 

Did you make sure your optics were clean?

 

jlegendls: what kind of bulbs did you have in there?

I was thinking of going with some 5 led's from autoluminations.

 

I just went and checked mine. They're fine.
I have the 6-leds from autolumination.com on the side markers and the small lights next to the headlight.
http://superlumination.com/images/au..._6led_w_wm.jpg
I had one bulb that had bad contacts, but I've never had problems with them melting. I replaced the one that didn't fit firmly, and everything is OK.

Last week we had temps up to 115 somedays. Still had no issues.

I was thinking of switching to these for the side markers.
http://autolumination.com/images/aut...20inverted.gif
The 6-leds focus the light foward, so the back half of the clear corner is darker.
I was hoping the inverted type bulb would fix that.

- Cesar -

 

Cesar,
Did you remove the metalic divider inside the clear corner?

 

Hi there. Am I supposed to remove the metalic divider from the clear corners? I notice the light does not distribute evenly and I noticed the divider.

 

Yes...the metalic divider should be removed to allow dispursement of the light(s)...there is a great DIY here on how to do it...and it worked fantastic for me....
Good Luck

 

its something you can do if you want. i took it out so the light would go everywhere


edit: damn you beat me

 

thanks so much

 

That metalic divider is there for a reason. In Europe, those side marker lights are turn indicators as well. Very useful when a car is alongside and can't see either your front or rear indicators. The metalic reflector focuses most of the light to the side and back towards those cars. This also explains the wider trailing edge of the clear housing.

I left them in when I did my clear corners and plan to tie them into the signal lamps so they are on with the driving lights and blink with the indicators.

 

thanks for the heads up

 

I am fairly sure that the heat from the engine bay is not what causes the melting.

It is caused by over powering the bulbs.


If a person installs a load equalizer that can be purchased from just about any LED seller it

cuts the power back to what the bulbs are supposed to receive. Then the bulb doesn't have

to try and dissipate the extra energy (which ends up being heat).


This will also prevent premature failure of the LED bulbs.


jwitzer and any of those that do the sidemarker to work as a turn signal DIY get an LED

that doesn't have static polarity. Meaning the bulb will light as long as it has a negative and

a positive source of energy. The single bulb LEDs will not work with this DIY because there

is only one way that the bulb will work in the socket.

 

have you guys had no problems with white side markers? I was under the impression that they needed (lawfully) to illuminate amber and was planning on requesting stealth bulbs for my clear corners and blinkers for christmas.

 

I think you do but i doubt your going to get pulled over for a side marker. I went with the stealth bulbs and i think it looka alot better then the stock bumbs with the clear corners but ive not seen LEDs in there so i dont know how they look.

 

They look good with white LEDs or hyper white incandescent bulbs.

The trick is to match the center light (small circle in the headlight housing) with the sidemarker bulb.