WHy are my lights blowing???

[Jamie_87]

My Temp Gauge light keeps blowing. After i replace the bulbs , it last about 2-3 days then it blows again, its the onli one that does it on my dash cluster.
Can anyone tell me why it does this? Should i replace it with an LED, maybe last longer??

Also i got same problem with putting a festoon LED in my rear right passenger light in the roof, lasts a few days then blows, but normal bulbs work fine and the other side is fine too with the led. Can anyone tell me why for this one too?

any info would be much appreciated.:thumbsup:

thanks
Jamie

 

[kopper69]

Unless you know what your doing, putting a led in wont solve your problem. Leds are very sensitive compared to bulbs. Now a bulb will blow for one of two reasons - too much current or they are just old (also we could say badly manufactured). Now I havent had this problem myself, but I will give you a bit of an idea. Now I would imagine that the bulbs in the instrument cluster are connected in parallel. This means that all bulbs receive the same voltage. If one fails, the rest keep on going. So its not that there is too much power forced through it. The only reason I can think of is that you're using incorrect globes.

About the festoon leds. Well that may be bad design. If they arent designed properly they wont drop the power enough which will cause them to fail. Maybe the leds themselves are not failing, but the circuitry that drops the voltage.

 

[hako]

Have you checked that it is actually the bulb that has blown and not the connector giving intermittent connection - check with a multimeter. Also if you think the replacement globes are dodgy try swapping the bulbs around in the cluster. Re the festoon bulb, unless the bulb is making good contact thru the spring connector ends, sparking may occur which can burn the filament out. Make sure the bulb is not loose in the mount. Most bulbs nowdays are sourced from Taiwan or China and the quality can vary greatly. Maybe GMH carry better bulbs as I'm sure they dont put Chinese bulbs in new cars (or am I still living in dreamworld)

 

[kopper69]

Hako i think hes talking about a festoon led not bulb.

 

[hako]

Hako i think hes talking about a festoon led not bulb.

You're right Kopper69, however LED or incandescant its still the same - if its not making proper contact it will be rapidly going on/off many times a second and each time this happens there is a spike in the voltage. I'd hazard a guess and say that LEDs are more susceptible to these spikes. Festoons are OK as long as you are sure the contacts at either end at held tight against the bulb ends. Are LED festoon the same physical length? - reason for asking is that if they are smaller they may be loose in the fitting.

 

[Jamie_87]

the festoon is exact same size as the normal lamp that goes in there, they might justbe dodgy ones i been putting in, as for the dash, well it lit up again last night when i was driving, so i think u's are correct on it being the conector, so when i get chance im jst gona change the connector ovr and see what happens, as i just checked the bulbs i have replaced and they all work fine.

thanks for the info guys , has really helped me out

 

[Hytes]

Hey Jamie_87 .... great post as i was just about to post the exact same thing! Replaced the bulb behind the temp gauge on mine about 8 - 9 months ago .. driving home tonight i notice it has blown again ... will look at it tomorrow ... like hako said i might try n swap the bulbs around.

 

[RobFrew]

I had a similar problem with the rear brake lights a couple of years ago. Finally the alternator failed, but according to the auto-elec who fixed (replaced) it, the failure and light blowing problem was caused by a poorly conducting joint at the alternator end of the positive cable between the battery and alternator. Apparently a well known problem with the VS! Interestingly not blown globes since.

 

[Jamie_87]

found out my prob with the blowing bulbs, the L.E.D's that i used were just crappy ones, i bought a good one and it been working good, and the dash lights, were a bad connection between the globe holder(thing that plugs the globe into the back of dash) and where it plugs into the dash, so what i did was bend the terminals a bit more on it and it sticks good now.

Thanks for the help guys, much appreciated!

 

[VUkeS]

check ur fuse, maybe to much power