My LED 194 bulbs keep flickering
#1
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My LED 194 bulbs keep flickering
I purchased a set of 194 360 degree bulbs from xenon depot about a month ago, and now 1 or2 sides of each bulb are flickering and going out. Stupid question, but are these bad bulbs?? My other problem that sparked this whole thing was when i was showing someone my lights, out of no where my passenger side main headlight went off. I went back inside the car turned the lights off and back on again and it went back on again. Is the LED's going bad is what caused my headlights to shut off?
#2
Pit Crew
iTrader: (1)
I purchased a set of 194 360 degree bulbs from xenon depot about a month ago, and now 1 or2 sides of each bulb are flickering and going out. Stupid question, but are these bad bulbs?? My other problem that sparked this whole thing was when i was showing someone my lights, out of no where my passenger side main headlight went off. I went back inside the car turned the lights off and back on again and it went back on again. Is the LED's going bad is what caused my headlights to shut off?
leds dont have proper resistance load like the normal filament bulbs do and sometimes this will cause them to flicker. I'd try v-leds for led bulbs, theyre pricey but ive been running a few of them in my car for a while now with no problems.
Now the problem with the headlights is that the factory hid bulbs suckkkk. They output color like a halogen bulb and they flicker on and off alot. Replace them with a nicer color temp bulb and they should stop randomly turning off.
#3
Pole Position
You talking about the putco bulbs? I have them and have had no problems with them.
As for the advice about factory bulbs, most people have problems with aftermarket bulbs turning off and not the oem philips ones. Thankfully I've never had a problem with my headlights either.
As for the advice about factory bulbs, most people have problems with aftermarket bulbs turning off and not the oem philips ones. Thankfully I've never had a problem with my headlights either.
#4
Pit Crew
iTrader: (1)
You talking about the putco bulbs? I have them and have had no problems with them.
As for the advice about factory bulbs, most people have problems with aftermarket bulbs turning off and not the oem philips ones. Thankfully I've never had a problem with my headlights either.
As for the advice about factory bulbs, most people have problems with aftermarket bulbs turning off and not the oem philips ones. Thankfully I've never had a problem with my headlights either.
#7
Pole Position
I have had these bulbs on for a good 6 months. I think the more likely cause of flickering is that they are a bit loose from not being pressed in correctly during installation, the harness not being properly "locked" in, or just plain bad luck. Just get to them again and try to tighten the connection... use some tape if you have to. Last thing you want is the bulb falling into the housing.
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#8
Lexus Champion
I think the more likely cause of flickering is that they are a bit loose from not being pressed in correctly during installation, the harness not being properly "locked" in, or just plain bad luck. Just get to them again and try to tighten the connection... use some tape if you have to. Last thing you want is the bulb falling into the housing.
#9
I have been using V-LEDS.com products for a while now and I am very impressed with their reliability and quality. On my MDX, I switched out all of the bulbs for LED's (except for the HID low beam, high beam, and the fog lamps that were converted to HID). They are bright as hell:
#10
Lead Lap
iTrader: (10)
I would suggest playing with the connection.
I had this problem as the little wires on the end of the 194, were too close together thus not sitting in the holder properly.
The first thing would be take them out and spread these wires apart a little bit more so it is wider.
When i did a retro fit in an RX330 i had the same issue, so i spaced them out to fit.
Remember the oem bulb holder account for the size/build of an incadescent bulb, and not LED's.
Then again it is a whole 3sec fix.
Not sure about your headlight though...
I had this problem as the little wires on the end of the 194, were too close together thus not sitting in the holder properly.
The first thing would be take them out and spread these wires apart a little bit more so it is wider.
When i did a retro fit in an RX330 i had the same issue, so i spaced them out to fit.
Remember the oem bulb holder account for the size/build of an incadescent bulb, and not LED's.
Then again it is a whole 3sec fix.
Not sure about your headlight though...
#11
Pole Position
My driver's side putco bulb has started flickering again, or maybe I just noticed it again. I also have the xenondepot xtreme kit on my fogs. Weird thing is, I noticed that the flickering is ONLY happening on the drivers side and it seems to be ONLY happening when the engine is running. If I have the ignition on, but engine off, everything seems to be fine, but if I start the engine they flicker.
What on earth could be the explanation for this?
Possibly related is that recently I started noticing that sometimes the HID fogs (xenondepot) sometimes have started to not come on when I start the car and turning the fogs off and on again would bring them back when it happens. The other day, when I had to do this, they came on and a couple of seconds later both turned off and would not turn on again. I checked the fog light fuse and it was blown. I've had the kit on since march without problems until now.
I replaced the foglight fuse with a new one of the same rating, I got in there and double checked that all of the connections were tight and taped them up again and all is well again except for the fact that randomly the driver's side parking light LED is flickering on and off (not all of the LEDs just some of them... usually a whole row on one side will go out and back on, or the front one will do it.).
I've emailed Steve and Xenondepot for help. It almost seems like the ballast on the drivers side is going wrong somehow and causing current problems manifesting in the LED bulb because it's probably the most sensitive thing? Does anybody have any thoughts about why the flickering might only be occurring when the engine is running?
At this point, getting to the fogs again to take everything out and switch sides to see if the problem follows the ballast just seems like too much work. I'm close to putting all of the lights back to stock again so I don't have to deal with it. Hopefully Steve thinks this sounds like some kind of ballast going bad issue, if they send me another one to try I'll go in there and put a new one in otherwise I guess I'm taking the xenondepot kit out and going back to the crappy fog lights. Kind of disappointing if that has to happen.
By the way, since March I have had them installed without the relay harness because I just couldn't figure out any kind of plan of action to properly route the relay harness around to get the cables everywhere they needed to be but so far there hasn't been any problem. I figure if it worked fine since March the only wildcard here is the ballast.
What on earth could be the explanation for this?
Possibly related is that recently I started noticing that sometimes the HID fogs (xenondepot) sometimes have started to not come on when I start the car and turning the fogs off and on again would bring them back when it happens. The other day, when I had to do this, they came on and a couple of seconds later both turned off and would not turn on again. I checked the fog light fuse and it was blown. I've had the kit on since march without problems until now.
I replaced the foglight fuse with a new one of the same rating, I got in there and double checked that all of the connections were tight and taped them up again and all is well again except for the fact that randomly the driver's side parking light LED is flickering on and off (not all of the LEDs just some of them... usually a whole row on one side will go out and back on, or the front one will do it.).
I've emailed Steve and Xenondepot for help. It almost seems like the ballast on the drivers side is going wrong somehow and causing current problems manifesting in the LED bulb because it's probably the most sensitive thing? Does anybody have any thoughts about why the flickering might only be occurring when the engine is running?
At this point, getting to the fogs again to take everything out and switch sides to see if the problem follows the ballast just seems like too much work. I'm close to putting all of the lights back to stock again so I don't have to deal with it. Hopefully Steve thinks this sounds like some kind of ballast going bad issue, if they send me another one to try I'll go in there and put a new one in otherwise I guess I'm taking the xenondepot kit out and going back to the crappy fog lights. Kind of disappointing if that has to happen.
By the way, since March I have had them installed without the relay harness because I just couldn't figure out any kind of plan of action to properly route the relay harness around to get the cables everywhere they needed to be but so far there hasn't been any problem. I figure if it worked fine since March the only wildcard here is the ballast.
#12
Pole Position
I have been using V-LEDS.com products for a while now and I am very impressed with their reliability and quality. On my MDX, I switched out all of the bulbs for LED's (except for the HID low beam, high beam, and the fog lamps that were converted to HID). They are bright as hell:
Last edited by RenatUSSR; 12-21-10 at 12:54 AM.
#13
Pole Position
I bit the bullet and rewired the fogs using the two relay harnesses that were included in the xenondepot xtreme kit that I was too lazy to deal with when I first installed them. Unfortunately, after installing, the few times I started the car the problem persisted and sometimes neither of the HIDs in the fogs seemed to ignite until I manually turned the fog light switch off and on again. I thought this shouldn't happen using relay harnesses?
So at this point, I'm thinking maybe my battery is just on it's last legs and maybe it can't cope with doing everything it needs to do to start the car AND light up the HIDs at the same time. Car has been starting fine though, along with everything else other than the lights. Perhaps it's just barely got enough juice to start the car and doesn't have the muscle to do much else like fire up all of the HIDs (though headlights are always fine). Does this sound plausible?
Also, the one putco parking LED on the drivers side continues to have some of the LEDs on it flicker on and off - using the harnesses made no difference there. It happens no matter what bulb I put in there. Dunno what to think of that, maybe I need to take it out and clean the bulb harness with some electrical contact cleaner but I thought if the contact was bad that none of the LEDs on the bulb would be working or all would flicker on and off and not just some of them - that's the real mystery there. I think I may just have to use a different product or just go back to standard bulbs because it looks stupid to have the one side's brightness randomly changing.
So at this point, I'm thinking maybe my battery is just on it's last legs and maybe it can't cope with doing everything it needs to do to start the car AND light up the HIDs at the same time. Car has been starting fine though, along with everything else other than the lights. Perhaps it's just barely got enough juice to start the car and doesn't have the muscle to do much else like fire up all of the HIDs (though headlights are always fine). Does this sound plausible?
Also, the one putco parking LED on the drivers side continues to have some of the LEDs on it flicker on and off - using the harnesses made no difference there. It happens no matter what bulb I put in there. Dunno what to think of that, maybe I need to take it out and clean the bulb harness with some electrical contact cleaner but I thought if the contact was bad that none of the LEDs on the bulb would be working or all would flicker on and off and not just some of them - that's the real mystery there. I think I may just have to use a different product or just go back to standard bulbs because it looks stupid to have the one side's brightness randomly changing.
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