Technical Led front parking lights?

[jocee91]

So here is the deal.

I just bought some cheap LED 5W5 lights for my 1.2, five-door petrol hatchback. I have no specific info other that they are meant to replace standard (non-led) bulbs.

To be honest, they look awesome, much cooler, much brighter. All checks ok, no error codes, working as expected when turned on. They are installed for about a month now.

However. I noticed some strange behavior regarding these lights, probably happening due to the fact that they have a completely different technology (and resistance..?) built-in compared to the regular ones.

1. When I open/lock/stop the car, these remain lit (with like 10% brightness compared to when they actually turned on) for like 0,5/0,5/1,5 mins. After that, they go off.
2. Today I was out for a smoke around 8 pm and noticed the lights blinking 3-5 times and then going off (approx. 10% brightness, just as before)... I was aware of the "phantom lights" after opening/closing/stopping, but this... I haven't even touched my keys since yesterday, what's going on?

Needless to say, original bulbs do not have these happenings; that's why I started this thread to make sure all is ok.

My ultimate question is if I can inflict any damage to the car (electric system, sensors, ECU, battery drain)? I don't mind them staying on for a while after I do something (blinking is weird though, maybe some self-testing..?).

If the answer is yes I can replace them immediately, I still have (or can buy) some "classic" bulbs. I tried to search the forum regarding this but did not found anything that's similar to this thread so this might be a good start for the future ones who are interested in installing generic cheap led bulbs.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Ralf S.]

LEDs are much lower ampage, so there is a chance for them to glow even if there's something like 0.3A in the circuit. A normal tungsten bulb has too much resistance to be troubled by 0.3A.

I don't think it's going to drain the battery since it only lasts a few minutes and we're talking about 0.3A which means the bulbs would have to be glowing for about 10 days solid, to drain the battery.

I suspect (knowing zero about car electrical components) that the bulbs' built in resistor (to satisfy the car's CANBUS that nothing is wrong) is holding some residual charge and it gradually fades away (a bit like the blue light in the back of a laptop cable, that stays on for a while, even after you turned off the mains).

On the other hand, it's a bit spooky (Halloween lights? Ahhhh Ahhhh ) I would check and clean the earthing points next to the lights (I think there are cables on each side that look like battery cable, and which are bolted to the inner wings).

Remove the bolt, clean up the flat end terminal of the cable so it's shiny on the face to the connection) and also the connecting point on the inner wing (clean bare metal is good but primer is okay too) and then replace everything. Stick some vaseline or regular grease over the joint to keep it isolated from atmosphere/moisture.

If it persists, you can try running a regular electical cable (5A will do) from the bulb earth point to the car's earthing point (or anywhere metal) just to see if it cures things. Then once you've proved that more Earth helps, you can rig up a better/more permanent/tidier setup, if cleaning up the natural earth points ^^ doesn't help.


Ralf S.