My LED's keep burning out., Why? Options

[richee3]

I have been using LED's in my gauge cluster for a little over 2 years now. The first set of LED's I had were cheap-o blue LED's from Ebay. After a while, the LED behind my fuel and engine temp gauge went out. But it didn't go all the way out. It started flashing on and off, between all the way off, all the way on, and about halfway in between. After a while, it settled down to being about halfway on, but it would still flash. I chalked that up to cheap LED's, and moved on to white LED's from v-leds.com. I got them put in last Christmas. Last Spring, same thing happens, in the same spot. The bulb behind the fuel/temp gauge starts flashing like it's burning out, but never goes all the way out. I moved it around, and no matter where I put it, it still flashed. So I replaced the bulb with a spare that I had, and a few weeks ago, it started doing the same thing. Now, the other LED's behind my speedo and tach, in my turn signal indicators, and in my key ring are all fine. Nothing ever happens to them. It's always the one behind the fuel/temp gauge, and it's always the bulb going out. I can move it anywhere and it still flashes. I find it hard to believe that it's just coincidence that 3 different LED's have gone bad, when they were all in the same spot. So... What's up with my LED's? Or, I guess, what's up with my gauge cluster that is making them burn out like that? I have a video of what they are doing, if anybody needs to see it.

Thanks in advance for any insight you guys have.

[solidxsnake]

I'm not sure how the dimmer circuit works, but if it is directly linked to the +12v to all the lights, then there should be no problem if it's not "sending" enough voltage, too low volts won't kill LEDs (at least, I've never had problems from undervolting them). If, however, it's a part of a logic circuit and is screwing with the control of the circuit and overvolting them, there's a chance they're dying due to that.

I've seen the VLEDs before, actually placed an order for them, but when they didn't have them in stock, I rethought the robbery they were committing and canceled my order. Try grabbing a multimeter and checking the voltage across your dash board while running. Shouldn't be any higher than 12v. I'm not sure if VLEDs discloses their nominal voltage ratings for their LED replacements. I know they're rated for 12v, but how tight their tolerances are is a different story.

If you do happen to get a new set of LEDs, try putting a small resistor in series with the LED itself (a couple hundred ohms should be fine). If they still burn out, I'm out of ideas. Surely dirty/fluctuating power isn't good for the LEDs, but they shouldn't be dying left and right due to undervoltage.