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.

[lagos]

I'm running white LED's as bright as the dimmer in the car will go. I have no idea what voltage that is or what range my LED's are supposed to operate in. I never have read that far, which could be part of my problem. I just bought what looked good.

Try to bypass the dimmer all together. You could do this with a small paper clip in the harness plug.
Remember that the dimmer is a small potentiometer (like a vol knob in an old radio) and those are known to go bad over time. Maybe yours isn't sending out enough voltage to begin with.

[richee3]

Try to bypass the dimmer all together. You could do this with a small paper clip in the harness plug.
Remember that the dimmer is a small potentiometer (like a vol knob in an old radio) and those are known to go bad over time. Maybe yours isn't sending out enough voltage to begin with.

That may very well be it, Lagos. I have another ignition trim panel from my parts car sitting in my barn. I'll go ahead and swap that on next time I'm putting new LED's in my dash and see what happens.

solidxsnake, I've been needing to buy a new volt gauge for a while, so this is giving me a good excuse. You're exactly right though, V-LED's does charge a lot for their bulbs, but I've always heard good things. I have their bulbs in my gauges now, and I only need one more, so I figure I'll just buy more of what I already have.

I remember seeing a thread a while back of what one guy did for LED's behind his gauge cluster. I've been meaning to dig that thread up lately, so I'll post it up here and see what you guys say about that, if you think it might help anything.