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 finished putting LEDs in my cluster (along with replacing all of the SMD LEDs on the stock headunit... we'll save that for later).

The dimmer circuit definitely seems like a "dumb" circuit, where it's a pot that controls the +12 to the lights. I dimmed my LED clusters back and forth to no problem. Again, I've never come across an LED that will burn out from under-voltage. I'm not saying it isn't possible, but I've just never experienced it, no matter how cheap/expensive the LED (and I've been working with LEDs in hundreds of different electronic devices for well over 6-7 years). I feel as if you may have just gotten unlucky.

BTW, my cluster looks GREAT with these LEDs. They're 4000mcd 5mm LEDs I picked up from Mouser. Bought 50 of them for $16 (32 cents a piece... very expensive for bulk, cheap LEDs IMO). Link: http://mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.asp...y593-VAOL-5LWY4

Pics will come soon as I'm done with my CC.