Trouble with LED Fog Lamps

[vt_maverick]

Comparison pics as promised...



It was kind of weird, with the naked eye I couldn't tell much difference between the xenons and the Malibus (incandescent), but you can see the difference in the photos. I went with the xenons for now because they're supposed to run cooler and look whiter than incandescent bulbs. If/when I go to HIDs I'll give the LED route another go; there's just no question that LEDs look better with HIDs. In the interim I may try the Silverstar Ultra headlight bulbs that Mile High and etlsport suggested.

Summary: The OEM fog lamp bulbs are terrible and should be replaced as a matter of general maintenance/up keep IMHO. If you don't plan on going HID pick Malibu or xenon, if you are going HID pick a LED bulb. If you do go with LEDs, learn the lesson from my purchase and make sure you buy a voltage regulator/protector/equalizer if one isn't integrated into the bulb.

EDIT: Forgot to add prices. I got both the Malibu and xenon bulbs at Home Depot. The xenon bulbs were made by "Feit Electric" and cost $4.95 each (ouch). The Malibu's were $4.95 for a 4-pack (xenon cost hurts even more now). Depending on vendor, the LED + protector solution will probably run around $30.

[vt_maverick]

Oh and STILL waiting for a response from Autolumination. Grrrrr...

[vt_maverick]

Mostly because I'm pissed at Autolumination. If I did get a set of HIDs (no matter how cheap) I would have to get LEDs to match, which means I'd have to re-buy LEDs from somewhere. Even if I did bend over and order another set from them, I'm not sure whether the LED protectors have to be spliced into the wire, or if they plug in to the factory wiring. I'm not the most electrically/mechanically inclined guy, and that sounds like a lot of work.

All that said I agree with you that buying Silverstars doesn't make sense if I ever intend to go with HIDs. But if I'm going to hold off on those at all, the fog bulbs posted above are a good interim solution for wimpy OEM fog lights.

[VX KAT]

But if I'm going to hold off on those at all, the fog bulbs posted above are a good interim solution for wimpy OEM fog lights.

Man, I'm real impressed with the Xenons! ...from the pics, they look virtually as white as my LEDs in my pics (which I can't believe haven't crapped out yet)...and i don't have the protectors or anything.
I think HID & Xenon would look fine.

[vt_maverick]

Maybe, but the xenons look just a tad more yellow in person than in the pics (actually the lower right picture in the dark is the most accurate). It's hard to explain, but while the xenon and LEDs both project white light, the light from the LEDs just seems more pure / clear. I REALLY was hoping the LEDs would work, but until that problem gets figured out I'm happy with the xenons.

[JAMAS]

so the Xenons are just a direct swap out of the bulbs?

Same size, nothing fancy?

[vt_maverick]

The xenon and Malibu bulbs are both a little larger than the OEM bulb, but they use the exact same wedge base so they fit just fine. If you go to Home Depot and look for 18W Xenon wedge base bulbs you'll find exactly what you need.

P.S. The xenon and Malibu bulbs look almost exactly identical, so I had to make sure I put each bulb back in its original packaging as I was swapping them through for pics. They do have a text label printed on the glass, but otherwise they look the same.

[Riff Raff]

The xenon and Malibu bulbs are both a little larger than the OEM bulb, but they use the exact same wedge base so they fit just fine. If you go to Home Depot and look for 18W Xenon wedge base bulbs you'll find exactly what you need.

Good info, VT. Based upon your photo's, I'm leaning towards the brighter Xenon, as opposed to the less bright Malibu. After a quick search on the HomeDepot website, I found the exact item. Below is the Home Depot info:

Brand: Lithonia Lighting
Wattage: 18 Watt (12 volt)
Type: Xenon, Wedge-Base
Count Per Package: Two(2) Each
Model Number: UCX 2LP M12
Manufacturer Number: 290713
Internet Number: 100626333
Home Depot Price: $16.96 (2-Pack)



EDIT: Here's the story--- so; after seeing the Xenon lamps on the Home Depot website, I then drive down to my local Home Depot to make my purchase of the Lithonia Xenon's for $16.96 (2-Pack... or $8.50 per each bulb). I can't find the Xenon's anywhere in the store, but immediately see the 18-watt Malibu's for only $4.97 (4-Pack... or $1.25 per each bulb). I speak to the Home Depot salesman, and he informs me that the Lithonia 18-watt Xenon's are available "on-line only" at the Home Depot website and are not carried in any Home Depot stores throughout the USA.

OK; let me get this straight-- you want me to pay $8.50 per bulb for the Xenon's, jack-up my credit card bill to make an "on-line" purchase, still have to pay my state sales tax since there is a Home Depot in my state, pay additional shipping charges for delivery, plus wait for a week for them to finally be delivered??? WTF??? Or, I can buy the in-stock 18-watt Malibu 4-Pack for only $1.25 per bulb using cold cash, then go home and immediately install them in my VX fog lights and still have two(2) spare bulbs to put in my glove box. It doesn't take a genious to quickly figure out that the 18-watt MALIBU lights is the only way to go!!! I just installed the MALIBU lights in my VX fog lights, and they look simply stunning!!!

[vt_maverick]

Riff - Was doing some research and just noticed your edit to this post. Very weird, I couldn't find the Feit bulb on their website either so HD must have discontinued it sometime between when I bought it and you researched it. But as it turns out Lowe's does carry the same bulb in their stores. Here's the link:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_90663-75774-...eit%20Electric

So now you can go out and pick yourself up a set of xenon bulbs instead! That way we can both have a 4-pack of Malibu bulbs wasting away on our garage shelf!

I got both the Malibu and xenon bulbs at Home Depot. The xenon bulbs were made by "Feit Electric" and cost $4.95 each (ouch). The Malibu's were $4.95 for a 4-pack (xenon cost hurts even more now). Depending on vendor, the LED + protector solution will probably run around $30.

Good info, VT. Based upon your photo's, I'm leaning towards the brighter Xenon, as opposed to the less bright Malibu. After a quick search on the HomeDepot website, I found the exact item. Below is the Home Depot info:

Brand: Lithonia Lighting
Wattage: 18 Watt (12 volt)
Type: Xenon, Wedge-Base
Count Per Package: Two(2) Each
Model Number: UCX 2LP M12
Manufacturer Number: 290713
Internet Number: 100626333
Home Depot Price: $16.96 (2-Pack)



EDIT: Here's the story--- so; after seeing the Xenon lamps on the Home Depot website, I then drive down to my local Home Depot to make my purchase of the Lithonia Xenon's for $16.96 (2-Pack... or $8.50 per each bulb). I can't find the Xenon's anywhere in the store, but immediately see the 18-watt Malibu's for only $4.97 (4-Pack... or $1.25 per each bulb). I speak to the Home Depot salesman, and he informs me that the Lithonia 18-watt Xenon's are available "on-line only" at the Home Depot website and are not carried in any Home Depot stores throughout the USA.

OK; let me get this straight-- you want me to pay $8.50 per bulb for the Xenon's, jack-up my credit card bill to make an "on-line" purchase, still have to pay my state sales tax since there is a Home Depot in my state, pay additional shipping charges for delivery, plus wait for a week for them to finally be delivered??? WTF??? Or, I can buy the in-stock 18-watt Malibu 4-Pack for only $1.25 per bulb using cold cash, then go home and immediately install them in my VX fog lights and still have two(2) spare bulbs to put in my glove box. It doesn't take a genious to quickly figure out that the 18-watt MALIBU lights is the only way to go!!! I just installed the MALIBU lights in my VX fog lights, and they look simply stunning!!!

[LittleBeast]

I used to be a big supporter of Autolumination stuff, but all their stuff starting blinking after only a few months, so I started looking at other products and companies and I have found that pretty much the only LEDs worth their money are: V-LEDs
www.v-leds.com

[Riff Raff]

I have found that pretty much the only LEDs worth their money are: V-LEDs
www.v-leds.com

Ryan--- thanx for sharing the website link!!! Yes, the V-LEDs website has some pretty cool LED bulbs in many different colors. However, for a 194-series LED bulb (wedge-type) that fits in our factory VX fog light housings I have some negative concerns, they are:

194-series (wedge-type):

o $10 each per LED bulb versus $1.25 each for the 18-watt MALIBU.
o Low Brightness Output Wattage for LED (2-Watt & 5-Watt) versus 18-Watt High Brightness Output for MALIBU.
o The 194-series LED bulbs are mostly used as showcar "marker" lights and do not project a viable projector light beam onto the road surface versus MALIBU has 18 watts of illumination power to be "projector" beam in VX fog light housings that illuminate the road surface.
o LED's may require a seperate "recifier" be added within the wiring circuitry in order to operate versus MALIBU is simply plug-n-play incandescent like OEM without any modification to factory wiring/circuitry.

For me, I'll stick with the much cheaper and much brighter plug-n-play MALIBU 18-watt bulbs without any of the circuitry hassles that sometimes come with LED's.

[vt_maverick]

I used to be a big supporter of Autolumination stuff, but all their stuff starting blinking after only a few months, so I started looking at other products and companies and I have found that pretty much the only LEDs worth their money are: V-LEDs
www.v-leds.com

Did you install their resistor / "LED protector" kit? I wonder if a power spike might have caused the problem. Could be that the V-LEDs have a protector built into the bulb.

Food for thought...

[vt_maverick]

Last night when I went to bed the xenons worked great. When I got up and went to work this morning, they were still great. I checked them before I left the parking lot after work, and they were fine. But when I get home tonight, what do I find? The passenger side bulb is burned out!

So this gets me to thinking... what if the problem is only on the passenger side? But that makes no sense because the LEDs didn't work on either side right? And then it dawns on me... there were two different symptoms with the LEDs. The passenger side was flashing, which everyone agreed means that the LEDs are nearly toast. But the driver side bulb was just dim, and it instantly brightened when I reversed the wedge in the base. At the time I thought the flashing LED on the passenger side might be a connection issue, so I switched the two to see if the other LED would flash. Although it worked fine at first, after leaving the lights on for awhile the second LED (now installed in the passenger lamp) started flashing as well.

At this point everything I have installed (besides the OEM bulb) in the passenger lamp has burned up. (That's two LEDs, one xenon bulb, and $27 for those counting.) So I figured while I'm throwing money away, I'll swap the Malibu's through to try and burn one of those out as well. If the Malibu's burn up I think it's reasonable to conclude that something else is going on.

What do you guys think? Is it possible that the socket is just too "hot" (voltage not heat) for the bulb? What would you even do to fix something like this?

P.S. Take a look at the comparison chart I posted; you can see the passenger side bulb burning more brightly in a few of those pics.

[Grif]

What do you guys think? Is it possible that the socket is just too "hot" (voltage not heat) for the bulb? What would you even do to fix something like this?

That is curious indeed. And makes me wonder if the two sockets share a common ground wire or some such weirdness. Or perhaps multiple grounds are occurring, intentional or not.

I sure hope I get time to look at mine more closely this weekend.

When you say "blinking" would "flickering" be a better word?

[vt_maverick]

By blinking I mean consistently turning off and on at a regular interval. As in 1 second on, 1 second off, like your turn signal blinker.