Yea, understand the mechanism and no,no movement. I contacted Joesph at Xenon Rider yesterday by email, don't see anything from him yet. If he confirm your WAG about the magnet being fired, will order replacements, or maybe look at this LED set up which everyone is hot about.
Really can't say how long they have been in there. Know I was one of the first to do the conversion when someone first loaded Xenon Riders web page here.