led number plate lights, help

[RainbowFire]

Nice job Gizmo. :)

If only the cables on the lights were a bit longer....plus a couple of strategically placed holes......some ingenuity.........you could have a glowing Skoda badge on the tailgate. Doesn't need to be LED bright

Wardth:

You're right, doesn't *need* to be done, but sometimes we do things 'just because it's there'. We didn't need to go to the moon, but we did.

[Simon Cobb]

I finally completed this mod exactly per Gizmo's suggestion, but struck a small snag that's only noticeable at night. The original filament bulbs throw light out at the top of the tailgate where it joins the bottom of the rear window on my Scout, just enough to be annoying when looking in the rear view mirror as they lightly illuminate the tailgate windscreen wiper. It's probably not an issue on a hatchback, but it is noticeable on a estate/station wagon. So I need to safely conceal the light from the filament bulbs. Any ideas?

[alberg]

Take one bulb out, if you have 2, and see if it shows error.

Fit a 3w bulbs to see, I think it will not throw a error.

or

with some high gloss temperature paint just pass once over the bulb.

This will reduce bulb glow forward but still leave visible glass to the sides for heat to be expelled.

Edited 2 July, 2012 by alberg

[Simon Cobb]

Take one bulb out, if you have 2, and see if it shows error.

Fit a 3w bulbs to see, I think it will not throw a error.

or

with some high gloss temperature paint just pass once over the bulb.

This will reduce bulb glow forward but still leave visible glass to the sides for heat to be expelled.

Removing one bulb throws an error (maybe that's a FL thing). As a short term fix, I opted to paint the 5w bulbs with black gloss Hammerite, leaving a little bit of the bulb unpainted to hopefully allow for enough heat dissipation. It's solved the light escaping problem, but whether the filament bulbs will last with paint on is yet to be seen. Bit of a bodge job that I'm not very happy with.

Does anyone know where you can you get suitable loading resistors that would fit in W5W bulb holders similar to those used by Carl here that look like the picture below?

On reflection, that seems a better and safer long-term solution for estate drivers at least.

Edited 4 July, 2012 by Simon Cobb

[john.errington]

The only difference to those and the 'normal' CANBUS LED's is the addition of a heatsink, I'm not quite sure why .. because LED's do not get hot anyway.

The extra heat that is produced from the OE filament bulb when it is soldered to an LED bulb cannot be good for it's longetivitety of the LED surely?

LED's DO get hot. Unlike tungsten they dont continue to work up to 3000C. So you need to keep the temperature down.

If you solder an LED lamp cross a festoon you will get a fault when the festoon blows. And the LED will overheat and stop working. So whats the point of fitting an LED?

CANBUS error.

My guess is the CANBUS error circuit requires a lower resistance than the one provided in the LED lamp. An easy and RELIABLE solution would be to solder a resistor across the back of the LED lamp. It has wire ends so its dead easy to fit. A 150 ohm 3W resistor will do the trick and not get so hot. Use Order Code: W150R available from MAPLIN £0.59 each

http://www.maplin.co.uk/3-watt-wirewound-resistor-2173

[Indi67]

On 03/06/2012 at 22:51, vectra1 said:

Had the same problem.. Solved it by soldering the old festoon bulbs piggy back to the led's and fitted them.. No more warning lights on dash

Just done this, works a treat thanks  

[Jtheg]

Found these on the bay of e. Come with loading resisters on nice plugs so it's all done correctly

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131621241983

[Gizmo]

40 minutes ago, Jtheg said:

Found these on the bay of e. Come with loading resisters on nice plugs so it's all done correctly

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131621241983

 

‘Correctly’ is stretching it a little, any resistors (or additional bulb holders / festoon bulbs soldered on) is at best a compromise rather than being done correctly.

 

Since buying VCP I have been able to code out the Yeti’s reversing light bulb check so they no longer do their pulse check when you turn the ignition on (which is 5... IIRC very quick flashes to check if a bulb is blown) 

 

VCP may be able to code the car to turn off bulb out warnings for the numberplate lights too, meaning nothing needs adding into the loom to prevent the bulb out warning??

I have not tried this so cannot confirm it one way or another though. (as with the F/L Yeti, the VCDS coding for LED numberplate lights works))

[Jtheg]

1 hour ago, Gizmo said:

 

‘Correctly’ is stretching it a little, any resistors (or additional bulb holders / festoon bulbs soldered on) is at best a compromise rather than being done correctly.

 

Since buying VCP I have been able to code out the Yeti’s reversing light bulb check so they no longer do their pulse check when you turn the ignition on (which is 5... IIRC very quick flashes to check if a bulb is blown) 

 

VCP may be able to code the car to turn off bulb out warnings for the numberplate lights too, meaning nothing needs adding into the loom to prevent the bulb out warning??

I have not tried this so cannot confirm it one way or another though. (as with the F/L Yeti, the VCDS coding for LED numberplate lights works))

Why's correctly stretching it?  It's hard wired no dodgy joints etc.  And if the resister in the unit fails you get a warning on the dash. If you code it out then no warning?

[Gizmo]

Simply because it is a very crude way of doing it, far from ideal ... but may be the only way if coding it out is not possible, likewise if the LED fails (more likely than the resistor) then you get no warning, the same as coding it out.