Number Plate Bulbs

[mwlee512]

Hi all,

 

Ive recently replaced most of my external bulbs with LED's. I bought can bus bulbs to ensure they wouldn't trigger a warning and all of them are causing no issues apart from the number plate bulbs.

 

Ive tried a couple of different bulbs now but they all bring up the dash warning, any suggestions on what bulbs will be accepted?

 

TIA

[DrCorbyLee]

I've just ordered some bulbs from ebay (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393610898339) to upgrade the boot lights in my 63 plate estate.  If I get chance will also test fit them in number plate lights and revert accordingly.  One thing to bear in mind is that it's possible that not all of the bulbs you have already upgraded are monitored.  The number plate lights definitely are (I know as it's the only bulb that has blown in the 8 year life of my face-lift car which has factory LEDs for side lights etc), maybe it's just the other bulbs you have upgraded aren't?  Worst case you'll need to add additional resistors to the number plate light circuits to provide additional load to fool it into thinking it's got a standard filament bulb installed rather than the low wattage LED bulbs.  Or I have seen complete replacement LED number plate lights with resistors built in e.g. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124370506861 - you'd need to check part number of your originals to see if those are suitable

[mwlee512]

@DrCorbyLee

The ones ive replaced are DRL's, Fogs, Side Lights and Mirror Down Lights. Surely these are all monitored? 

Id be interested to know if yours work though, that would be great, thank you

[DrCorbyLee]

25 minutes ago, mwlee512 said:

@DrCorbyLee

The ones ive replaced are DRL's, Fogs, Side Lights and Mirror Down Lights. Surely these are all monitored? 

Id be interested to know if yours work though, that would be great, thank you

I'd certainly expect the side lights and DRLs to be monitored as they are a safety item.

 

Hoping my bulbs arrive tomorrow, will let you know if they work in my number plate lights

[SkeidaFin]

You will almost certainly need LED's with a separate resistor with a cooling element for the number plate lights. I tried several "canbus bulbs" and none of them worked. Got ones with a separate wire and resistor, worked like a charm.

[DrCorbyLee]

On 08/11/2021 at 21:13, DrCorbyLee said:

I'd certainly expect the side lights and DRLs to be monitored as they are a safety item.

 

Hoping my bulbs arrive tomorrow, will let you know if they work in my number plate lights

Just tested these bulbs - installing one of them gave bulb failure warning 😞

 

Also tried the higher output LED bulbs that I'd previously bought from same manufacturer for boot lights (but were too big for those holders).  Thought I was onto something as no bulb failure warning was issued when I installed just one of these.  But soon as both installed got the bulb failure warning.  The monitoring of the number plate light circuit must be extremely sensitive.

 

So think SkeidaFin is correct, only way around this is to add additional resistors to the circuits or use something like the complete LED number plate lamp modules and resistors (with heatsinks)  as in my initial reply.

[SkeidaFin]

7 minutes ago, DrCorbyLee said:

Just tested these bulbs - installing one of them gave bulb failure warning 😞

 

Also tried the higher output LED bulbs that I'd previously bought from same manufacturer for boot lights (but were too big for those holders).  Thought I was onto something as no bulb failure warning was issued when I installed just one of these.  But soon as both installed got the bulb failure warning.  The monitoring of the number plate light circuit must be extremely sensitive.

 

So think SkeidaFin is correct, only way around this is to add additional resistors to the circuits or use something like the complete LED number plate lamp modules and resistors (with heatsinks)  as in my initial reply.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that the ones I bought are a complete lamp module with the housing and everything. I suppose there aren't separate bulbs with such resistors.

[mwlee512]

@SkeidaFinDo you mean something like these?

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223915296760?epid=28045967395&hash=item34226447f8:g:6ssAAOSwJTRhUawo

[SkeidaFin]

7 hours ago, mwlee512 said:

@SkeidaFinDo you mean something like these?

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223915296760?epid=28045967395&hash=item34226447f8:g:6ssAAOSwJTRhUawo

Yes!