The “technology” incorporated into these bulbs are symptoms of poorly applied engineering solutions, not features. These aren’t retrofits- a proper retrofit into an existing headlight housing incorporates an entire optic assembly, not just the bulb. I hope that others dont waste their good money going the dumb route that I have done over the years. Even spending big dollars on simple blinker bulbs on what seems to be a big and well known brand -> stuffs up for me and hence my now hatred with LED stuff.Īnd yet, my first lot of 5mm LEDs bought in 1983 for a project are still working nicely!ĭumb rant over. All leds in blinkers/reverse and parking lights break down, stop working, or flicker away merrily not long after installing.īack to halogens for me. And again bloody utter crap quality that dominates the market and you cant find anything that is decent for durability. Replaced a few LEDs in cars – parkers, blinkers, reverse lights. Started to LED me house, but crap quality puts me off when they only last six months to two years. ![]() I did “everything HID” until they all stuffed up and went back to halogen. They seemed like a great idea until China started mass producing crap that dominated the entire globe and only lasted a few years. Posted in car hacks, LED Hacks, Teardown Tagged active cooling, automotive, heatsink, led, LED headlight, retrofit, vapor chamber Post navigationįirst was the HID hype ten to 15 years ago. Until then, when used responsibly, these LED retrofits can inject a bit of cutting-edge tech into your old beater without breaking the bank. ![]() While laser headlights are arguably the future of automotive lighting, it’s going to be quite some time before they trickle down to those of us that don’t own supercars. Specifically we think it’s a vapor chamber that’s being used to pull heat away from the diodes and into the heatsink at the rear of the module, which speaks to the advanced technology that makes these bulbs possible. When cut into the copper she said she heard a hiss, and assumed it was some kind of liquid cooling device. Here, two PCBs are sandwiched back to back with a hollow copper chamber that leads out of the rear of the module. With the fan and the two-piece heatsink removed, she’s able to access the LED module itself. The real interesting bit is the bulb itself.Īs is common with these high-output automotive LEDs, the Ultra 2 is actively cooled with a small fan that’s actually enclosed within the heatsink. Some will no doubt be annoyed that didn’t break out the small pointy implements and dig all that compound out, but we all pretty much know what to expect when it comes to driving LEDs. The driver itself ended up being completely filled with potting compound, so she doesn’t spend much time there. If a manufacturer ever told us we needed to take something apart with extreme prejudice and provide photographic evidence that the deed was done, we’d be all too happy to oblige. Apparently one of the diodes was failing, and as part of the warranty replacement process, she was informed she had to make it completely inoperable. ![]() ![]() Which is why we were fascinated to see the teardown did on a “Ultra 2 LED” retrofit from GTR Lighting. Whether or not you personally feel the ultra-bright lights are a nuisance, or even dangerous, one thing we can all agree on is that they’re clearly the result of some impressive engineering. There’s plenty of debate about drop-in LED headlight bulbs, especially when they’re used with older reflector housings that were designed for halogen bulbs.
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