Random car annoyances

AMc

I've seen a few LED lights failed.  This morning a Mini with aftermarket lights that had a failed brake light on the left.  
I've got plenty of expensive LED lights in the house and while they're supposed to be rated for 1000s of hours some of them have failed.  I got replacements within the first 12m but after that you're on your own.  I imagine car manufacturers will be much more generous when they fail in the 4th year

EndlessWaves

LED bulb failure is often down to the power conversion circuitry, rather than the emitter itself. Cars presumably use 12V emitters, so they're only going to get high failure rates within a few years if they're running them very hot. Otherwise they're no more likely to fail than any other electronics - probably less so.

AMc

As I said, I saw a Mini this morning with LED rear lights, the left brake light wasn't working at all.
LED failure, voltage control or conversion circuits, who knows?  I'd bet pounds to pennies you'll need to replace the whole rear cluster.

I've seen a fair number of multiple LED centre brake lights with lamps dead too.  I would expect them all to have the same controller and voltage regulation circuitry etc. but the LEDs can and do fail individually.

Manufacturers have no interest in low cost repairability.  As they aren't going to switch back to filament bulbs or fit replaceable individual LED units so we'll just have to put up with (hopefully) fewer, (definitely) more expensive replacements.
C'est la vie!

car-man

My wind deflectors are fine, they look fine, they  work fine.

Neither my wife nor I are smokers.

If an LED fails you have to replace the whole light unit, complete. I've changed lots of them.

nvingo

Looks like an opportunity for a repair business to me.

EndlessWaves

I'm not saying they'll never fail, just that they're no more likely to fail within a reasonable lifetime than a speedo, ECU or any other core electronic chips. LEDs aren't that much different from silicon chips.

Obviously there'll be initial issues like any new technology.

Neither do plenty of customers. How many would rather spend £10,000 on a second hand BMW 3-series or Land Rover Discovery than a new Dacia Logan?

Bl4ckGryph0n

Good thing we are all entitled to our opinions

And I've had lots of them and never had one fail on me. Yet previously I've had lots of normal bulbs and always fail on me during my 2-4 year ownership.

Naturally anything will fail at some point. Tests have show that under normal circumstances a typical lifespan is;
Incandescent - ~1,200 Hours
LED - ~25,000 Hours
In my experience that is correct.

PS. I'm talking proper OEM equipment, not the Chinese produced aftermarket nor JDM aftermarket lights. Lighting that is ECE and TuV registered and tested.

494930

50%

car-man

Yes, I was talking about the original fitted units from the manufacturer.

The main culprit being the rear light units on the Peugeot 208....about £70 to buy.

Bl4ckGryph0n

So it is still true regarding French electronics then