led marker lights

[galloot633]

do i have to buy led replacements for my marker lights (wedge 501 ) with ballast resistors ? only whenever one of the bulbs has blown in the past it hasn't brought up a failed lamp warning
dave

[john langrick]

Hi, I have just replaced both of these with led bulbs <£5 on eBay, on my 2003 xc90. The old 'regular bulbs' were very black and discoloured and gave out a very feeble light.

They are nice and bright and give no errors. The ad on eBay does state that they are 'canbus 501', but suspect it does not matter in any case.

Incidentally they appear to be polarised as one of mine did not work until I reversed the polarity.

I am about to do the same with stop and tail, but these may indeed need ballast resistors, I will feed back when I do.

Hope this helps

[john langrick]

Incidentally I did a search on xc90 sidelights and the supplier was valley_lighting

[galloot633]

Thanks John , I'll look them up
Dave

[Tannaton]

I don't think so - the bulb warning system only covers the "essentials" and I don't think the front position and side marker lamps are included in that.

[SwissXC90]

Originally Posted by Tannaton

I don't think so - the bulb warning system only covers the "essentials" and I don't think the front position and side marker lamps are included in that.

The front position and side markers are not monitored

I know because on my MY2009 the front white position bulb failed, and no warning was shown

But when one of the rear tail-lamp bulbs failed (same W5W wedge bulb), the warning appeared.

[CaerYnArfon]

Originally Posted by SwissXC90

But when one of the rear tail-lamp bulbs failed (same W5W wedge bulb), the warning appeared.

Hmm interesting I have had two of the running tail lights go and not a peep out of the system telling me....

They were one of the two on either side rear running lights. on permanently and are not conventional metal based lights they just have exposed conductors molded into the glass and push in to the holder.

How does the warning system work? Resistance? or simply looks for an open circuit?

Could it not have warned due to there being two either side?

[SwissXC90]

My MY2009 has 2 x bulbs each side.

When the current draw is too low, due to one or both bulbs falling, the warning appears.

Volvo only uses warm bulb monitoring in my MY2009 XC90, no cold monitoring exists as far as I can tell.

My 1997 BMW, more than a decade older, had cold monitoring....

[CaerYnArfon]

Whats the advantage of replacing these single lights with LED's?

It's not like we need to "save energy" or anything...

I can understand doing the "strip" of LED's to give the "facelift" effect (which is what I thought this post was about) but changing just single bulbs seems pointless?

[john langrick]

Hi, for me, just that I needed to replace old ones which had become black and dim with age. It was simply a matter of choice. For the sake of a couple of quid £5 the pair) I chose led and delighted with clarity.

When I get chance, I will also change puddle lights, (but they are a larger capless fitting).

I wish I could have a similar makeover!