XC70: Electrical New LED Globes - DIPPED BEAM MALFUNCTION

[Tatsfield]

I don't think that CANbus compatible bulbs with built in resistors to mimic the circuit resistance of a halogen bulb will cause any damage at all. They are sold precisely for this purpose. The bulbs may not communicate with anything but blown bulb monitoring systems do monitor the resistance of the bulb circuit and that information does go to the ECU which controls the blown bulb warning system.

[filbert]

Originally Posted by XC70Virgin

That quotation from ABD is rubbish. It's nothing to do with wattage. It's the fact that the failure monitoring circuit cannot see a resistance, normally the bulb, and sees it as a fault. LEDs do not register a resistance that is why a resistor is used and it fools the circuit monitor into seeing a normal circuit and no fault.

I agree it's badly expressed but wattage is determined by current which is voltage divided by resistance. They are closely related.

[Agro]

Originally Posted by Tatsfield

I don't think that CANbus compatible bulbs with built in resistors to mimic the circuit resistance of a halogen bulb will cause any damage at all. They are sold precisely for this purpose.

That's what I would've thought, especially when you see more and more on newer cars and reputable brands also offering them as alternatives to halogen.

It's all getting a bit confusing though.

The light is just too good so I'll be giving them a go and insulating the inside back cover of the can with some self adhesive polyester reflective material I have here.

[Tannaton]

It's really not that simple....

A LED bulb does not have a fixed resistance, it is most likely a PWM power managed circuit where the LED is fed small pulses of electricity which "add up to" a certain amount of power. They usually run between 50 and 100 cycles per second, so a LED bulb that averages 2 amps might run on a 30% duty cycle at 7 amps etc. this is why it fools electronic monitoring intended for halogen lamps and adding resistors isn't guaranteed to fix it.

There are better quality LED bulbs available that do mimic more closely the electrical characteristics of halogen bulbs - but at a price.

[Agro]

Originally Posted by Tannaton

There are better quality LED bulbs available that do mimic more closely the electrical characteristics of halogen bulbs - but at a price.

I think that may be what the second option does that I mention earlier, and that I incorrectly labelled it as having a built in resistor.

[Tannaton]

If you want to try again then I would suggest the PIAA Hyper Arros lamps, I think they're okay with most monitoring systems and work well. You can get them here (they do worldwide shipping).

www.powerbulbs.com

[Agro]

Originally Posted by Tannaton

If you want to try again then I would suggest the PIAA Hyper Arros lamps, I think they're okay with most monitoring systems and work well. You can get them here (they do worldwide shipping).

www.powerbulbs.com

I ordered the CANbus compatible gloves so let's see. Will hook them up to 12V power source and see how hot they get compared to the OEM halogen globes. If all goes well and I don't get the malfunction message then I'll order another pair to keep on hand - one thing I'm certain off is that they will not last as long as a quality globe.

I'm a bit of a tightarse when it comes to these things, plus I quite enjoy the hunt for value. Many times it pays off, some times not. I'm happy to pay extra for quality but not many mutiples of.