A lot of new cars have LEDS instead of bulbs in their lights, are they replacable?
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They don't need replacing unless the lamp is damaged.
I have only noticed a very few new cars with them, some like some Lexus and BMW just look like they have them, but a normal bulb is behind a lense that looks like a load of LEDs, as though they're getting people used to the look.
Most LEDs I have seen are on truck side-markers and front top lights.
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My Merc has LED brake lights on all three lights. The tail lamp section led's come as a unit so I dont know how much to replace but the dealer reckons it should last the lifetime of the car.
He would say that though wouldn't he.
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The individual LED's have a very long life (circa 100,000+ hours). They are soldered into a small 'matrix board'. The most likely failure mode would be failure/fracture of the soldered joints - this is much more likely to happen than a failed LED (several orders of magnitude more likely, in fact).
You would have to swap the whole assembly; not sure how much it would cost, but a lot lot more than a bulb!
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Agree with Aprilla. Failure of an LED is not likeley, fracture of soldered joints is more likely. (or a crash of course). Never taken one apart, but i would imagine some nifty work with a soldering iron would resolve it (or if an led does fail, a quick trawl thro the RS or maplin catalogue will flush out a new led)
I would imagine they are not SMT mounted, so soldering should be easy.
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I've been looking at some LED bulbs on the net, direct replacements for normal indicator, stop/tail, reversing lights etc, they look very effective and the prospect of never having to change a bulb again is tempting, BUT, every one I have found is not certified for road use which makes the whole point of selling them pointless doesn't it?! (unless you're 17, wear a baseball cap and drive a lowered Saxo)
Examples of what I mean at;
tinyurl.com/pwe5
I've noticed more and more buses and lorries being retrofitted with LED's as main tail lights/indicators as well as height, width and length markers so they must be pretty reliable.
PP
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I would imagine they are not SMT mounted, so soldering should be easy.
They could be either. For many components, SMT variants actually have a stronger bond to the PCB than through-hole variants. (Lower mass therefore less strain on the joint)
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agreed, but SMT mounted leds have lower output, and optics would be required to direct the light from an SMT mounted device to the lamp unit.
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The ones illustrated here www.3dzled.com/vehicle.html are certainly good old fashioned leaded components; but then these are aftermarket ones. I'll see if anyone at work will let me take their Merc. to bits to see what the LEDs look like ;-)
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