I originally bought a set of bright white 194s from Culpable and they worked great until the next day. They flickered and then went out. the light spread was great and so was the color, but i decided to go for some VLEDs cause people said they were great. I got them, installed and the color was not a bright white and the spread is horrible. What should I do, cause everytime i get something aftermarket, my car rejects it?




this is the type of vled i have:


This post has been edited by tjblacrosse: Apr 4, 2008 - 6:00 PM

you have to sand the back of the gauges and have special reflective LED for the light to spread.

Griffgirl did this... i wonder why she has not posted on here yet...

recoomend you buy the leds that have 5 leds spreading into 5 ways.

The led you show in the pic does not seem to spread right. Are you sure the original leds are shot.

sometimes is the leads not making a steady contact. best way to try them is on the courtesy doors plugs.

twst them, or shake them to make sure they are completely gone. the best leds with spreads look like this..

I haven't tried them anywhere, else. I originally had the 5-way spreads from Culpable, those spread nice, but they flickered until they died. thats the real problem at hand along with what type to get. so do you think i should give Culpable another shot?

get a voltimiter and check the output of the sockets. too much voltage can bust leds. Sometimes leds are not good from factory, dont give up .

some LEDs can't take heat too well. Do you have the dimmer set to the highest position ?

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yea, but reason is that they arent visible when its below the highest level. I spent all my money on parts and insurance and don't know if I should bother finding a new set of lights. also, my left clear turn that has that led in it just started flickering also. ugh

eh, a light bulb is a light bulb... They are expected to go out eventually, and alot of times they wont even work from the get-go. And the store'll probly try to jib you out of your money... Big deal, how much do they cost anyway? lol.

(i dont endorse wasting money, but it's just how the world works sometimes)

Sorry to say, but you'll just have to buy some more and try again. But as for that dimming problem, you could grab some 5ways from e-bay. something with a bit more light

i think i will try again later with something different. im out of money, so ill wait a while. thanks for the help guys!

Try doing some research on the Best possible light before you buy again.

Good Luck.

She hasn't posted on here yet because on the weekends, she prefers to spend her time with her girlfriend or playing with her car, rather than wasting inordinate amounts of time on here, which she can do on weekdays from work and still get paid.

Yes, I sanded the back of my gauges, using nylon Scotch-Brite type of stuff. That helped the light disperse more evenly, and also took away that sicky green hue you're getting.

Furthermore, I used 4-way LEDs from VLEDS, which are basically the same as the ones you got from Culp, but without the middle LED. I was quite satisfied with the spread of the 4-ways though, although I imagine the 5-ways are Brighter in their New and Improved style.

As you know, and now the rest of you shall now know, I had pretty bad luck with my bulbs though. It seemed there was always one flickering until it burnt out, too. And it wasn't consistent with any particular socket, so I don't believe it's just a bad socket. (and YES I had my dimmer all the way up and NO I didn't play with it). So ultimately I got frustrated after spending more on light bulbs than I believe a light bulb should cost, took them out, and am now using regular filament bulbs again. The ones I'm using have that Nifty and Attractive blue glass that's supposed to make the light a little more white than yellow. So now it's a diluted pee color instead of a full-on urinary effect.

I am currently experimenting with making a custom overlay and seeing how I can integrate it with an existing EL overlay. I'm over the whole LED experience.

Ok, so I took your advice for testing them in the courtesy door sockets and found that only the center led lights up. What's the problem there? Too much dimmer or heat maybe?

anyone know why only the middle led out of 5 lights up? i really need to know cuz i might buy some more 5 ways

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you got bad ones. Email them and return/exchange them.

I put a multimeter up to my gauge cluster and saw that we get anywhere from 11-14v. I think the variation in voltage is the reason why they flicker/blowout after a short period of time.

i have had mine, similar to what batman has in his, for about 2 years, and prolly 2 months of that i had them dimmed because they were too bright, then i read up on doing my tailights and read about changing the current on specifically designed leds n whatnot.

i think they are the 5 led matrix smt flat sqaure type or however they are labeled.

good idea on the scotch bright as i had that slight green tint as well.

there is a company/person who mainly does gauges for 7th gen's and tc's where the needle or gauge changes color with rev's or speed etc.

can do NEW gauge face to your liking, lighting (led or whatever) and color change mod for well under 100 with shipping both ways. figure since most people dropped like $24 for one set of led's to try, then bought another set (now at almost $50 to still have a stock look) you can get some sweet bright purple (vw style) or bright white & red or whatever design.

so if i did get another set Culpable what can I do to prevent them from burning out like the last ones?