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ok so a few issues i'm hoping ya'll can answer.

so yesterday i picked up a pair of 1157 switchback smd bulbs(white/amber)
and 1156 smd bulbs for my front and rear turn signals. worked flawless other then the fast blink that i was prepared for and will fix over the weekend.

decided to purchase 4 1157 smd bulbs for the brake lights, only had 2 in stock so i decided to throw 2 in and pick up the other 2 tommorrow. threw the first set in today
and they worked the running light stayed on for about 5 seconds and then both bulbs died.....still illuminate when i apply the brakes but will not illuminate just in running light mode.

so i figured maybe they were just defective so i threw the 2 other 1157's in today and they worked for about for about 15 minutes and by the time i made it to work they were blown in running mode again....but still illuminate when i apply the brakes.

i reinstalled the old regular style halogen bulbs and they work fine.
what could be wrong....the guy i bought them from gave me a set of replacements and they died too.
now he's denying me another warranty replacement and says my car is the problem although the regular bulbs work just fine.

also noticed that my horn doesnt work either. may just have coincedentally died so if he warranty's these bulbs i'll be picking up a set of hella supertones from him.

I don't think our wiring is setup for leds to be used in our brake lights, it's just a problem with the harness I believe.

the only known problem i've ever had with led's was in my bj pro5, i had to wire in resistors to allow cruise control to function properly.

i dont understand how a led that is supposed to be a dual filament has issues with the running lights?

What bulbs did you replace that would affect the cruise?

brake lights. cruise would still work, but if you applied your brake cruise would not deactivate unless the resistors were installed.


at some point over the weekend i'll be pulling apart my flasher unit to modify it for a normal blinking speed, and today i'll be installing sidemarker leds.

Not sure if this will help at all since I don't know these cars that well, but maybe you can get some ideas from my experience of another vehicle.

On my motorcycle, the wiring for my turn signals and hazards actually goes through my dash light indicators somehow. Your vehicle and electronics are designed to use "X" amount of wattage for the lighting circuit, and all the electronics are looking for that "X" amount to function properly. When I converted EVERYTHING on my motorcycle to LED lights (except for my headlight), My entire electrical circuit actually shut down. I had no running/brake/turn signals at all, and my indicators on the dash actually started glowing very faintly.

What had happened was that I was drawing such little power, that suddenly the diodes, resistors and/or any other electronics in the circuit couldn't function anymore, because they weren't prepared for such little demand. I went from almost a 100watt light setup to almost less than 3watts on my motorcycle.

Now the simple solution would have been to just pick up a set of load resistors that they sell at almost any parts store and wire it in, BUT........in my case I was trying to reduce as much load as possible to free up for future electronic additions. So by throwing in a 1.5-2amp (i think that's what the common ones in the stores are) load resistor, I basically just totally missed the point of converting to LED. So I had to figure out exactly how much load I needed at MINIMUM to keep the system operational. Well since i'm not a genius, and even worse at math, I decided to use some stuff I had laying around, and 1 by 1 I started adding 1 LED at a time to each turn signal circuit until my lights started functioning again. then I took my multi-meter and figured out how much load I added with the additional LED's, and figured out that all I needed to make my system function was 1/2amp. So then I purchased a 1/2 amp load resistor, and my lights have been working fine since.


So again, I'm not sure if any of that will help you or not, but I guess what I would try to do is figure out how your lighting circuit on these cars are set up, and if there is anything in the circuit that would cause it to overload the LED causing them to burn out.

Sorry if that wasn't any help.

never worry about not being helpful.......

its weird because my brake lights work when i apply the brakes but my running lights dont....

Ah, electrical... my favorite system to diagnose...

The only advice I can really offer is to double, and tripe check everything you touch with electrical... In my own experience, 9 times out of 10 the problem was simply something I completely passed over, rushing to solve other problems.

Oh, and I felt I had to be the first to say it:

Why no running lights? Because Racecar.

I'd try lowering the fuse for that circuit, or even doing a current draw test, but with the led bulbs you should be using less power, wondering if it's spiking for some odd reason, and with the original fuse, the bulbs would burn out before the fuse does.

i have plug and play LED bulbs i got off ebay and they work flawless and have for....1.5-2 years so i'd say it's the brand of your bulbs so get different bulbs cause whatever you're using isn't ment for it

i'm not to seasoned with electrical but i've got to start tracking it down, flawless with regular bulbs but dont last 5 minutes with leds?

i'm looking at ordering some 4x1157 with built in strobe. 20 flashes in 3 seconds then constant on, dont restrobe for one minute.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/2X-60-LED-1157-B ... 3a78f1b123

these are what i'm currently looking at.
my brake lights are the last piece of the led puzzle every exterior bulb has been converted over to led.

mine weren't smd led's but i don't see why those wouldn't work so you should go for it.

i got a couple sets of 1157's off a friend and installed them. 2 days later and they are still fine. they were a small count of bulbs so not as bright as i would have wanted but they are working and my votage guage no longer dumps when i hit the brakes, idles much better.

but i've got some kind of CEL/ no power issue i've got to figure out.