led cause electrical issues?

I have a 2011 Kia Soul and I installed LED domes lights in it because the small bulbs that were in there were so dim. A couple months after doing this, my horn no longer worked when I locked the car, normally it honked when I locked it. Finally today I took it in and the said they needed to replace the Body Control Module. Which they did. When I got back into the car, my dome light did not work. I thought maybe it had came lose or something. So I look at it when I get home and see this:



Its totally all burned out. It was working fine this morning. What are the chances the dealer did something to the wiring and messed it up?

Also come to find out they did NOT fix the problem, my horn is still not honking and they told me to bring the car back tomorrow, so I was debating bringing up this light issue, but then got to thinking..

What are the chances this thing could of caused all my problem, with all the fuses on factory wires there would be no way for this light to cause a problem with a module somewhere on the car would it?

This was a $30 dome light! And I just cant decide weather I should say anything or not.. It was working fine when I dropped off the car, but it sounds like they could of ripped the car apart because this was a 2 hour job to replace the module.

I really do not want to cause a warranty issue with my year old car because of a stupid dome light!

I'm all about honesty and integrity but I don't think I would say anything.

The dealership couldn't have burnt up you light bulb. There is NOTHING they could have done to your car to make it do that. Your BCM is a plug and play module. They don't have to rewire anything.

I would guess that the dealership would blame your burned up aftermarket light bulb for the damage to the BCM and would then try to avoid warranty services because you have changed something in the car directly related to the problem. Whether or not this is true or not is a completely different debate, but if the dealership claims this it may take a lawsuit to get them to change their mind (I am currently going through this process with Ford because they denied a warranty on me because I changed a part myself).

I would put the OEM incandescent bulb back in and if it doesn't work I would mention to the dealership that you noticed since THEY worked on your car the dome light no longer works. Let them know it was working before they touched the car and since they worked on it it quit working. See, honestly and integrity - that statement is at least 95% true!

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Kevin Pierson

Being i install strickly for the dealer market i get a lot of time in dealership service departments. My advise is the same, put the factory bulb back in and never mention you added an aftermarket bulb. Tho you are most likely not at fault, the fight you may have on your hands will not be worth it....

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Mike M2
Tech Manager
CS Dealer Services

Agree with Mike and KP, but assuming you correctly installed the LED bulbs there's NO way that could have happened*, I'm thinking poor quality LED.
The horn honk has nothing to do with the dome light but just check your fuses, that bad bulb could have shorted.
* I had LED add on bulbs as map readers connected to the dome light plus extras in the trunk for 4 years in my last car. No problems.

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

I agree with all above.

The LED was faulty and shorted. Must have been a +12V to GND as the chances of the LED(s) AND resistor going short circuit - and passing that much current - dare I say nigh impossible? (Even if polarised (ie, no rectifier diodes for the LEDs), the LEDs should have withstood the reverse voltage, and current limited by the series resistor.)

Besides, even a short should not damage OTHER equipment. A spike from a coil might, but not a short.
And you can't damage a LED with other equipment. You would have to use a much higher voltage (way above (say) 16V) and that would damage other equipment - probably long before the LED blew.


But to avoid the argument that there may be theoretical exceptions to the above, or that YOU have to PROVE that such exceptions do not apply (ie, prove the impossible), replace the original or equivalent lamp.


Conclusion: Faulty (and poorly designed or manufactured) LED and coincidence. (Or do those BCMs control dome lights? But who cares, there is a standard lamp there now - and why would it have been changed - wasn't it just a bad connection that made it appear dead? It worked after you (removed and) replaced it [ain't that the truth?].)

Peter, yes in many instances, yes BCM does control it such as timer and sleep states but as you say a neither current increase nor a spike would be the result.
Also never come across a BCM failure causing this, yes locks unlocking, power window failure and losing one shot operation but not this.

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.