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led dome light

Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Lights, Neon, LEDs, HIDs
Forum Discription: Under Car Lighting, Strobe Lights, Fog Lights, Headlights, HIDs, DRL, Tail Lights, Brake Lights, Dashboard Lights, WigWag, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=134511
Printed Date: July 05, 2025 at 8:53 AM


Topic: led dome light

Posted By: danthe88
Subject: led dome light
Date Posted: July 10, 2013 at 4:42 AM

I installed LED bulbs as dome light(SMD 5 LED 12V 22.4 Lumens 0.64W),and now I have "problem" with them... rear dome(above rear seat) and in passenger doors slightly glows when doors are closed. I know that this couldn't drain battery,but I am certain that it will kill LED's after some time. Also I know that standard bulb drains 5W,so I guess I need some resistors connected before bulbs. My question is: can you tell me which resistors should be enough in order to "kill" lights when it should normally be off?

Thanks



Replies:

Posted By: dmg210
Date Posted: July 16, 2013 at 11:34 AM
Intresting as I had the same problem with my LED domes when I had an extra delay unit hooked up. I guess the problem is you don't notice this with regular bulbs but the glowing LEDS really bugged me at night.

With mine I just cleared up the door pin contacts as the grease build up was causing a sight ground across the contacts...




Posted By: oldspark
Date Posted: July 16, 2013 at 6:37 PM
dmg's got it.   

It might be a dirty switch etc where there is an alternate conduction path.
It could also be a case where something else is connected to the door switch and provides the alternate GND (or power) path. Isolation diodes should fix that.
Whereas a 5W bulb is over 400mA, your LEDs are under 50mA (maybe 10mA) and will glow with a mere 1-5mA.


Actually it won't hurt the LEDs - they should still last decades - but it does drain the battery albeit negligibly - ie, less than with a bulb.
However the annoyance factor may see a very short LED life...




Posted By: powerslave
Date Posted: October 03, 2013 at 8:06 PM
With new cars and body control modules controlling them, there can be a slight voltage going through the bulbs. Incandescent bulbs will not show a light or glow with the little voltage that is there, but LEDs, using less voltage, may. Many people I talked to who put them in their 2008 cars, say their interior lights are on very dim with LEDs, but not with the stock bulbs. It's nothing that isn't normal with newer cars.

I was told my Charger would do that, but I changed everything over to LEDs and they do not glow at all. I have the trunk to do, and I am done with interior LEDs. I got nice festoon LED ones with 16 LED panels, 20 bulbs for 9 bucks.




Posted By: powerslave
Date Posted: October 04, 2013 at 8:33 AM
Correction to above:

My LED Map lights do stay on very dim when the car is running. The passenger one did go out completely after driving a while. So, I turned in on and off manually, and it stayed dimly lit again. Once I turned the car off, opened the door, closed door, they went completely out. This is only an issue with the vehicle running. It is common with new cars where the BCM controls the lights.




Posted By: powerslave
Date Posted: October 08, 2013 at 12:04 AM
I also changed out all my 2013 Jetta interior lamps to LEDs. They are also on, very dim. Can't see it during the day though.





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