Are LEDs a ripoff? discuss....

Oct 17, 2006
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Are LEDs a ripoff? discuss....
I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that LED lights on Vehicles are possibly a New Ripoff, fashion fad

yes they are brighter ,use less power .etc etc BUT I have become dissilussioned with them because they are often unrliable and unfixable and much more expensive to replace than the good old 12v bulb .

As an electronic tech I often get asked by mates to fix the LED clusters on cars and bikes and also I have bought rear LEDs and indicator kits for my various Ducatis , some are the cheap Chinese ones but others are expensive USA ,Jap and German ones .....all have had issues .

Some are repoairable but NOT at the roadside ,like an ordinary bulb, others are sealed and not repairable ,or the labour time cost to repair say 2 hours means the parts are almost as expensive as new.

I have 3 Ducati rear light clusters from 3 suppliers that are unrepairable even with a full surface mount workshop at hand i have spent 20 man hours working on these and they are partially working but Not reliable .
A Toyota unit which is sealed i fixed for a mate but it took 4 hours ,i charged him £60 , new from Toyota was £ 146!!!!!!!!!.....i could go on and on

Dont get me wrong I love LEDs as they are much safer when working due to the much brighter light but if they fail at night on a bike you are in danger wheras a plain old bulb can be changed in minutes.
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MONSTERMAN
 
Dec 15, 2010
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I might not be on the latest development stand, but as I knew the LED technology, there were almost every time a couple of LED's. Did they change now to the very bright ones and use only one, or is it the electronic who fails ?
 
Oct 17, 2006
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The LEDs themselves rarely fail its the complex and fragile circuits and tracks that usually fail.