Any Ideas?: Fuse Blows with LED License Plate Bulb

So, my LED replacement bulbs came in from superbrightleds.com over the weekend and I put them in last night. I used these bulbs for both the map lights and license plate lights:

http://tinyurl.com/yjes88q (3rd down on page)

The lights in the map lights work great and are super bright and clean... love 'em. But using the same bulb in the license plate light (which uses the same stock bulb as the map lights) results in a blown (Tail - 10A) fuse every time I turn on the marker lights. Going back to the stock bulb results in the fuse not blowing. I tried two different LED lights to eliminate a bad LED unit as the problem.

I suspect this has something to do with the resistance provided by the LED unit being different than the stock bulb, but I don't know why it would be a problem on the license plate lights and not in the map lights. I even bumped up the fuse to a 15A, then 20A just to see if I could get it to stay lit. Any ideas?

 

Thanks for the quick feedback.

It was misting rain last night when I put them in so I didn't want to get the multimeter out. I'm planning on checking the resistance through the circuit and making sure it's not grounded like you said. I'm also going to compare the resistance of the stock bulb to the LED bulb and see if that lends any hints...

I figure the circuit is OK, since there are no problems with the stock bulb in... who knows though. I've ran LED bulbs in most of my previous vehicles without running into this sort of an issue.

Anyone else experienced anything like this?

 

That is very strange. how the running lights would effect your turn signals. Let us know how it goes.

 

Solution:

It must have been something with the specific bulbs that I used from superbrightleds.com that caused the problem. The ones I was using that blew the fuses were WLED-xHP6 Wedge Base Bulb. I found a thread on here where someone used the WLED-x5 LED Wide Angle LED bulb without a problem. I ordered those, and they work fine. I really have no idea what the difference is, especially considering the 'HP6' bulb works great in the map lights... but whatever. It works now.

 

What color LED did you go with? Do you have any pictures of them lighting up your license plate? I want to order some too but i want a blue-ish white LED. I have the 8K HID Kit so i want them as close as possible to that color. I'm afraid if i buy the LED's in blue, they'll be too BLUE.

 

I went with the 'cool white' color and they look great. If you've seen the license plate lights on most new Lexus cars, it looks very similar to that. I'd say it would be a good match for your HIDs. Now that it finally stopped raining in Dallas, I'll get some pics of the truck. When I do, I'll post one of the license plate lights in this thread.

I'd definitely go cool white over blue though. You might run into some trouble with 5-0 with the blue too. Having exterior blue lights is generally illegal.

 

Yeah, i don't want a BLUE light.. i want a blusih/white light exactly like you described the cool white ones.. I want them to be close to the Lexus cars license plate lights.

If you could post the pictures when you have a chance, i'd really appreciate it. I'll probably end up going with the cool white also. Sounds to be what i want.

 

I finally got some pictures of the truck, here's the LED lights:

 

Those looks crazy blue.. but then again your truck is blue! So its hard to truely tell

Can you post a link to the SuperBright website for the WLEDs? I can find them

 

Yeah, it does look a bit blue in the picture, especially next to the very yellow light of the driveway, but in person it's a clean-white light on the plate. The blue of the truck tends to tint it a little. The best comparison that I can make is to that of the LED license plate lights on late model Lexus cars, it's roughly that color.

As far as linking, there's no way to link to an individual product on superbrightleds.com due to crappy web design. You probably haven't gone to the second page, I think that's where the wled's are.

 

still cant find the damn things on the website

 

Ok... go to this link:

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-...ct=CAR&keywords=&cart_id=4966072.4258&next=50

Scroll down to the 44th from the top (at time of my counting). And buy this:

 

Sweet! Ordering now!

 

Just ordered...Thanks for the thread! Can you just pop out the other bulbs, and put these in?

 

Yeah, absolutely. Removing two screws will allow you to slide the light housing out of the bumper, then twist and pull the light fitting out of the housing, then slide the old bulb out and the new one in. It's very straightforward.

 

I really like your lighting- What kind of HIDs did you get for your fogs and interior lighting (map and dome lights) the link you provided was for daytime running lights. I was thinking about modifying my DRLs have you done this mod yet?

Mahalo

 

See the rest of this thread for info on the specific bulbs I used for the map lights / license plate lights.

For the HIDs, I used the 6000k units from the slimcubby groupbuy on here. If you're interested in getting some, PM slimcubby.

Glad you like the look! I haven't done / don't plan on doing the daytime running light mod. There's plenty of people on here who have though!

 

yes they will...I did that and got myself a nice fat ticket =/
(On my old car BTW)



SO I got white...
Hard to tell...but theyre white



I was/am obsessed with LEDS so if anyone has any questions... and constant buyer from superbrightleds.com. Great Site! Im about to order the whole set of dash lights.