LED Dash Lights on a 1st Gen Tacoma

So I replaced my dash lights about 5 years ago with LED lights (some of the original lights were burned out) because I thought it would look better and they would last longer. The do look better, but it seems they don't like to last very long. I've had to replace them a few times now (and although it's not super hard to do that, it's not exactly something I want to be doing every 6 months lol). It's just the lights on the cluster (the glove box light and the light for the fan/heater unit has lasted for years now). Has anybody had a similar experience with LED lights in the dash? Or is there a specific brand of LED light I should look for?

 

I can't keep LEDs working in mine either. I'm honestly tired of replacing them and seriously considering going back to original bulbs.

 

Some of them do burn out or start to flicker, and other ones seem to last forever. I have had some that are on 24 hours a day for 10 years and ones that last a few days. I just swap the bad ones until everything works. You can get COB leds SMD leds, so many options. If you find some that work ok, just get more of those. It is hard to do because new ones are introduced constantly.

 

brand matters too. cheap LEDs while inexpensive do not last as long.

if they were in an easy to swap place I wouldn't care, but yeah spending 30 minutes to change out a few bulbs on the regular would be annoying.


I changed my cluster/HVAC lights once to SBL LEDs and *knock on wood* they are still going after many years.

 

Does your kit come with built in resistors?

The only reason for LED's to burn out is over current. Working for a while and burning out in a fairly short time is a sure sign they are over currented. These LED kits should come with the resistors built in to properly step down 12v voltage but it's possible they are just bulbs. Digikey resistance calculator and the one on ledcalculator.net.

 

Keep the rheostat under 80% and they'll last twice as long. NONE of the dash LEDs I've ever seen have appropriate cooling baked in