Originally Posted by mcnoople

Year make and model please. Which country of origin. These facts change how the car is wired, which allows people to better inform you of possible solutions.

I will just give you a link to a very well informed guru of all knowledge involving automotive lighting. Anything you want to know about how headlight work or don't work can be found there. He really is an expert and a "car guy." I personally have issues with putting led's in headlight housings.

www.danielsternlighting.com

Originally Posted by ezone

If the Canadian car DRL unit connects 2 lights in series, both lights run at half of system voltage (half voltage = half brightness).

Are the LED lights designed to work at half of system voltage?

Originally Posted by shaejb15

That sounds about right. The lights I'd say is half on compared to the headlights being on.

Originally Posted by ezone

I'm asking if the LED lights you got are capable of operating at 6-7 volts.

I'm guessing that's damn close to their threshold voltage, so they probably cannot be reliably lit at that low of a voltage.

I did. Same thing happening. Pretty sure it's something in the car.

"Similar to standard diodes, nothing happens in an LED until the threshold voltage of (?) is applied across the LED."
A plain LED might require a minimum of 2.7v, but an array connected in series to run on 12-14v should have a much higher threshold voltage.


Reinstall your original headlight bulbs and verify they do work correctly, to be sure the car is not the problem here.

Originally Posted by ezone

Check and wiggle bulb connectors (keep the lights ON so you can see any change, even a flicker)

Tap on the DRL control unit and see if anything happens with the lights (keep the lights ON so you can see any change, even a flicker)

Thanks for the info.
If I tap the control unit and it does flicker or flash, what does that mean? I did get the board resoldered already.

Pull out the DRL control unit and resolder everything you can on the circuit board. The relay connections tend to crack their solder joints causing loss of connection.


If you don't want guesses, get a wiring diagram and test light or voltmeter and figure out where the real fault is.
I'm in the US, we don't have DRL on cars that old but I've had to fix a few, resolder did the trick for me.

Originally Posted by shaejb15

Thanks for the info
I did already get the board resoldered, no luck.

Originally Posted by ezone

Uhhh....

All it would mean is you are near a poor connection and you are probably on the right track.

The vibration from tapping would (hopefully) cause a poor connection to make/break contact, thus lights flicker or do something different (flicker, work, or quit).

"Poor connection" does not necessarily mean wires. It could be internal in the control unit or whatever you are tapping on.
Sleuth it out.

Originally Posted by shaejb15

Understood. Thanks. Also forgot to mention, when I was unplugging the headlight that doesnt work the one on the other side was flickering (car was on) any hints?

Originally Posted by ezone

Depends, and your observation may or may not be meaningful without more info and observation.
Could just be due to voltage spike for all I know.

What were the lights set on? Headlights? DRLs? Low beam? High beams


For that matter,
What still works correctly?
Which does not work correctly?

How about if you switch back to the correct bulbs, what all does and does not work?
Swap bulbs side to side, does the problem move with the bulbs or not?


wiring diagram and test light or voltmeter