LED TS indicators keep burning out?

[AALynch]

Hey guys,

I've got some ~3/16" LEDs in my dash for turn signals/CEL/high beam/e brake and the turn signal indicators have each burned out twice in 500 miles of driving. I got them for like $1 a piece or something off a website, and last time wired in resistors inline to dim them down a bit and hopefully save them....to no avail. They weren't blinding me in the dark, but both still burned out.

I think they might be cheap LEDs, so I think I'm going to order the painless indicator LEDs but don't know if there's anything else I can look into. I saw no-load relays for turn signals but don't know if they're necessary - seems its for LED lights, not indicators...I've got stock tail lights, stock relays, and wired the LEDs directly where the OEM indicators were. All of the LEDs are wired together to a single ground.

Thanks for any insight, guys! I'm already getting tired of pulling the dash, I hope I never have to do it again!

[Rhino]

are you supplying 12v to each LED? Do you know what they're rated at? What size of resistor did you wire in line?

[AALynch]

Originally Posted by Rhino

are you supplying 12v to each LED? Do you know what they're rated at? What size of resistor did you wire in line?

I am supplying 12v to each one independently, and they were advertised as LEDs for auto application, 12v. I bought an assortment of resistors at radio shack and played with them with a battery charger until I got the brightness down to a reasonable level, don't remember exactly what was put in-line...

The LEDs look identical to the painless ones...

[Woodrow]

Most likely they are only the 1.5-3.4V LEDs (depends on color). Driving them with 12V would definitely overload them. Have a look here on a method to test your LEDs with a multimeter to see exactly what voltage they are rated at.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMPbhGvaMWY

also some info here

http://www.instructables.com/answers...eds-are-that-/

also here

http://www.theledlight.com/LED101.html

Then from there you can determine what size resistor you will need. I'm guessing you would probably need a 400-450 ohm resistor in series with your LED.