Anyone tried LED replacements for 382 P21w DRL bulbs yet?

I've already replaced my yellow-candle DRL bulbs with some of the blue-with-chrome-coating MTEC ones... and they look OK, but not perfect. Specifically, they look fine from straight on but can look quite blue from certain angles and it bugs me a bit.

So... I thought I'd have a look for some LED replacements and there are actually quite a few types available now. Examples:

http://www.hids-direct.co.uk/xtec-a...h-power-leds-car-bulbs-super-white-p-425.html

or

http://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/382-360-degree-LED-Extreme-Power-5W.html

or even

http://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/382-LED-360-Degree-Stop-Tail-Light-pair.html

Trouble is, the thought of cutting wires is something that scares me (at least while I still have warranty) and I hear that the resistors can get extremely hot, which also scares me. So I guess I'd be looking at disabling the cold light check thingey using vag-com..?

Anyway, this is going to be a pricey experiment for what is essentially just an aesthetic tweak... so before I take the plunge and order the bulbs and vag-com kit of some kind, I wondered if anyone else has tried this already?

I've just ordered a pair as per the second link above. (Patience has never been my strong point.)

Haven't ordered any resistors as it seems the Ibiza mk5 owners are using LED DRLs without any issue so I figure it's worth a shot.

Will let you know if they work. If they flicker and go out and/or give a bulb warning light, I'll look into resistors or switching off the bulb test using vag-com...

Right, well I've tried the new LED bulbs that I ordered and they don't work... not totally unexpected, but it's a shame none-the-less.

I replaced both sides before I tried turning on the ignition, in case the bulb test was based on a difference between the resistance of the two sides or something.

Result: the passenger side one lit up fine and the driver side one didn't. Back inside the car, I had two 'vehicle status' messages: one saying "check left hand side daytime light" and one saying "check daytime light" (no side specified on that message). So something odd was going on... for one thing, the side it said to check was the one that was lit up!

I don't think I'm keen on disabling the bulb check altogether, as it's actually quite useful especially for the rear lights that are a bit harder to notice when they've gone.

So now I need to consider whether it's worth the hassle of scotchlocks and resistors just for a better look to my DRLs. Hmm...

I looked at the bulbs in the 2nd link and thought they would be good. Dont have have resistors built in?

Click to expand...

Unfortunately not. Or if they do, it's not enough to fool the car into thinking it's a normal bulb...

So I'm stuck with the Mtecs for now, which are a definite improvement over the OE yellow candles, but they can look quite blue from certain angles (e.g. when reflected in the car in front at traffic lights) and it's one of those visual niggles that you can't stop noticing once you've seen it, hence me wanting to try out an LED equivalent. I know, I'm being very picky!

Upon re-reading the Ibiza thread which discussed 382 replacement LED bulbs, it seems it was the rather Heath Robinson-esque set in the third link which was used with success in those cars... so I'll probably try some of those before I start splicing any cables for additional resistors.

It's a shame really as the ones I bought do look quite distinctive (in a good way) when they're mounted in the reflector. Ah well!

If and when I find a working LED solution, I'll post it here.

OK... another day, another failed attempt to get nicer-looking DRLs.

I can confirm that the LED 382s in the third link above look much better built in reality than they do in the pictures, but again the driver-side one just popped up a bulb warning and didn't light up. The passenger side looked pretty sweet though - better than the other ones I tried tbh. Close, then, but no cigar!

I'm still not keen on the idea of scotchloks and resistors (at least at the moment), so have just ordered some rather strange-looking "canbus friendly" ones from fleabay. Here's the link:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/40-White-LED-...or-canbus_W0QQitemZ180525072083QQcmdZViewItem

Item number is 180525072083 in case the link doesn't work.

Fingers-crossed, it'll be third time lucky.

Thanks Oldoiler. I've ordered some canbus compatible ones from fleabay. I check Ultraleds and they don't sell 382 bulbs (for my DRLs) with resistors built-in - only separate resistor kits.

I will report the results when they arrive...

OK... I'm sad to report that I tried my funky new "canbus no error" LED 382s this lunchtime and only the passenger-side one lit up.
There was no bulb error shown in the dash, though. When I removed the driver's side one (that hadn't lit up) to put the MTEC bulb back, it felt very warm - verging on hot.

I'm starting to think that my new car is overly-sensitive about its driver-side DRL bulb detection for some reason. That's the third set of LED bulbs now that have only worked on the passenger side, with or without a bulb warning. I don't think its a dodgy socket as the MTEC tungsten bulb and the OE tungsten bulb both work fine on both sides, by the way.

So it looks like I'm out of options now unless I want to bother with resistors (and the heat they generate) or vag-com (and lose genuine bulb failure warnings for all my lights).

I had a little bit of trouble getting some 'canbus compatible' sidelights working on my FR, but I think that was just a dodgy connection. The fact that three different pairs of 382-type LED bulbs have not worked - only on the driver side - suggests to me that it's the car, not the bulbs, that is being picky.

Very frustrating! If anyone has any ideas, I'd be grateful...

Just thought... could it be that the polarity of the socket is the 'wrong' way for my drivers side socket?

I mean, basic tungsten bulbs obviously don't have polarity so polarity wouldn't matter. But if the LED bulbs are expecting the base to be +ve and the side/pins to be -ve, or vice-versa, and the socket has been wired up the other way, that might very well explain the problem..?

I'd assumed that either the sockets are consistently wired one way, or that the LED bulbs have some sort of rectifier (at least I think that's what it's called) to correct for polarity problems... but I might be wrong.

chrisjgill said:

I want to change my 501s as well because they come on with the xenons (and the DRLs go out) and the yellow candle looks doesnt match!

The thought of it getting too hot is worrying when using resistors

Click to expand...

Well I've had much more success with these actually.

I use the "Philips Vision LED W5W T10 4000K" sidelights (I think I got them from Powerbulbs) together with a 501/W5W resistor kit (from hids-direct). The resistor kit is plug and play - you just plug it into the bulb holder and plug the LED 501 into the other end - no cutting or splicing of wires is required. The resistor is mounted inside a little metal container/heatsink and only gets a bit warm, not hot at all.

The combination works perfectly and the 4000K Philiips LEDs are a good match for the bi-xenons, although most of the light comes out of the front rather than the sides, so they don't light up the reflectors quite as much as bog standard filament bulbs. The Philips LEDs aren't cheap, but then you don't need to worry about polarity with them and I figure being Philips they should be quite reliable unlike some of the rather Heath Robinson "canbus LEDs" you get from fleabay.

Good idea, thanks.

I suspect that would perhaps mean swapping out the entire headlight unit, depending on how they change the design if/when LEDs are used, but I'm certainly bored of experimenting with pricey parts for now.

If I get some free time I might take the covers off again to check whether the driver's side one is wired the other way to the passenger side though.

Success at last! Popped out this lunchtime to see if I could work out whether the driver-side DRL bulb socket was wired the opposite way to the passenger side...
... and found that not only was it wired the other way round (using the sidelight wiring as reference), but there are two little spade connectors attaching the wires to the bulb holder. So it was a 10 second job to switch the connectors over and then *bingo*, when I switched on the ignition, both sides lit up perfectly.

I think these "canbus no error" ones that I got from fleabay are actually quite nice. They're certainly quite unconventional, and the way they're built, covering both sides of two crossed PCBs with 40 SMD LEDs in total means you get a nice aesthetic. The light fills the reflector well and you get a very subtle 'crosshair' effect from a long distance. The colour is just what I was looking for: cool white but not too blueish. And the colour is consistent from all angles, unlike the MTEC tungsten bulbs that these replaced. In short, they look smart; I'm chuffed.

The miniature spade connectors on the bulb holder are also good news for anyone looking to add load resistors without cutting/splicing any wires... Using an extra set of connectors from Maplin or somewhere, you could insert your own custom wiring - such as mounting a load resistor with heatsink outside of the headlamp unit - and then just remove it later without any sign of modification, if you so wished.

For now, I'm happy enough with the canbus compatible bulbs though (i.e. resistors built-in).

Here's hoping they last a fair while as my previous experience with fleabay LED devices isn't fantastic...

Anyway, some pics for you: