LED License plate resistor heat

[Tyler Durden]

Just wondering how hot the resistors are likely to get, some of the third party retrofit kits have some hefty heat sinks.

Would they get hot enough to cause heat damage to plastic trim or the bumper?

 

[Tyler Durden]

The ones I fitted 6 days ago have melted my bumper, localised heat damage to the bumper directly above the resistor.

The car is cleaned and detailed once a week and was done the day before fitting license plate LEDs. Have just finishing cleaning the car today when buffing off a coat of wax from the tailgate I noticed what looked like a ding. No paint damage at all and given that it is a plastic part, permanent deformation takes a fair whack which typically leaves impact evidence otherwise heat can cause this and the location is directly above a large heat sink.

I popped out the LED to confirm the position of the heat sink and it is directly beneath the damage. The heat sink was not touching the underside of the bumper, there was about 3/4 inch gap.

 

[Sandman GTI]

Sorry to hear this.
I asked Deautokey about this such thing when I installed mine.
They said it would be ok and so far I have not had an issue.
In an older car I installed LED turn signal bulbs and the aftermarket heat sink I used gets very hot. So hot one can not touch it when on. On this car I have it resting on frame of car in engine bay so no heat affect.
What supplier did you buy from?

 

[Tyler Durden]

ECS Tuning....at this moment I am trying to contain my anger and now looking at a very pricey fix. it will need to be heated and pushed out, possible respray of the entire bumper if it needs to be sanded after to get it flush again.

 

[ohsnapzombies1]

ECS Tuning....at this moment I am trying to contain my anger and now looking at a very pricey fix. it will need to be heated and pushed out, possible respray of the entire bumper if it needs to be sanded after to get it flush again.

 

[BxGTI]

Yeah, resistors get very very hot and that's why I took mine out and coded the LED's with vCDS. Mine were small and were pretty much suspended in the air so they weren't touching anything but I didn't want to take the chance, mine from Amazon

 

[Tyler Durden]

They have been removed and pending communication with ECS.

 

[BxGTI]

Good luck. Also if there was some sort of warning about the resistors with the product at the time of delivery or any mention of this on their website I wouldn't be surprise if they blame the installer in this case ( I'm guessing that you installed them) some products that come with resistors will have this said warning and advise to be install on metal surfaces, not that we have many alternative in this particular case, I hope that you can work something out with them. Good luck again.

 

[Sandman GTI]

Deautokey, thoughts on this subject? I know you read on this forum.
I know they have sold many and wondered if they could explain more
on their LED's and if they are a better option than most, for people considering this replacement.
I know before I put mine in the bumper I turned them on and let them sit a minute to see how hot they became. I remember theirs did not feel very warm.

How does one program around this? Remove the ability to sense the low voltage failure of a light? I guess this can be done for one set of bulbs and not all with this feature?

 

[Tyler Durden]

Coding out the error is the way to go, just not so easy to find someone to do it.

I did install the LED's, followed the instructions on the ECS site. The resistor heat sink is almost the size of the bulb housing, when tucked up into the bumper the heat sink tends to sit alongside the housing.

Only the one side had caused damage despite both being installed the same way.

It is very expensive to fix the damage, I'm now thinking of putting a protective lip cover over this but I'm not a fan of the look.

I'll get a quote from the panel beaters and see what happened from there.

 

[deAutoLED.com]

Deautokey, thoughts on this subject? I know you read on this forum.
I know they have sold many and wondered if They could explain more
on their LED's and if they are a better option than most for people considering this replacement.
I know before I put mine in the bumper I turned them on and let them sit a minute to see how hot they became. I remember theirs did not feel very warm.

How do you fee around this? Remove the ability to sense the low voltage failure of a light? I guess this can be done for one set of bulbs and not all with this feature?

We put all our products through testing. The heat and resistors were our first concern.
Different resistors give off different amount of heat, we tested different resistors to find the best resistor that eliminated errors and caused the least amount of heat.

Our resistors won't get any warmer than an incandescent bulb and it won't cause any damage.

Our resistors also sit on the bottom of the bumper, not top so heat is better dissipated before any heat build-up can occur.

 

[Sandman GTI]

LED lights.

We put all our products through testing. The heat and resistors were our first concern.
Different resistors give off different amount of heat, we tested different resistors to find the best resistor that eliminated errors and caused the least amount of heat.

Our resistors won't get any warmer than an incandescent bulb and it won't cause any damage.

Our resistors also sit on the bottom of the bumper, not top so heat is better dissipated before any heat build-up can occur.

Thanks
I have had my Deautoled license plate lights installed now for 6 months with no visible issues. For those reading and wanting an option to try, just offering an option.
I am not a deautoled sales person. Just do not want others to suffer damage as Tyler Durden has. Tyler Durden posted the info so we may all learn and not suffer the problem.
A strength of the forum.

A bumper cap is a cheaper out but I know how well you take care of your car.
I know the thought of damage being covered would bug me.
I have seen black bumper steps that might fit in well with your car color.
Keep us informed. I think we all need to learn from this.

 

[Tyler Durden]

We put all our products through testing. The heat and resistors were our first concern.
Different resistors give off different amount of heat, we tested different resistors to find the best resistor that eliminated errors and caused the least amount of heat.

Our resistors won't get any warmer than an incandescent bulb and it won't cause any damage.

Our resistors also sit on the bottom of the bumper, not top so heat is better dissipated before any heat build-up can occur.

Great to hear this, I'm looking forward to putting your units into the car and hopefully have peace of mind after my experience with the ECS set. (as you know I already have a set in transit to NZ)

 

[Tyler Durden]

This is the sucker, quality wise it looks good but just too damned hot.

 

[ECS Tuning]

Pm replied.


Andy