LED hot spot headache!

Y

YFZsandrider

New member
First off, I spent hours and hours reading LED swap threads, and I have yet to find a good solution to this.

I bought all my lighting from one source, rather than piece things together from more than one vendor, and risk getting inconsistent lighting. I got everything from superbrightleds, and the hot spots were bad. Ive seen the wax paper trick... not sure if my wax paper was thinner than some other brands but it was very trasparent, and I ended up stacking up 4 square pieces of wax paper in front of each #24 bulb in the guage cluster, addinng one layer at a time and plugging it in to test the results. It lightened the hot spots slightly, but not nearly enough.

I find it hard to believe other vehicles dont have the same issue when installing newer LEDs, so why doesnt anyone make a #24 or #74 bulb with a diffuser globe around it?! The stock green tipped halogen bulbs were dim, yet able to spread the light evenly around the entire cluster with only 3 bulbs... why cant LEDs be as effective?

Is there a better brand than superbrightleds? I feel like Ive spent the better part of a week reading about and installing $50 worth of lighting, just to wish I hadn't even touched it!

:ybrick:
 
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YFZsandrider said:
First off, I spent hours and hours reading LED swap threads, and I have yet to find a good solution to this.

I bought all my lighting from one source, rather than piece things together from more than one vendor, and risk getting inconsistent lighting. I got everything from superbrightleds, and the hot spots were bad. Ive seen the wax paper trick... not sure if my wax paper was thinner than some other brands but it was very trasparent, and I ended up stacking up 4 square pieces of wax paper in front of each #24 bulb in the guage cluster, addinng one layer at a time and plugging it in to test the results. It lightened the hot spots slightly, but not nearly enough.

I find it hard to believe other vehicles dont have the same issue when installing newer LEDs, so why doesnt anyone make a #24 or #74 bulb with a diffuser globe around it?! The stock green tipped halogen bulbs were dim, yet able to spread the light evenly around the entire cluster with only 3 bulbs... why cant LEDs be as effective?

Is there a better brand than superbrightleds? I feel like Ive spent the better part of a week reading about and installing $50 worth of lighting, just to wish I hadn't even touched it!

:ybrick:
Click to expand...

Well, everyone in the threads said that you will have hotspots here and there. What would you rather have: the old dim green lights or the color of your choice, with a few hot spots? I'd rather have the latter, which is why I did it.

The difference between old and new cars is the location and shape of the dash. The old dash use incandescent light to "throw" light on the back of the gauges. The new dash have LED's inserted into clear plastic receptacles that direct and evenly distribute the light, sort of like fiber optic cables, if that makes sense.

So when you put a very directional LED in the back of a dash that is meant for almost 360* of evenly distributed light, you get hot spots. In our 4Runners, it's mostly because the light gets distorted behind the odometer and speedometer, the brackets are clear and reflect light funny.
 
I guess it depends on what year your truck is. My 1997 has no hotspots at all. I installed these wide angle 120* #194s about a year or two ago. I bought them at Superbriteleds as well. Haven't had a single problem with them ever since. I also use the 90* ones for my license plate lights. They too have worked perfect ever since I put them in.










This is the only pic I have of the license plate lights. You can still see them despite the bright backup lights in the picture. These are the 90* angle bulbs.



​
 
gamefreakgc said:
Well, everyone in the threads said that you will have hotspots here and there. What would you rather have: the old dim green lights or the color of your choice, with a few hot spots? I'd rather have the latter, which is why I did it.

The difference between old and new cars is the location and shape of the dash. The old dash use incandescent light to "throw" light on the back of the gauges. The new dash have LED's inserted into clear plastic receptacles that direct and evenly distribute the light, sort of like fiber optic cables, if that makes sense.

So when you put a very directional LED in the back of a dash that is meant for almost 360* of evenly distributed light, you get hot spots. In our 4Runners, it's mostly because the light gets distorted behind the odometer and speedometer, the brackets are clear and reflect light funny.
Click to expand...

Have any LED replacement bulbs in your home? Like the 60w equivalent that screw into the lamp on an end table.... they dont have a big exposed LED diode that blasts a beam of light straight up. They have a round plastic diffuser that evenly distributes it in a 360 degree range, and also mutes any intense hot spots the light would otherwise put out. Seems to me this would be alot easier if someone just made LEDs molded in the shape of a round lens.
 
I love my LED swap. I tried 5 leds on one LED. WAY TO BRIGHT. Single led is perfect. I switched it to green led with blue led blinkers.
 
This is the exact reason why I haven't done the swap. Creeper is the first person that i truly don't see any hot spots with. I would have to look into his setup when I do mine.
 
My Dash looks like StreetCreeper's. (Edit, looking at the pic they might not be quite that good... lol) The key I found was to use SMDs (as below), not traditional LEDs.

31zNAqpD2yL.jpg


I had red before now white.

I use similar multi SMD lights for all my turn signals. Brake lights are DEPO LED matrix, and reverse lights are mini "projected" LEDS.
 
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TorqueOfTheDevil said:
My Dash looks like StreetCreeper's. (Edit, looking at the pic they might not be quite that good... lol) The key I found was to use SMDs (as below), not traditional LEDs.

31zNAqpD2yL.jpg


I had red before now white.

I use similar multi SMD lights for all my turn signals. Brake lights are DEPO LED matrix, and reverse lights are mini "projected" LEDS.
Click to expand...

The difference with SMDs being? Are SMDs LED bulbs with multiple and different facing individual diodes?
 
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YFZsandrider said:
The difference with SMDs being? Are SMDs LED bulbs with multiple and different facing individual diodes?
Click to expand...

They are a type of LED, "Surface Mounted Diode". Mainly though the light emitting surface is flat, as opposed to built into a "bulb" this means that they tend to have a much wider light spread. Usually the multi angle ones consist of a load of SMDs.

led_vs_smd_lights_2.jpg


I'd sure one of the electronics gurus will give a more in depth explanation.
 
YFZsandrider said:
First off, I spent hours and hours reading LED swap threads, and I have yet to find a good solution to this.

I bought all my lighting from one source, rather than piece things together from more than one vendor, and risk getting inconsistent lighting. I got everything from superbrightleds, and the hot spots were bad. Ive seen the wax paper trick... not sure if my wax paper was thinner than some other brands but it was very trasparent, and I ended up stacking up 4 square pieces of wax paper in front of each #24 bulb in the guage cluster, addinng one layer at a time and plugging it in to test the results. It lightened the hot spots slightly, but not nearly enough.

I find it hard to believe other vehicles dont have the same issue when installing newer LEDs, so why doesnt anyone make a #24 or #74 bulb with a diffuser globe around it?! The stock green tipped halogen bulbs were dim, yet able to spread the light evenly around the entire cluster with only 3 bulbs... why cant LEDs be as effective?

Is there a better brand than superbrightleds? I feel like Ive spent the better part of a week reading about and installing $50 worth of lighting, just to wish I hadn't even touched it!

:ybrick:
Click to expand...

Mine is very similar to streetcreeper's. I used all the bulbs suggested in the LED swap thread from superbrightled's. Before I installed them, I scuffed up the tops of each LED with a fine sandpaper to help diffuse and did not use wax paper. I can't say for certain this helped but the dimmer switch did. If I use full power, 1) it's too bright 2) the hotspots show a lot more. There are certainly areas that are somewhat brighter, but I had fully expected it to have some variance because they're bulbs. It really isn't bad and I'm pretty picky about stuff like this. Do you have pictures so we can see what your issue is?

The only thing I regret out it is that I also changed out the blinker bulbs as suggested in the FAQ. WAY TOO BRIGHT at night. If I ever go back in there, I'm going back to regular bulbs. At night, they're obnoxious and blinding. So much so, that when I'm sitting at a light, I turn my blinker off and wait till the light turns green to resignal. Hopefully I never need my hazards...
 
YFZsandrider said:
Have any LED replacement bulbs in your home? Like the 60w equivalent that screw into the lamp on an end table.... they dont have a big exposed LED diode that blasts a beam of light straight up. They have a round plastic diffuser that evenly distributes it in a 360 degree range, and also mutes any intense hot spots the light would otherwise put out. Seems to me this would be alot easier if someone just made LEDs molded in the shape of a round lens.
Click to expand...

The problem is that these lights need to be very small and fit and very tight places. There's not enough room for an LED diode/SMD and a diffuser of some sort. It would also be more expensive, so I doubt such a product would do very well.

So, we make due with what we have available. Maybe in time there will be such a product (business opportunity anyone?), just like when SMD LEDs became widely available for automotive use.
 
StreetCreeper said:
I guess it depends on what year your truck is. My 1997 has no hotspots at all. I installed these wide angle 120* #194s about a year or two ago. I bought them at Superbriteleds as well. Haven't had a single problem with them ever since. I also use the 90* ones for my license plate lights. They too have worked perfect ever since I put them in.




This is the only pic I have of the license plate lights. You can still see them despite the bright backup lights in the picture. These are the 90* angle bulbs.


​
Click to expand...

I think the OP is referencing (at least I know I am) is the hot spot that shows up on the 90-110 MPH numbers on the gauge. The light passes through the clear bracket for the odometer and causes it to be focused in a few spots.

Some with our same models (96-98) have also complained about hotspots on the climate control area, but I used blue so you can't tell anyway. White would show it more though I think.
 
gamefreakgc said:
I think the OP is referencing (at least I know I am) is the hot spot that shows up on the 90-110 MPH numbers on the gauge. The light passes through the clear bracket for the odometer and causes it to be focused in a few spots.

Some with our same models (96-98) have also complained about hotspots on the climate control area, but I used blue so you can't tell anyway. White would show it more though I think.
Click to expand...

Ah ok must be a late-gen-3rd-gen thing. My 97 gauge actually looks better in person than it does in pictures. I'm so glad my lights turned out well because if I saw a friggin hot spot on my gauge I would probably lose my shit in very short order. I'd be the guy cussing at nothing in the IHOP parking lot at 2 am with his dash torn all apart just so he could finish the rest of his drive home in peace. But I'm not OCD or anything...

I actually tried installing an LED bulb in the climate control and it looked like total crap. I even sanded the thing down and fiddled with it every which way — finally just gave up and put the old bulb back in.
 
Hotspots

The interior Gauge is a very tight spot. There is no air space to cool the LED.
There will be hot spots no mater what kind of LEDs you put in there. The guage housing where not designed specifically for LEDs.

I recommend VLEDS (LONG LIFE) LEDS. They are not as bright and they last a long time. I wouldn't want to keep changing out burnt LEDs. Heat is the worst enemy to LEDs.
 
StreetCreeper said:
I guess it depends on what year your truck is. My 1997 has no hotspots at all. I installed these wide angle 120* #194s about a year or two ago. I bought them at Superbriteleds as well. Haven't had a single problem with them ever since. I also use the 90* ones for my license plate lights. They too have worked perfect ever since I put them in.





















This is the only pic I have of the license plate lights. You can still see them despite the bright backup lights in the picture. These are the 90* angle bulbs.







​
Click to expand...



Can I ask what LED bulbs you have in for reverse?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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