Glowing Led Interior Lights

[The_Lad]

After fitting this i have noticed that with the light set in the middle position ie on / off with doors and timer

that instead of going off completely when the doors are closed or when its been open for a while and times out the LED bulb is glowing slightly.

How do i fix this? is it because i have a cheap LED panel in there (if so what really bright replacement is recommended)?

or can i put a resistor in somehow?

or is there another fix?

Thanks
Justin

 

[Dellmassive]

I had this with a different style of LED lights in the back of a van, about 30 leds, but a few of them would light very very dimly. (could only be seen when in the back of the van with the doors all shut and lights switched off)

apparently it was down to a minute leakage current through the LED light.. from memory it was a permanent +12v feed with a switched negative ground, some how there was a tiny mA path to ground causing a few of the LEDs to dimly light.

never bothered metering out the leakage current.

1: different lights fitted, problem resolved.


2: Another suggested solution was to use a 12v relay to "shunt" the +12vdc power on/off as needed by using the light feed to trigger the relay.

the relay would then have clean volts free contacts that could be used to switch the led lights on/off and disconnected the leakage current.


3: or fit another "rocker switch" inline to shut the power on/off, again disconnecting the leakage current.

 

[The_Lad]

1 sounds the easiest option as im willing to admit its a very cheap LED panel from Ebay so maybe a better quality bulb would help

would an inline resistor solve the issue just put it on the + line

 

[Dellmassive]

cool,

not sure about the inline resistor as the mA leak is so low that it wouldn't solve your issue,?

though it might cause an additional issues with volt drop and heating up when the light is running and drawing full power. id be cautious with that and would want to get a multi-meter out to see whats going on before doing anything like that.

well have to see if any1 else has any suggestions or recommended replacement led fittings?


if you have no joy with a different LED panel then a relay would defiantly work as you could use it to disonnect the +12v completely (fit it behind the light itself)


for what its worth I've fitted these to the roof and have no problems with them. (different style i know, but worth a mention)


Six Round Interior 3W Super Bright Cool White LED Lights

 

[The_Lad]

Cheers, my next job is to do the interior roof lights so good to know which lights to buy

If anyone can suggest anything else other than a decent quality bulb please let me know

has anyone used these? T6 LED Extra Bright Pure White Interior Lamp Kit

 

[Pauly]

They are genuine VW lamps (excluding the step light)

 

[The_Lad]

So shouldn’t glow then?

 

[mmi]

There was a software update in September-2016 which was related to current leakage through interior lights. So, if your van is earlier build the cure might be at the dealer.

Before the update I noticed the same thing. I had replaced all the cabin and load area bulbs with LEDs, and they were lit on (though dimly) even next morning - hours after locking the vehicle.

I did some measurements and indeed there was a small current through all cabin/load area lights – permanently on! Of course bulb monitoring was the explanation offered - even though there was no such thing on those circuits. Eventually the software update cured the issue – no current through interior lights any more.

My temporary solution was to solder 4700 ohm resistor in parallel of each LED. It was enough to draw the voltage below LED’s threshold to turn them completely off. Of course that didn’t cease the leakage.

 

[The_Lad]

Cheers I’ll call my dealer and see if they know about this, it was in a month or so back though so hope they would have done this if it was known

 

[Damo666]

Hi, was there any update on this? I have purchased two round bright LED lights from the T6 forum shop to put into the tailgate and connected them to the live wire that feeds the rear interior light when the doors open. They come on when the tailgate opens and go off with the interior lights after a short spell however the LED’s continue to emit a dim amount of flickering light?

 

[The_Lad]

I never followed up on this but my van will be in soon for its first mot so I will ask then

I found it is only the cheap ebay led strips I have that glow, the other LED’s don’t

 

[Damo666]

Ok thank you, I got two of the round led lights from the forum shop and they are glowing . Do you by any chance have a link for a light you have used that doesn’t glow? Than you

 

[The_Lad]

My ceiling lights were 10 small round lights from clearcut conversions

 

[Pauly]

Ok thank you, I got two of the round led lights from the forum shop and they are glowing . Do you by any chance have a link for a light you have used that doesn’t glow? Than you

Feel free to send me a pm and we can discuss this, the fittings should not be glowing so we can discuss wiring setup and replacement lights if required

 

[Damo666]

It looks to me like the seller has put the red and blue crimp terminals on the LEDs to indeicate which lead is +12v and 0v.

you can test this by touching them on the battery briefly, they will light if that is correct.

i would not cut off your existing connector as you may need it in future. . . . .

you can connect all the reds and blues together if you wish . . . . hopefully no more than 6 or 8 lights all in?


if you have the 3 wire loom then you have this:

***********************************************
br - (brown) - 639 earth point left a-pilar
br/rt - (brown/red) - B533 connection 1 main harness (BCM switched neg) connects to B129 to B264 to A144 to T73a/4 (J519)
rt/sw - (red/black) - B250 positive connection 1 main harness ( 7.5A fuse 24 holder C) to B323 to T73a/66 to (J519)
****************************************************


if you connect your LEDs Blue to the - brown/red (BCM switched 0v)

if you connect your LEDs Red to the - red/black (BMC timed +12v)


This will give you the same as the existing lights in the rear, ie power when door opened and will stay on till the time-out expires and will switch off.



see this thread for more details :

Led Rear Interior Lights - How I Done It.




.

Dellmassive`s -- "how I Done It" -- Thread

I have followed this and they are no longer glowing . God knows what I was doing but there is nothing wrong with the led’s purchased from the T6 shop they work great now. Thank you all so much, this forum is helping me out daily!

 

[Damo666]

I have followed this and they are no longer glowing . God knows what I was doing but there is nothing wrong with the led’s purchased from the T6 shop they work great now. Thank you all so much, this forum is helping me out daily!

 

[The_Lad]

So the lights were working even though you had them the wrong way round? It was just they would glow when they were meant to be off?

I think I better go and swap mine around to check