resunoiz

eyebrows on my 2004 pre-LCI e60 have a strange behavior.

the passenger one one week ago stopped working. Only 4 leds were active, with a very very low luminosity.

tought the other 2 led was worn, so I started searching for replacement ones (I arrived this forum for that reason, I admit ). Found the right amber ones, and saturday was planning to order a set of 20 brand new ones.

BUT....

saturday night they started to work again! maybe it was because on the afternoon I moved the wires (I passed 2 hours exhamining the headlight to understand how to remove it)? I don't know.
Yesterday the same eyebrow was dead again, this time only 3 leds working with very little luminosity.
Honestly a little frustrated pened the trunk, touched the wires, detached the connector, re-attached..started working again.

And now, my questions:

1) a LED has no filament like a normal bulb, so I assume that if it stops work can't "magically" re-start again. Am I wrong? In that cas, I can exclude a led fault.

2) this lead to the second doubt: assuming the leds are ok, I have 2 options: the black wires are somewhat worn/burned/half cut, or there are some solderings on the led base (i took this pic on the net) that came loss?


what's your experiences about?
needless to say that I hope the problem is on the 2 black wires or the connector outside= no need to dismantle the headlight.

Any advice? How can I understand where the intermittent fault could be? The 2 black wires how and were are connected?

resunoiz

here's how the eyebrow shows:


after removing/reconnecting the connector, all works ok, and at full light.

pcy

There may be some corrosion/oxidation in the wires/connector. Removing and reconnecting may have scratched-off that corrosion and started working.

resunoiz

I tought the same, infact I used a proper spray. worked 2 days, than again I had to remove/reattach the connector.

I'm wondering if there is some heating/pression with the trunk lid..

Notheld

Dang, just typed up a nice long response and f disappeared..
Anyhow buy some copper heat sink chips from your local computer supplier.
Glue the chips underneath and in direct contact with the LED to keep it running cool with
Arctic Silver glue or what you have.

Just about every LED issue I have read here in the forums Is related to heat and poor heat sinking
qualities. My guess is cheapie LED conversion lights have very little cooling characteristics
and more $$$ the better they will perform.

LED diodes are difficult to kill and typically die a slow flickering death thus explaining the error
codes and life after death when the LED cools off.

Notheld

Heres a link to copper chips
MCM Electronics Passive Copper Raspberry Pi Network Heatsink 83-14686 - Micro Center

Arctic Silver thermal adhesive
Arctic Silver Arctic Alumina Premium Ceramic Thermal Adhesive 4ASAATA-5G-R - Micro Center

Good luck