LED Headlight Issue

[Silver Creek Sunbeam]

Good evening all. I have searched the forums and have been unable to find information on the particular issue that I am having. If there is indeed an existing thread, I would appreciate direction to it and offer my apologies for being redundant.

I have a Series V Alpine (neg) that had Halogen, sealed headlights and I have just replaced them with a set of LEDs from Joe Parlanti’s company. I know several in the club have used his lights and I wanted to see if anyone has run into what I have.

I installed the driver side LED light, tested and it worked perfectly.
I then uninstalled the halogen light on the passenger side, installed the LED and tested.
The passenger side was perfect but I had lost the driver side.

Details:
Foot switch on high beam = driver side no light, passenger side as it should be
Foot switch on low beam = driver side barely illuminated , passenger side as it should be

I reinstalled the halogen lamp on the passenger side, retested, and the driver side works as it should on high and low beam. Just for kicks, I reinstalled the LED on the passenger side and it yielded the same result.

If anyone else has experienced this and solved it, I would love your input.
I grew up around my dad’s Sunbeams but only recently became an owner myself and have quickly established that things aren’t always as they seem. Lol

There may be something simple I am overlooking. I plan to email Veloce also but I am about one notch above OCD an cannot comfortably sit in my house, knowing that something isn’t working on my car...Lol

 

[sunalp]

Sounds like a grounding issue, but then I'm not fluent in LEDs, but check your headlight grounds.
Sometimes when you disturb a functioning ground, it looses its connectivity or you might just have
jiggled it loose when changing lights.
Cheers!
Steve

 

[puff4]

I'm with Steve. The "barely illuminated" bit is the key - grounding issues often showup as such.

 

[Silver Creek Sunbeam]

Sounds like a grounding issue, but then I'm not fluent in LEDs, but check your headlight grounds.
Sometimes when you disturb a functioning ground, it looses its connectivity or you might just have
jiggled it loose when changing lights.
Cheers!
Steve

Ground is always my first thought on any electrical problem but I’m not sure how that would explain it, since the driver side LED works perfectly when I put the halogen light back in the passenger side. The variable is which light I have installed on the passenger side. Of course, it won’t hurt anything to check the ground again. Thanks for the reply.

 

[hartmandm]

Try swapping the LEDs from left & right. If there is no difference, then you know the issue is with the wiring and not the LEDs.

Mike

 

[65beam]

There is a ground wire for each side. The ground wire has a bullet connector that slides into a clip on the inner fender panel in the engine compartment. The clip is held on by the front hood buffers. You can see the buffers in this photo.There is a grommet in that area where the wires pass thru the body. It's easier to see the wiring in the photo of my red car.

 

[Bill Blue]

I have found that LEDs respond weirdly to any situation involving poor currant supply or ground. I think it is due to the fact that it takes very little currant flow to create light. Also, we are used to seeing bulbs producing yellow, dim light under poor electrical conditions. LEDs produce light of the same color regardless of currant, which can be very confusing.
Bill

 

[Gordon Holsinger]

I have found that LEDs respond weirdly to any situation involving poor currant supply or ground. I think it is due to the fact that it takes very little currant flow to create light. Also, we are used to seeing bulbs producing yellow, dim light under poor electrical conditions. LEDs produce light of the same color regardless of currant, which can be very confusing.
Bill

It sounds like a ground issue if you are using the original headlamp wiring pigtail sometimes the bullet connector becomes dirty or the clip under the hood buffer is dirty, broken or missing

 

[Silver Creek Sunbeam]

Tonight’s update...

Checked grounds and all other wiring and found no issues.

I took Mike’s advice and reversed the lights from one side to the other and the problem moved from one side to the other when I did.

I’ve sent a couple of emails to the company but I am still waiting on a response.

 

[Tom H]

I took Mike’s advice and reversed the lights from one side to the other and the problem moved from one side to the other when I did.

When you say you reversed the lights, I assume you mean you swapped LED lamps. If so, it sure looks like a defective lamp. But maybe you mean you swapped the LED on one side with the Halogen on the other , as described in your original post. Please clarify.

Tom H

 

[loose_electron]

Take a multimeter and look for 12-13V on the prong on the actual light bulb. Also, take the meter and check the ground prong on the light bulb for its voltage as well. The ground prong should be under 0.5V when it is all powered up.

Both of these should be measured relative to a well connected ground on the body of the car, somewhere near the front of the car.

After that, take a set of clip leads, and hand connect the actual light assembly to a battery. Light the bulb up straight off the battery of the car with nothing else involved.

That should localize the issue.

 

[Tom H]

You say you checked the grounds. How did you check them?

Does your Alpine have the original wiring? Do the wire colors match the original diagram: http://sunbeamalpine.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/s5_diagram.pdf

Is there a separate black wire from each lamp socket that goes to a good, clean, solid ground point on the body, right close to each lamp socket?

Tom

 

[Silver Creek Sunbeam]

When you say you reversed the lights, I assume you mean you swapped LED lamps. If so, it sure looks like a defective lamp. But maybe you mean you swapped the LED on one side with the Halogen on the other , as described in your original post. Please clarify.

Tom H

Sorry...LEDs are installed on both sides and I reversed them. The halogens are out of the car completely at this point.