Anyone notice flickering of their LED DRL??
 

Just noticed this today in my 2013 BRZ. After driving during the day for 1.5 hrs, was pulling into a parking space in a garage and I notice off the cement wall that the DRL LEDs were flickering. Both sides the same flicker.


Anyone else ever notice this?

The flickering lights are probably due to it not getting 12v, are the other low beams on as well? Any other electrical draw? Any engine interference idle wise can cause that

I get flickers when the engine struggles (like if im not giving enough gas when starting to move or the engine is about to stall).

Anything that messes with the electrical supply may cause the DRLs/headlights/etc to flicker.

My radar detector measures the volts and it was above 14 volts when this happened (car was running and idle was normal)


Did some reading last night after posting the question. It seems that when LED begin to fail they will flicker. They fail because of heat. Someone (not on this forum) who has some experience with LEDs opened up the BRZ DRL LED.


Their comment was that the metal heat sink did not seemed to be designed adequately to keep our LEDs from overheating. They made a statement that based on the poor design he would expect the BRZ DRL to fail after the 3 yr warrantee is up and he would expect a "light show" (referring to the flickering I think)


Can you guys go look at your LEDs and see how they look on your car? Any flicker??(car has to be in drive or neutral to keep them on)

You may be on to something...What I notice now is that when in Neurtal at idle they ficker. Give it some gas, and as soon as the idle goes up the flicker goes away. However at idle volts reading 14.5. With some gas 14.7.


So I wonder what is going on. Could the 3.5 year old OEM battery be the cause??? (correct me if I am wrong but doesn't the battery somehow "condition" the quality of the cars electricity when the car is running?)

The OEM panasonic batteries start to have issues at 3 years actually, they have almost only 300 cca, it's best to upgrade to an optima red top.

Also voltage wise you'd have to read voltage at the leds to be sure. If you still have your warranty you can always go in and get them to diagnose it.

I don't believe your leds are on their way out

I don't think its anything to be concerned with, I think its just the voltage dipping a little low when the alternator current drops off and the draw starts coming from the battery again. Its not as noticeable in other cars without LED DRLs because the voltage drop is very brief. Normal lights would just slightly dim whereas these LEDs flicker. My winjet headlights do this occasional and they are set to always on.

This seems like a common issue:

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79580

I agree, if the LEDs were going out it would not go back to normal with giving it some gas and would not be both sides at the same time. I was going to get a Red Top this year anyway, so may get it sooner than later.


Thanks for your input!

If you don't mind me asking do you have other things hardwired into your car other than that radar detector? I have a radar detector and a dashcam so I doubt that's involved as my winjet LEDs have not flickered once.

Just the radar detector is hardwired in. Nothing else, and everything is stock.

Then it's most likely you're battery or some other electrical gremlin or idle drop gremlin. I wouldn't worry, but swapping that panasonic crap oem battery would help alot of things anyway.

yeah mine only happends when i put reverse and about to stall lol

Thats way high, should be no higher than 14.2-14.4 Shouldn't effect the LEDs since some can run at 24v but not always. Ask the Toyota service the specs on voltage reading.

They do flicker like fluorescent bulbs. Video taken with a fast enough shutter speed will catch it.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYrvhkIivgA#t=872"]Epic Scion FR-S, Toyota GT86 test drive: racetrack, drift & cross-continental dash - HD - YouTube[/ame]

yes, like a florescent flicker but I am not talking about the boomerang LED in the lights, its the LED DRL above the BRZ's fog lights.