Excel's Coffee Shop

[excel]

From Rock Auto's monthly magazine.
This makes sense ...............



Bulbs Became a Top-Priority

Some repairs can wait and some are urgent. Burned out license plate lamp bulbs became a top-priority after my wife was pulled over and scolded by the police about five years ago. In the same minute, my spouse learned that license plates have bulbs and that she was on the wrong side of the law.

The two license plate lamp bulbs on my wife's 1993 Ford Tempo are mounted on the trunk lid. One of the bulbs burned out again last week, but after five years and at least 1,500 slams of the trunk lid, I had no complaints. It takes only a few minutes to replace the license plate bulbs, especially with my wife's encouragement.


One of the bulbs burned out again
The bulbs in the instrument panel are a different story. They are the same bulbs, but it takes more than an hour to get to some of them. After multiple attempts over several years, I still have not been able to find the burned out bulb behind the temperature gauge. Hard to reach bulbs like that should be replaced with one of the new LED bulbs.

A LED bulb does not have a filament wire like an incandescent bulb. Slam the trunk lid as much as you want, a LED bulb is able to withstand vibration.

A LED bulb in the instrument panel will last longer and use less power. Its much lower temperature will slow the aging of surrounding sockets, wiring and other parts. A few drops of water touching a hot incandescent bulb in a side marker light may burn it out while a LED bulb would keep on working.

Dorman LED bulbs
Dorman green and white LED bulbs
LED automotive bulbs typically give off more light. There are even multiple color choices for some bulbs. If I ever find that temperature gauge bulb in our Ford, I can celebrate by installing a red, blue, amber or green LED!

Another great thing about LEDs is that there are fewer part numbers. Incandescent bulbs may look identical but have different wattage ratings. Installing a bulb with higher wattage may risk overheating the wiring. A LED will use less power than the lowest wattage incandescent bulb. The same LED bulb can light up the license plate on my wife's 1993 Tempo or the side marker light on my neighbor's 2014 Lexus ES300H. It will also work fine in the instrument panel of a 1968 Volvo 142 and countless other vehicles. That spare LED bulb for your old car still sitting on the garage shelf is more likely to work in your next car too.

LEDs cost a lot more than incandescent bulbs, but that is less scary when you consider that many incandescent bulbs start at less than $0.25 (at RockAuto). It would be worth $10 or even $20 to avoid disassembling an instrument panel multiple times or having my wife become a burned-out-bulb repeat offender. Find all types of bulbs, with choice of brands, under the "Electrical-Bulb & Socket" category for your vehicle.

Tom Taylor,
RockAuto.com