Random car annoyances

blackrod

1. Wind deflectors. Only ever seen them on old Japanese imports until recently, loads of people have them.  What the hell are they for? They look crap.

2. LED rear lights are becoming more common, great they look good and are nice amd bright.  Yet some manufacturers then only do the main light unit and leave the brake and/or indicators as old filament bulbs. That looks so rubbish, surely one LED unit would be cheaper and look so much better?

tommitch

'Wind deflectors are clever devices that fit over your car windows, altering the contour of the vehicle slightly to keep wind and rain out of the cabin while the windows are down.'

car-man

I have wind deflectors...they work great!

More and more manufacturers are using rear LED lights...the down side is that more often if you have a fault then you must replace the whole unit, at great expense, unlike the old style of replacing a bulb.

Aerojon

re rear lamps,£1-£2 for a lamp depending on type or £250  for a complete rear cluster because 5 or 6 leds have failed..i know which i'd prefer..

blackrod

True but I have yet to see a car with a faulty led light? Also, this half led half bulb scenario is no good if the led bit does fail as I expect it will still cost a fortune to replace.

blackrod

But the LED lights look much better and I think you would be pretty unlucky to have a failed LED unit.

IronGiant

I've seen a bus with a couple out.  An interesting implication for MOT's: how many in a cluster need to fail before the unit fails the test?.

nvingo

They must be able to measure light output now, if they suspect too much custom tint applied and the bulb not uprated to shine through it that'd be a fail, they would need to justify that decision with proper test equipment. No good telling the  vehicle owner 'I think it's too dim'.
So one would assume the LEDs all lit would exceed the light output of the equivalent 5w or 20w filament bulb.
When enough segments have failed that it falls below the legal requirements.

IronGiant

I like your thinking...

Bl4ckGryph0n

I always assumed wind deflectors are for those who choose to smoke in a car. I agree they are ugly and studio. Just don’t smoke, and use climate control to manage interior

I’d have LED lights anyway over these normal bulbs.