Failed LEDs in headlight

[Bibs]

I believe @Matthew Haskins at Lotus Silverstone is close to an economical solution to this problem

[C8RKH]

The more I see and read about Lotus Silverstone the more impressed I am as an all round dealer.

[21gg]

2 hours ago, Bibs said:

I believe @Matthew Haskins at Lotus Silverstone is close to an economical solution to this problem

I glad someone is, as it's desperately needed. Good on lotus Silverstone. 

[Stuno1]

Have to agree they seem very good. They let me test an Evora when I made it clear I could not purchase for 6 months, fitted my new steering wheel and went above and beyond to spray the centre piece to surprise me. Aimee is very good. If they sort this they will get a lot of business. My driver side is intermittent so I'll be visiting them.

Also taking my mate around to a 400 hoping he will buy from them. 

[Matthew Haskins]

Hi all, thanks Bibs for the mention. 

I have got to a point where I need to invest several thousand pounds in order to to move this project forwards and commit to a quantity of these replacement PDB's - currently the retail price would need to be around £227 per headlight (inclusive of VAT at 20%) for the replacement PCB's.

The design of the circuit board is being improved and the quality of the LED's is higher but it still feels like a fairly expensive solution especially as I would guess at around 30 - 60 minutes labour to replace the PCB.

I would be really interested to see how many of you would still be keen at this price before I commit to a fairly large purchase...

[CocoPops]

Same point as I got to then.

Basically needing to spread the up front cost over a number of committed units.

[Bravo73]

Could one of the specialist Lotus parts sellers be persuaded to help cover the costs by ordering multiple units?

[gregs24]

I have a couple failed on one of my headlights at the moment - although they do seem to self heal from time to time !

At some point they will become an MOT failure point so surely the demand will increase in the future ?

[Planenut]

At about a quarter of the price of a replacement headlight unit I would reluctantly agree to purchasing one. I have a sidelight with 4 (2 pairs) of the 11 LED's out, so not much MOT failure margin. I would feel much happier at something closer to half that price considering what you are getting but things Lotus are never easy, straight forward or cheap.

[Bibs]

In the light of day, this is a cheap solution to a problem on a car which was originally £60k+. Just sayin'. 

Well done Matt on taking the initiative is my opinion and also potentially put his hand in his pocket on this. It would be more than likely easier and more profitable for dealers to stick to selling you £1k headlights instead. 

[ramjet]

Can someone explain to me why this does not seem to be an issue that Lotus takes up with its light supplier?

Have I missed something?

[CocoPops]

So two quite wide variances...

if you took the figures I had:

design at £4000 and units at £30. 100 units is £70 each (spreading design across 100units)

vs Matts figures at £227 each?

Something seems amiss?

[C8RKH]

I do think that Lotus should speak to the manufacturer about this but so far they have totally ignored the issue.  The manufacturer concerned makes high end lights for several car manufacturers and I can't help but think they have deliberately designed them in such a way as to be "non serviceable" items.  If they are really "non serviceable" then they should be pasting for the reasonable lifetime of the car which will be a minimum of 10 years.

I would be willing to buy one and keep as a spare for the future. It will always have a value into the future so t will be as safe as keeping my money in the bank.

Thanks for looking into this Matthew.

[Bibs]

1 hour ago, CocoPops said:

Something seems amiss?

Maybe he's not looking at getting 100 done to spread the design cost so widely and maybe his boss expects him to make money for what he gets paid to do too. 

[CocoPops]

True enough. Was just trying to work out the best method, crowd funding perhaps?

[Bibs]

That's just a new name for a group buy but you have to pay a commission to the crowd funding site.

Realistically, how many people on here are/were lined up to buy? If you had spent out on the design and manufacturer, how long would it have taken to recoup the costs?

Fortunately, a business with a margin attached to the product can afford to do this so while more expensive, it's still less than 25% of the cost of the only alternative at present.

[DaveC72]

I have a few that are out on either side (not an MOT fail at present), and also experience the random "self heal"

The price Matt offers seems fair based on the maths, so I would be interested.

[21gg]

16 hours ago, Matthew Haskins said:

I would guess at around 30 - 60 minutes labour to replace the PCB.

 

I think you need to guess higher!

£227 Seems a bit much but can appreciate where it comes from especially as you need to price a proper solution to re-seal the headlight (unless you are taking the lens off?). Can we not organise this as we were doing, but involve Silverstone Lotus, ie use the offers on here to help keep the pcb design costs down and offer the first batch at a reduced cost to the DIY'ers on here?

Where is the one that was purchased? I recon that at main dealer rates it could easily get close to £500, which if sold as a reconditioned unit would be fair enough, but it would not be the DIY resolution we started with. 

Gav

[CaptainSlow]

Got a couple of dead LED on my MY12. Not MOT failure so far. Mine are the old ones with LOTUS text so I would have to replace both sides (the replacement headlights doesn't have the LOTUS text - aaarghh). So I'm definitely interested in this option. 

[agentdr8]

As fate would have it, I had a "need" to buy a whole headlight assembly, mostly for a less scratched lens. Found a good used one on the 'Bay, and was just going to swap it out 1:1 and then sell my original but it turns out the used one has a bad turn signal. Since I was after the lens anyhow, I opted to just swap the lens across, which leaves me with a right-side headlight assembly with a busted turn signal, a slightly scratched (but newly clear-coated!) lens, and a functioning LED disc. 

Removing the lens from the housing is a fairly simple and easy process, and I think it's probably the best bet for those looking to change out the LED discs and don't feel comfortable drilling a hole in the housing. I have some pretty high res photos of the disassembly here, including interior photo of the broken turn signal board (the power connector had fallen mostly off, probably from vibration over time), and the infamous led disc. 

One thing I noticed about the disc is the use of older 3528 leds, which are less efficient, and have no heatsink. I'd probably recommend swapping in 2835s, and will likely do that to this one, even though the originals are fine. I've also got the board dimensions done, and am working on the schematics now. I've never worked on a round board before, so it'll be interesting to see how it comes out. 

I know Silverstone is working on this for you guys, and I have no intention of competing with that effort. I'm just doing this for my own edification, and will share whatever I can with the community. 

[plenty]

2 LEDs out on the offside here...would gladly pay £227 to fix.

[mack73]

On ‎5‎/‎31‎/‎2017 at 20:30, agentdr8 said:

As fate would have it, I had a "need" to buy a whole headlight assembly, mostly for a less scratched lens. Found a good used one on the 'Bay, and was just going to swap it out 1:1 and then sell my original but it turns out the used one has a bad turn signal. Since I was after the lens anyhow, I opted to just swap the lens across, which leaves me with a right-side headlight assembly with a busted turn signal, a slightly scratched (but newly clear-coated!) lens, and a functioning LED disc. 

Removing the lens from the housing is a fairly simple and easy process, and I think it's probably the best bet for those looking to change out the LED discs and don't feel comfortable drilling a hole in the housing. I have some pretty high res photos of the disassembly here, including interior photo of the broken turn signal board (the power connector had fallen mostly off, probably from vibration over time), and the infamous led disc. 

One thing I noticed about the disc is the use of older 3528 leds, which are less efficient, and have no heatsink. I'd probably recommend swapping in 2835s, and will likely do that to this one, even though the originals are fine. I've also got the board dimensions done, and am working on the schematics now. I've never worked on a round board before, so it'll be interesting to see how it comes out. 

I know Silverstone is working on this for you guys, and I have no intention of competing with that effort. I'm just doing this for my own edification, and will share whatever I can with the community. 

Keep us updated, would like to have as many solutions available as possible

[Matthew Haskins]

Good afternoon all.

I'm now taking pre-orders for the Evora replacement sidelight LED circuit boards. I am compiling a list of people who want a single or pair of these from the first batch of 20.

We will be selling these at £199 + VAT each, we can of course carry out the fitment at extra cost in our workshops if required.

If you would like to secure one of these then please contact myself or Samantha on 01327 320223

[shakham]

Hi all,

I know this thread is about 6 months old.   I'm a new Evora owner and noticed the same issue with the LEDs.  

Wondering if there was any update to the situation?

Did the group buy go through?   Is the method still hole saw hack and replace wheel?  

[Bibs]

@Matthew Haskins, any news on your solution?