I recently installed LED festoon style bulbs in my rear-view mirror. They are acting weird and I cannot figure out what is wrong. Wondering if anyone else has encountered the same problem, or if any one has advice on what might be wrong? Here is my problem... With the door of the car open, the map lights work great, they are bright & illuminate very nice. But when I close the door, start the car and manually turn them on with the switches, they are so dim I can't even see that they are on. The only way I noticed them on at all was to tilt my head and look directly up at them. Then I can see a faint bit of light coming from them. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Terry

 

Did you ever find a solution for this issue? I just installed LED's in mine and they are acting the very same way.

 

Sorry, No I have not found a solution to this problem yet. I even called Corvette Mods, where I purchased the bulbs. The tech guy said he had never ran into this problem before. If I find the problem I will surely get back to you, but for now no answers.

 

10-4. That is who I contacted by email and was asked if I had checked the fuse. I will pull the Vette out tomorrow just to verify. The lights are amazing while the door is open but as soon as I try to use the mirror switch they are very, very dim. I will let you know what I find as well. May have to try a different light bulb. It sucks because I was so happy just getting the stock bulbs out without breaking them........

 

I got the same response from them when I e-mailed before calling the tech dept. I looked for a fuse marked for the mirror/map lights but none designated for them as far as I can tell. Let me know if you come up with an kind of solution, even if you change to another bulb, I'd be interested what you find. Thanks, Terry

 

I certainly will let you know. Have a great weekend!

 

Update -today I went out and fiddled with the mirror lights some more. I think there are multiple issues here. On my left light, one of the clips is loose and no longer appears to be mounted to anything. I can pull the clip down and almost out of the mirror. I was able to get it situated (wedged) to where it would hold the bulb. The other clip for the same light seems fine and holds the other end of the bulb fine. I do not know whether I managed to break the mount holding the clip or if it is normally "wedged" in there. Anyway, once I got the clip situated and bulb clipped in it appears to be working just fine now -both with the doors open, and when the doors are closed, engine running and using the switches on the mirror. The passenger side appears to be working fine now as well -I did not open that side to mess with.

Now, a few observations:

1. If I close the door, leave the engine off, and then try to turn them on using the mirror switches, they are very, very dim. As soon as I turn on the engine and use the mirror switches they are normal brightness. I have not had a lot of time to investigate but I am beginning to suspect that my battery may be trying to tell me something.......

2. Also, with the engine running, and the mirror switches off, they appear to be on very dimly. I am told that this is normal. I will have to see if they are bright enough at night to be annoying. Both mirror lights are behaving the same way.

3. For some unknown reason my radar detector, which is wired into the mirror no longer comes on. I guess my next step will be to try to track down which fuse runs the mirror. I was assuming that since the lights now work that it would not be a fuse, but since I am a newbie to this stuff it would not hurt to start there.....

In summary, it appears that I was better off just leaving the stock mirror bulbs alone as I think I stirred up some trouble. I do know that those stock lights got hot! I now have the lights working, but they stay on dimly when engine running with switches off. Hope this helped a little!

If I find anything else out I will check in.