To try to increase visibility from the front, I am installing LED replacements for the original 194 incandescent parking light bulbs. I am worried about heat dissipation in the headlight enclosure that houses the parking lights. An incandescent bulb wastes a lot of energy , but most is radiated out in the infrared spectrum , which would effectively distribute most of the waste heat around the plastic enclosure. An LED apparently does not radiate IR, so although there is less waste heat, it all must be conducted, convected, or radiated away from the assembly itself. I just removed an old set of barrel-shaped .72 watt LEDs from my parking lights after two years, and the white plastic bases of both bulbs were melted! I have replaced them with small, paddle-shaped LED arrays from Alla Lighting that are about the same dimensions as the original incandescent bulbs, but are noticeably brighter (see photo). These LED arrays draw 2.9-3.0 watts each. After driving 10-15 minutes, the parking light assembly plastic directly above the bulb is slightly warmer than the surrounding area of plastic. I am asking if any of you have experienced damaged to the headlight assembly plastic from LED replacement parking lights, and if so, what wattage did your LEDs measure? Do you think a 3 watt LED replacement will overheat in the parking light part of the headlight housing? Thanks in advance !
I've had LEDs in the parking lights since a month after I bought the car; cheap Superbrights (unknown wattage) until a few months ago, when I switched to Philips Visions (.87W). I also have Corolla LED lowbeam projectors, with the heatsinks sealed in the headlight housing. No melting, no issues.
Same here, no issues so far. The cheapest just don't work since they are usually too blueish and not as bright as one might want.