I thought the BA9 5-way matrix LEDs from autolumination.com (same as superlumination.com) would be the end all to my citylight LED replacement issues.




Well I was wrong as for some reason the 'new' batch of 5-ways seem to be failing quite quickly.

Some people think it may be the stress from pushing them in but I dremelled out the citylight hole so that wouldn't happen. Though they are rated at 12V, maybe the voltage spikes from the engine revving up are causing them to fail. I think the LEDs are made with crappy solder joints and combined with engine vibration the LEDs shake loose and don't light up anymore.

I have since replaced the BA9 5-way with the BA9 4 LED focused units also from autolumination.




The 4 LED units seem to be holding up better but I have only had them in my headlights for 10 days. But from looking at them the construction is more solid than with the 5-ways.

Here you can see the citcuit board connections between the LEDs and the base



For those of you new to city LEDs a BA9 socket is not 100% compatible to the BAX9 socket that are in the Ecode housings as the locking pins are at the wrong angles. So one of the locking pins has to be cut or filed off to help make them fit




So due to my frustration with the failure of the 5-way LEDs I begun to lose a lot of sleep trying to find a better LED for my headlights. What I found are these LEDs from Ultraleds.co.uk

Link -[/img] http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/product_i...roducts_id=920

They aren't cheap when compared to the autolumination ones. I ordered 4 LEDs at a cost of $14.44UK or about $7US each





Best of all they come with a BAX9 socket!



Here is a comparison in size and construction to the 4 LED units




autolumination on the left, ultraled on the right




So I am sure all you cityLED user only want to know how these 6 LED units work.

Well they are super bright! Visually they are much brighter than the autolumination units. According to their website NO FAILURES in the 4 months these lights have been sold.

These LEDs are rated to 16V and 20ma

I left the 6 LED unit on and the 220ohm 5W resistor I use for a load equalizer was just warm to the touch. PERFECT!

autolumination on the left, ultraled on the right




autolumination 4 LED focused



ultraled 6 LED focused



With my 6000k HID fogs. They are a perfect match!




Now if you can't wait to see how long these last in my headlights then feel free to go buy them.

If you want to save some money the BA9 4 LED focused units from autolumination work as well.

If these all begin to fail in '2 weeks' please don't come hunt me down at the SoCal meet. =)