Hi all,

I observed in another members YouTube post (Hilton) that his license plate bulb sockets were suffering heat degradation. Looks reasonably severe so I carried out an inspection of my own on the 2011 XF S. To my dismay, my stock W5W bulbs had also degraded the sockets badly, but just short of crumbling under finger pressure.



The black ring near the base of the bulb is heat degradation on the socket

Both sides were identical.

So, looking at Hilton's YouTube video again, I found a link to an AliExpress reseller who provides a LED based unit to replace the whole unit:



Stock incandescent 5 watt unit on left, new 2 watt LED unit on the right.

From Hilton's video, I got the impression these were a good fit and drop straight into the current enclosure. Well, that was not my experience. The T10 connectors were too large to fit in the stock socket and too heavy a hand may see the socket crumble. So that purchase was wasted.

I tried another version from AliExpress which looked closer in spec (using my Mark 1 Eyeball) to the original without reverting to the vernier calipers! These looked the real business when they arrived:



2nd version LED unit, but at 3 watts (right) with stock bulb/unit at 5 watts.

And another shot with both fitted:



Wow, they look bright!

Then I began to ponder, just how bright these would be if I was following my own car?



In the garage at night and the garage overhead light on, but these 3 watt LED units are lighting up the rear pretty seriously.

But again, to my dismay, the lenses of both new units came away during subsequent remove and install. So, trash the 2nd units. And to be honest, I would have been uncomfortable driving at night with such a bright rear end adding glare to rear approaching drivers. So I discarded the 2nd units also.

Then I came across theses direct replacement LED bulbs that looked like they would fit in the original unit:



Off the shelf from Super Cheap Autos (no plug intended) Probably about 1 watt rating.

And this is what they look like fitted:



The AFTER shot. Not as much glare and nice balance of light and colour.

And the before shot for comparison:



The BEFORE shot.

Prices were very similar when picked off the shelf as opposed to picking off AliExpress and the quality, well the local product fitted without breaking the sockets or the units and they work well.

Stay tuned for an update about durability!!!

 

Hey MH3.0D - very interesting post. I pondered replacing my T10's with those little LED's ( I have boxes and boxes of them ), but they tend to get quite hot too.

Have you left them on for a while to check how hot they get? They are a bit cooler than the standard T10, but still pretty hot. I have the LED's in my side markers in the headlights and they get pretty hot.

It would be interesting to hear your experience.

 

I put multichip SMD LEDs in the licence plate bulbs of both my XFs as soon as I got them, and never had a problem with any of the four in the three years or so I ran with them.
And these were cheap Chinese specials with IIRC 24 SMD chips on each bulb, and supposedly 3W.

 

Thanks Hilton and an interesting observation. I will check mine tomorrow and let you know.

 

Thanks OzXFR,

I understand what you are saying, but my particular purchases, one did not fit the T10 socket as the connector was physically too large and the 2nd set the lenses that protect the SMD chips fell off so the circuit board on which the SMD LEDs were mounted would have been exposed to the elements, and specifically not happy with that in my case.

The 3 watt versions were too bright in my opinion, so as I was after a little less heat in that area, I opted for the smaller 10 x SMD in a T10 wedge bulb arrangement that fitted the original housings and with the added benefit of a sealed housing.

But we all have our preferences and neither is wrong, just different. I also hope to have these run reliably for the life of ownership.

 

I could not wait until tomorrow so I opened up the garage and tested the lights and compared the heat generated to the boot lamp.

Within 5 minutes, the boot lamp was generating enough heat to feel the warmth clearly through the lense while the LED license plate lights were still cold. I ran my finger across the length of the units and could not feel any heat. So I think I have a lower power solution that is providing a small improvement in the illumination and the aesthetics are also pleasing as they colour match my front side/parking lights.