Headlight bulb to LED causes flickering. Help!

jcmac87

Member
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Mazda Cx5 GT AWD with Tech package
Hey guys. My local shop replaced my headlight bulb with some LEDs. I recently noticed that there's either not enough current going into one of them or would it be the LED itself? It's causing one light be to brighter than the other and looks like it's less bright and then going back to normal. Bright and dark. Bright and dark. Need some advice.

Thanks.
 
Was wondering if anyone else had my problem and what do you think the problem is?
You didn't specify what year of your CX-5 in your profile I can only assume you have halogen headlights from factory. LED uses less current than halogen bulb and you won't have any load issue other than bad connections somewhere from the circuitry. But most likely your local shop used cheap LED's where some LED cells may become defective over time by itself.
 
I saw a Youtube video of the same problem for an interior light. You might want to Google it.
 
OK so you have tech, but I'm guessing you did not have xenons. How long have the lights been installed? Usually the flickering just means that LED or some of the lights on it are bad. It happened on one of my switchback LEDS after 2 years. I paid like $15 for it so I just replaced it.
 
OK so you have tech, but I'm guessing you did not have xenons. How long have the lights been installed? Usually the flickering just means that LED or some of the lights on it are bad. It happened on one of my switchback LEDS after 2 years. I paid like $15 for it so I just replaced it.

I have the 2014 fully loaded model. The lights are only like 6 months old. I recently got into a car accident but that wouldn't affect the circuits either. So I guess if I replace the lights it should be fine. I just don't want to go back to them get more lights and the same issue happen s.
 
I have the 2014 fully loaded model.
2014 CX-5 with Tech Package should have Xenon headlights with AFS. Why and how did you replace that with LED headlights? (uhm)

LED's have multiple cells and some of them of yours may be premature failed or it has bad connections in there. It's very likely for cheap and low quality LED replacement headlights for halogen bulbs.
 
OK so.. if you have HID LED's, that require a ballast (like the Bi-Xenon HIDS that are OEM) then yea, I can see them being used as headlights. Although why you would want to do that I don't know. That's a half assed way to have an LED headlight and it's most likely a downgrade. The hard part is since a shop did it for you, you/we have no clue as to how they installed them and what did they use. The simplest route would be to use a "D4S" (the socket type for our OEM Xenon HIDS) LED... basically it's an LED bulb attached to a D4S base and it uses the OEM HID socket and ballast (plug and play)... the other option is to wire in another ballast. They range from cheap to overpriced since most of them are china imports, which by the way typically have ONE yes just ONE, maybe two LED on them.. I don't think any OEM actually uses a "converted" led bulb. Not trying to dog on you but you have to be careful and aware of what's being done when it comes to shops doing electrical/any work. There are circuits on this car that are very sensitive and known to blow if they are "worked on" with power supplied (like the rear BCM). Does your AFS still work?
 
Was it replaced due to your accident? Do you really mean the headlights, or are you referring to the daytime running lights (DRL's)? The DRL's that came with your vehicle are halogen and can be replaced easily with an LED as a nice upgrade. As others have stated, your headlights are bi-xenon high-intensity discharge (HID) lights and replacing them with an LED would be a big downgrade. More info from you would help us.
 
As others have stated, your headlights are bi-xenon high-intensity discharge (HID) lights and replacing them with an LED would be a big downgrade.
It would be a big downgrade by converting factory xenon headlights to aftermarket replacement LED's with original xenon reflectors and housings. Factory LED headlights on 2016 CX-5 are as good as xenon, if not better, but with many benefits such as longer lifespan and instant full brightness.
 
It would be a big downgrade by converting factory xenon headlights to aftermarket replacement LED's with original xenon reflectors and housings. Factory LED headlights on 2016 CX-5 are as good as xenon, if not better, but with many benefits such as longer lifespan and instant full brightness.

I just felt like the xenons were less bright than the ones I have in now. The afs still works just fine. Just the passengers light is dimming high and low while I'm driving. Essentially I changed out every white light in the car interior and exterior. Including the drls and fog lights. Maybe I can ask the shop to see what they put in.
 
The OEM HIDs are not as white as LED, this probably give you the illusion that changing over to LED give you a brighter lights but in fact unless the LED are design for the headlights or OEM no after market LED is bright enough for headlights at least not yet. Ask the shop what they did, I would never change over to aftermarket LED if I have OEM HID.
 
Ask the shop what they did, I would never change over to aftermarket LED if I have OEM HID.

That's a no-brainer, IMO. HID's have a broader spectrum, LED's have a more 'peaky' light spectrum that I find offers less visual acuity (clarity) and is more tiring after a half-hour behind the wheel.

While it's easy to try two different headlights side by side and declare one appears "brighter", the brighter one doesn't always offer the best seeing performance. Too many headlights put too much light in the foreground (which does offer the impression of power/brightness) but this hinders vision down the road by causing the drivers pupils to constrict more than ideal (distance vision is all that matters at speeds above 50 mph).

The real problem here is that an after-market LED retrofit in a housing designed for HID is highly unlikely to be optimum. Never mind that it won't even stay lit. The OEM HID's are good for 80,000-120,000 miles before needing to replace the bulbs and offer excellent performance. Don't mess with them.
 
Ok thanks for the input guys! I'll see what they put into them and get back to you guys. If it's LED I'll change them back to xenons if not then I'll come back here. Lol
 
I still have the xenon oem bulbs. Actually after my accident they gave me another set of oem bulbs and still paid for my aftermarket lights too (insurance). So...I'm trying to call the shop and they're not picking up. I looked at the invoice and they put in 6000k bulbs. So I'm guessing they didn't switch to leds but a brighter bulb?
 
LED are rated in kelvin as well but from it doesn't match up directly with xenon hids
 
You know as far as color rendering index (CRI) halogen are typically better than LED. I'm a bit shocked at what a replacement HID bulb costs. I'm just curious but why did you want to replace your HID lights with LED lights when you had the top of the line Mazda headlights already?
 

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