Allen,

Just fyi, when I installed resistors on my LED lights for my other cars, the resistor gets VERY hot, very quickly.... but everything still worked fine when it got super hot. I'm now thinking the resistor has gone bad... I know companies sell resistors... maybe if someone changes them out to see it fixes the problem?

Sorry everyone is having problems with Dectane... I really wanted to buy a set too

Edwin

 

Not sure it's "everyone" - I've had mine running for a year in hot Texas weather (and now cold weather) and never a problem.

 

Dectane = "retailer, wholesaler, distributor" - all I know is that Depo is the manufacturer.

 

good point. It just seems like there are more people that have problems with these lights than we'd like to see.

Edwin

 

Right, Depo makes these lights and people can label whatever brand they want. They are really not known for making quality products. People were having problems with Depo when they started selling LED tail lights for the W203 C-Class and W220 S-Class about 8-9 years ago.

 

In the japanese aftermarket scene (mainly Lexus), DEPO is actually the preferred manufacturer as the quality of their lights "appeared" to be superior over the other manufacturer. Kind of sad to see DEPO have quality issues on our lights

Edwin

 

Well, the DEPO lights are ok quality (for the lack of choice compared to some other house brand made in China). I installed a few MB sets back in MA which had various degrees of non-functioning LEDs in less than 12 months. The problem here with the DEPO lights is that most modern high-end European cars have built in circuits that gives you the bulb out signal. Since LED consumes so much less power compared to incandescent bulbs, resistor packs / voltage regulators are required to trick the OBDII into thinking the power output is ok. As others have pointed out, resistors generate a lot of heat and the resistance changes with temp (the copper ones almost always do), it can cause various degree of malfunction. Had DEPO put in the effort to design an appropriate PCB with trick the OBDII, then it wouldn't have been a problem. It's the same principle for using the LEDs with the inline voltage regulators / resistors to avoid bulb out warning in the headlights / foglights.

 

Kev,

Good point... IIRC, I had a set of DEPO lights on my 2000 lexus GS and it threw a "bulb out light". In order for me to "fix" that, I had to pull the warning bulb out from the dash .

Edwin

 

I reiterate my neglected post - Has anyone had any issues with the RotTec lights? I ran those for a while on my 997S with no issues. I realize the pattern is a bit different and some don't prefer them, but I prefer not to have any issues!

 

Ryem3
I don't know about the rottec lights. Hopefully they will be able to fix mine.

 

To the question about Rottec lights.

I purchased mine as part of the original batch sold by Ray and haven't had an issue. Also, Ray's great to work with should you have a question or concern.

 

You don't have the 997 any longer do you...so you don't have any issues with the RotTec's? Folks don't hesitate to post about problems so I'm assuming from the lack of negative reports on RotTec, they must be functioning OK Only problem I remember had to do with the bulb for the fog light and Ray took care of that for his customers.

 

Correct. I only had them for about 9 months though. I didn't care about the fog light, we don't get much fog and I think the rear lights are more stupid than using the fronts when you have Xenons. I didn't have any issues, but many of my LEDs were not aligned very well. I heard that the second run of the lights were much better. Even though they were not aligned well, the light output and appearance was totally unaffected. I see they are now $850 on his website.

 

I just received an email from Dectane customer support, they are unwilling to help at this time as I did not buy from them directly.

I have contacted my vendor, Simon at speedstersource.com, who is currently out of stock but seems willing to help.

I would not recommend Dectane lights to anyone until the matter is resolved.

 

Please lmk what you hear from Simon. I'm tihnking about picking up a set from him as well

Edwin