I purchased these lights just over 2 years ago and recent events have led me to right this review. This is the most expensive led upgrade they sold for the fiero parking lights and each light was supposed to have something like 30 leds in them. On their site they brag about the quality of their lighting products and how much better they are than the cheap foreign ebay alternatives. I'M CALLING BS.
One of the main selling points to upgrading to leds is longevity and pretty much never having to replace them. Well last September (owned the lights a little over a year at that point) I finally got tired of dead spots in my parking lights and I contacted TLG. Customer service was great at that point and I sent the two drivers sides lights in for repair at no cost to me aside from shipping.
Fast forward to a year later. My two drivers side lights are shot AGAIN. The rear has 0 working leds and the front has maybe 3. That's right it's been one year and they are shot AGAIN!
The other day I contacted Blacktop racing to ask if there's anything that can be done. The reply I received asked if I still had the invoice and if it had been over a year since purchase. If it was less than a year they would repair them or they could show me some of their other products.
I'm sorry I could have spent $5 on some 194 bulbs and got a lot more trouble free hours from them. I spent $200 for lights that work for a year?! This is garbage!! That's not exactly chump change and now I'm stuck with crap. No I don't expect a lifetime warranty or anything but if your going to brag about your leds quality you should back that up. I think it's totally uncalled for that they went out for the first time after one year (mind you my car is stored during the winter months and I don't drive that much at night so this = not that many hours of use), but I thought ok maybe I got a bad batch or a defect or something. How disappointing.
A lesson I learned a long time ago is to not believe the claims of superiority by any manufacturer/seller, and never spend $200 for any type of lights.
Totally agree. The lights should not have had any problems, if they ware in fact high quality. I've had the Spyder Auto LED tail lights on my Avalanche for just over 2 years now, and they still all work fine. Only problem I've ever had with them, is that the passenger side sometimes just quits working, but wiggling the wires a bit always fixes it. I still have no idea why it happens, as all the wires are tight and sealed properly when I checked, and have yet to find anything actually wrong with them.
Whats the warranty on these lights. If it is only one year then what do you expect them to do. If the warranty is longer then I would say you have a legit beef with their costumer service.
I run into this all the time at my job in guest service, people will hold the company hostage to getting new or fixed parts forever if you let them. Or they threat to put a bad review out on the net.
Regardless of what you spent, is the part still under warranty?
Regardless of what you spent, is the part still under warranty?
I have no idea, they no longer carry them, I wonder why? So you think it's perfectly ok to advertise benefits of leds and how quality their product is to get a year of it? That's less than a regular light bulb. That is supposed to be the reason people go led.
I pretty good about not complaining about things but that's ridiculous regardless of warranty. It's not like it's a replaceable unit, you have to cut it open and reglue it back together to even go back to regular bulbs.
I guess these weren't available when I looked. There are many reasons to go to LEDs. They aren't for everyone. You have to be an informed buyer. Yes, I would expect a longer life, but there are many things that can affect bulb life. I don't know the particulars of these bulbs or your setup, but could it be possible that they get bad power or something similar?
My dad goes through CF house lights constantly. I have had maybe 3 burn out on me, in the same socket. Obviously a wiring issue. For my dad, the power fluctuates, and I believe this causes his issues.
TLG/Blacktop Racing usually stands behind their products, which often come from other vendors. Sometimes the product not being carried is for unrelated reasons. They no longer offer Danyel's side markers, for example. Danyel had stopped making them for a time.
Originally posted by tshark: ........ They no longer offer Danyel's side markers, for example. Danyel had stopped making them for a time.
Just to set the record straight TLG / BTR never sold my LEDs or Markers. These are made with my quality strips and all four strips have bridge rectifiers to even power input. I still offer my kits but I dont BUMP my threads too often ..this not to hassle the members here.
Watch for my Xmas special in December !!!! regards to all Danyel
Wow! Whose were the ones they sold? TLG had a set, then didn't when I was ready to buy. Then I saw yours (after a search). There had been a long gap since last post, so I had to verify that you still made them. Sorry. I got the impression that that was why they quit carrying them.
Wow! Whose were the ones they sold? TLG had a set, then didn't when I was ready to buy. Then I saw yours (after a search). There had been a long gap since last post, so I had to verify that you still made them. Sorry. I got the impression that that was why they quit carrying them.
no harm done my friend .... I think its time for a SideMarker BUMP
Huh? 194 isn't used by park/turn lights. Do you mean level 3 Marker lights? Guess so while I posted...
Several problems using LED as replacements for normal bulbs. Most aftermarket LED have trouble in vehicles, Even well made ones, because most don't have build-in "surge protection." Most Cars Power are very dirty and noisy. See my Cave, LED poisoning page has been updated that covers this problem a bit. Only reason I've added some brightness data to lightbulb and LED pages because people buy LED...
Edit to add... You might have "bad" relays and coils, like AC clutch coil, w/ dead diodes making surge problems worse.
------------------ Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. (Jurassic Park)
Zachary, we never want to let down one of our customers, so please accept our apology for anything that wasn't up to your expectations. How can we help? One thing that comes to mind is we could take apart your markers and remove the LED strips so they are just regular side markers and send them to you with a new style of bulb replacement LED 194.
I had the same problem as you with the level 3 markers. After a previous experience with TLG I didn't even bother to contact them. When I get the time I will order from Danyel. I tried to save some time by just paying the price for their products and it didn't work out. A little research shows there are better products out there and I have replaced some of the TLG products with them. Live and learn.
Well, guess I should throw in an opinion. I had placed a few orders when they were TLG.
First I got the interior LED setup, I think it was the level 2. It is freaking great. I then thought why should I have paid that much for LEDs? I ordered some from Amazon that literally came on a slow boat from China. The cheap ones are not as bright and half of them have a sort of light glow when they are off. They don't use enough power to kill the battery, but the cheap ones are exactly that. I'm all for cheap, but in this case I got what I paid for. I give TLG the +.
Second time I ordered I wanted some 4x6 lights to do a low profile bucket. Chris brought up the fact that the lights I was looking at wouldn't working in the stock bucket. I told him what I was doing and that I didn't want to spend $300 since I was potentially cutting them up. He walked me through the options and I got some great housings. Thankfully Danyel makes a great bucket and I finally got it done and it only took me 2 years... and a deer took it out in 1 week...
Last thing I bought some LED lights for the dash. I wanted to know if they could get me some purple so I contacted Chris. He got them in purple for me and I love them. I will say that some times I don't feel like I can see the purple, but the LED's were a HUGE light upgrade. Only issue I have found with using LED's in the gauge cluster is that there seems to be less range in dimmer. It seems to be bright, light and off.
So while I haven't ordered from BTR, my experience with TLG was very positive. I probably only spent $250 for all of my stuff and this car has been driven 7-8 months out of the last 12 as a daily driver. That said, I doubt I would pay $200 for just some lights...
Isn't it strange that after a bombing, everyone blames the bomber, his upbringing, his environment, his culture, his mental state but … after a shooting, the problem is the gun?
