I actually have never seen a Durango with light failure like that until these pictures. Honestly. I always look at lights of cars around me too.

I wonder if this is more a northern climate salt and snow thing?

 

I have never seen that Durango issue either. My in-laws have one with those rear lights and they haven't had any issues. Same with our neighbors who have one. I'll try to start paying more attention to others I see on the road.

 

95% of Kia Optimas of this generation with this LED taillight are also burnt out that I see. Not just in that lower right corner, but in different corners too.

 

95% huh?

 

I see it from time to time also. Its a real problem on those Durangos.

 

Its well engineered because its high performing with less parts, complexity, and cost. Because that's the definition of good engineering.
Not sure what you were getting at there.

It’s really only new LED headlight units that are really expensive, even more so with the ILS.

Alot of my post has been delving into the past. I do that because alot of things were done WELL in the past and ignored for something catchier, shinier. This isn't the same as moving from cassette tapes to CDs because ILS or LEDs doesn't outshine HIDs by a large margin. So please stop with the mindset of phasing things out.

 

HID ballasts are highly failure prone which is to be expected for any device that puts out high voltage.

 

True. There's also other problems these headlights have that I haven't addressed.

With halogen projectors, there's no ballast. You just replace a bulb LOL. And if youre a real lucky one, you'll have to replace a burnt out fuse, omg!

 

Except that it isn't. HIDs have MORE parts than LEDs, not less. Thats what you don't recognize. LEDs have replaced HIDs in the industry because they are cheaper.

 

Hids don’t have more parts. They may have bigger parts. And they arnt cheaper.

 

HIDs have xenon gas. Get really hot. My guess is that HIDs are the worse case scenario. But IDK

 

Not headlights, but I recently replaced my LED taillights because one of them had faded significantly after ~11 years. It was $152 for the pair (for BMW OE parts no less!), and there were exactly two pieces: The complete left assembly, and the complete right assembly. Looks like the price has gone up by $3: https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...ll-63214871753

My headlights, on the other hand, have many pieces. On each side, there's the main housing with I believe the projectors integrated, four separate bulbs (two HID and two halogen), the leveling mechanism and adaptive mechanism (not sure if these are together or separate), and two ballasts. 16-18 parts total for both sides, not including turn signals or fog lights.

 

how on earth is this possible? if HIDs were cheaper than LEDs, Toyota wouldn't be making LEDs standard in Corollas.

 

You are 100% wrong. HID lights have a high voltage ballast that LEDs don't have, and the bulbs are charged with xenon gas, The ballast is required to ignite an arc through the glass. LEDs simply require electricity run through the LED with no ballast, gas or arc.

Vehicle manufacturers did not switch to LEDs because they are more expensive. Economy cars have LEDs now...thats why...they are cheaper.

 

Going LED is not just about cost it is a combination of cost, performance and form factor.