shoot me if I'm reiterating an old thread but has anyone found a reliable, safe and non melting slim decoder? All the threads I've found on here so far are years old..

 

I use the ijdmtoy one but there not slim but if you take off the cover they will fit inside the headlight cover, and I have been using it for 2 year now no problem

 

I got mine off ebay. $30 for the LED bulbs and decoders. First set they sent didn't work well enough and flickered. They sent out (at no extra cost) larger ones that have been problem free for over a year.

Unfortunately, I don't really have any useful info. Just that yes, you can get cheap working decoders that will (with patience) fit in the housing.

 

Same here. I've been using the same one and removed the covers to fit inside housing for almost 6 months now. I have to open the headlights covers to check if they are overheating.

 

Did you put the cover back on or are you leaving it off?

Thank you!

Thanks for the info. I'll think I'll order some if you guys aren't having overheating/melting issues!

 

You can leave the covers off. Just cover the internals with heat shrink and electrical tape and you should be good to go!

 

I did the same thing and took the covers off. Works fine

 

You don't get any moisture or condensation inside the headlight leaving the covers off?

 

I was referencing the covers of the decoders. You can remove those, cover the internals with heat shrink/electrical tape, and then stuff them inside the headlight. Your headlight covers should be able to close without any issues.

 

I believe some of them are built into a heat sink housing, I would not recommend using them without the heat sink.

 

How bad is the flicker without a decoder? Wasn't planning on using a decoder if you can't see the flicker from far away.

 

Some people said the flickering isn't that noticeable but i could not live with it. It was somewhat annoying especially when you drive behind cars with very reflective rears (i could only imagine how annoying it is for the people in front of me).
BTW, the decoder's housing from JDM do not serve any heat sinking purpose (just a simple plastic housing). It is better to safe and wrap it in high temp tape to protect the light housing. I actually checked my decoder after about 6 months of usage and no sign of over heating.

 

Thanks. Did a search and saw this.


Not sure if this is what others have noticed but the flickering without a decoder looks like a strobe light (not to mention a flicker even with the decoder).

 

Yes, it looks like strobe light up close. The measured the voltage put out by the decoder and it was around 14V (vs. around 6V from OEM DRL). My JDM decoders do not flicker at all (a good test is check it with another car's rearview camera (i.e. park behind another car with rearview/reverse camera) and you could see the flicker as it is extremely sensitive to flickering