2009 S3 - LED running lights - flashing ! Fault ?

[RGS3]

Hi, noticed when checking my CCTV that when I drove onto my drive the other day my LED Running Light on drivers side was flashing... I went out and put ignition on, started the car - seemed fine. Wondered if this was happening the other day when a driver in front was constantly triggering his indicators trying to tell me something. Also had some cars strangely move out of my way on the bypass too !!!

No errors on VCDS, maybe some sort of fault in the LED's or maybe the indicator - which switches off the LEDs when active.

Any ideas please ? hope its not expensive....

 

[Lewbo]

Maybe it's nothing as LEDS do flash when been recorded on a video device as its to do with their frequency I am led to believe. Happens to top gear all the time if you have ever noticed it.

 

[a6_chris]

Some cameras cannot pick up LEDs correctly, if you watch topgear or fifth gear sometimes you will see DRLs or rear LEDs flashing.

Vcds would show an error so I'm guessing the above has happened.

 

[Arjuanamo]

It is most definitely the camera,think you need a camera with a very high frame rate to capture the LED's as they actually look in real life.Even when i take some pictures on my phone half of the strip is missing simply due to the camera being unable to capture the LED's.Surely you could just turn them on and get out and look at them and see if there is any issues.

 

[MrLapou]

LEDs sometimes flash at a frequency just higher than human eye can pick up. This is designed to prolong the life of the LED.
The human eye does a similar thing for different reason, by switching off a few mili secs per minute.

 

[RGS3]

thanks for the replies, good point about the CCTV .... it was also that a driver was continually flicking his indicators left/right as I followed him the other day and after seeing the CCTV got me thinking.

I have taken to checking the lights each time before I switch off now. Nothing worse than an intermittent problem (if there is one).

fingers crossed that it is just an illusion of the CCTV, had a ballast go on my 1st S3 8L - cost me £700 for a new headlight !

 

[bmh.01]

It's the camera. The brightness and intensity of the LED is controlled by PWM which to make it simple turns them on and off very quickly, the human eye can't tell the difference due to the frequency involved but the camera can. Hence they appear to flash on film.