[quote="Mobile Centre"]
To the best of my knowledge only
one person has suffered failure of these lights which is Darth Chicken who we supplied a replacement set to, he then decided to return them for a refund as Christmas was coming
Other than that there have not been any failures! We ordered 100 sets in for the group buy which did not take place, the rest were sold off to Land Rover owners who have not had any problems either.
I understand that the problem is caused by an unbalanced engine subjecting the light to extreme vibration which is outside the normal remit of automotive testing. The lights did not fail through design fault as only one person has actually had this problem so the failure rate is tiny, and the failures were limited to the rear lights only again indicating extreme conditions otherwise all the lights would of failed where as the actual failure rate was something like 0.2% and all of that 0.2% was suffered by Darth Chicken.[/quote]
I'm glad to hear that there have only been failures on one car. It is my (possibly incorrect) understanding that Darth had 4 of the originals fail (all on the rear) and then two replacements fail (also rear) and that Barry was unsure if the problem was poor soldering or a vibration problem.
Since the units are sealed, it should be easier to prevent the problem than to fix it once it has happened, assuming that my idea of filling the back with an epoxy or silicone compound will work.
The 80x80 white reverse lamp from Mobile Centre is built like a tank - you could probably drive over it and it would keep working. The electronics on the back are encased in a clear potting compound. I had assumed that the River Runner lights were built the same way. Since the units are sealed, I don't think that Tim / Mobile Centre would have had any reason to cut one open to check, and it probably came as a great surprise that some had failed on Darth's Atom.
The roads here (NY/NJ) are terrible - as I detailed in another topic, I had a suspension component snap in two. While that was at least partially attributable to an incorrect part used by Brammo, some of it was probably due to the roads here. In the summer of 2002, when I drove my new BMW home from the dealer, a pothole actually folded over the flange of one of the car's wheels. Every fall when I take my summer wheels/tires off, I have to send the wheels out to a place to have them checked for trueness and rebuilt.
However, I didn't think that an Atom on the street / track would see shock/vibration as severe as a leaf-spring Land Rover driving on dirt trails, etc. - even the name "River Runners" gives the impression of heavy-duty off-roading.
It seems I was incorrect, as both the Wipac and Perei (Rover OEM) standard lampholders have failed in record numbers on US Atoms. In addition to the lamps popping out of the holders, some have utterly disintegrated as a post earlier in this thread shows.
I look forward to the new units scheduled for July. Certainly, Mobile Centre dealing directly with a US manufacturer will result in better communication than the previous Mobile Centre -> Barry -> China (at least, that's my understanding) system.