[Guest]

This isn't a full review - yet. I bought one of these tail lights used from a forum member and installed it on 08/12. On 08/26, I noticed that it didn't seem as bright and observed that there appeared to be some condensation on the inside of the lens assembly. I honestly don't remember if it was there when I first received the tail light, but if anyone out there knows anything about Lubbock, TX, is would/should be that there is not a lot of moisture - it's a very dry place. In the first pic, 5 of the LEDs (red polarity only) on the left hand side have stopped working (middle row plus one on the bottom row). The amber (turn signal) polarity still works. Tonight, 08/30, I noticed that the same thing has happened to the bottom row on the right hand side. If you zoom in on the pictures, you can see the condensation, which has not lessened at all in the 4+ days since I noticed it.

I have ordered a new tail light from Custom LED that was supposed to be delivered today, but due to the magic that is the Post Office, I can either postpone my trip tomorrow and wait for delivery (it is in town - having arrived after the start of the business day, but no one could be bothered to walk to the back of the Post Office to retrieve it for me - I will just have to wait for the mailman tomorrow) or just take the trip with 15 out of 24 LEDs operational - at the moment.

So far, my email exchanges with the owner of Custom LED have been met with proclamations that I must have installed it incorrectly and driven through large amounts of water or extensively ridden it in the rain. Not only is Lubbock a very dry place, it also has very low humidity the majority of the time. This tail light has definitely not been wet, on the outside, since it arrived in Lubbock.

I will update this post after I install the new one and send the old one back to Custom LED for "evaluation".

 

[ryderjay]

Solder run could have gone bad somewhere and knocked out the series of LEDs that connect to it possibly. Condensation is probably due to the lens not completely sealed. Depending on the climate it came from, there could have been trapped moisture inside. I have never had to deal with Custom LED as a third party purchaser before, in all my experiences with them ( which has been a lot ) they have always been very helpful and quick to address any issues. Good luck getting it sorted out.

 

[Stryker1]

Have mine for about a year when they 1st came out, no issues and I live in high humidity- state of Florida. I work the in auto service field and have seen new cars with that issue, must have been a bad seal on yours?. Hope they take care of you- seems to be a quality product.

 

[Guest]

We'll see. I had someone at the delivery location since I was out of town. I'll get home tomorrow afternoon to install the new one. I will be sure to inspect the replacement carefully, but feel sure, and sincerely hope, that this bad one is an anomaly. I'm most interested in how custom led responds.

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[ryderjay]

Not sure why you are targeting Custom LED when you bought this from a third party, I guess is my point. You don't know how the light was treated etc since it was originally purchased. If you bought this brand new from Custom LED then I could see why you would be frustrated with their response. That's like me buying a car from a guy, finding an issue with a part, and then going after the dealer that sold the car to the original owner.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but from what I'm reading I don't really see how this falls on them

 

[Guest]

I'm not targeting anyone. I said I'm interested in how they respond. Seems like a simple statement.

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[Guest]

As a followup to this, I installed the replacement tail light the Tuesday after Labor Day - so about 11 days ago. It works perfectly.

Jon, at CustomLED received the failing light back and told me that the water damage was caused by the grommet that the wires come through being pushed back into the light at some point in time. I have to take his word for this since I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. He did say that, in order for the amount of damage he observed, it would have had to have been exposed to water for an extended period of time - much longer that the amount of time I had owned the light. So, the person that sold me the light, either intentionally or unintentionally, damaged the light's housing. I won't get into names, etc., but, of course, this person insists that CustomLED's claim is false. Jon did do an out of warranty replacement, bringing the cost of the replacement down to $75 (from about $132 after shipping). All in all, I should've just bought a new one in the first place and saved about $20.

It is a nice product and, ultimately, I'm pleased with the way it turned out.

 

[ryderjay]

I typically steer clear of used parts, especially mechanical/electrical. Never know how they were treated and maintained. Glad you got it worked out for the most part. I've had several of Custom LEDs products (most recently on the ZX6R I traded for the Stryker) and they were always solid products. I had the blaster-x on my Ninja for 3 years, worked flawlessly as did all the others I had... just didn't have them as long, I typically turn around bikes quickly lol

 

[Guest]

Other than this item, I've had great luck buying from forum members on any site with which I'm associated.