Does anyone what design/manufacturing flaw causes these lights to fail prematurely? I'm sure the Mazda engineers know, but I've never read the explanation in this site. Mine are to be replaced Monday and I'm going to ask the service rep if she has been instructed to return the bad units to Mazda or just toss them in the trash like any other broken part.
Though I haven't seen it too often, I have seen other makes of cars with either partial or full failure of the LED running lights. It seems LED lighting is likely to become pretty much universal as time passes and perhaps manufacturers will want to reconsider making these sealed units. I don't know how much additional cost would be involved in designing these units to allow replacement of defective parts, but even if failure is rare, most owners are going to howl when faced with a $1000 bill to replace a headlight. The last halogen headlight bulb I replaced cost me less than $10 to buy.
Though I haven't seen it too often, I have seen other makes of cars with either partial or full failure of the LED running lights. It seems LED lighting is likely to become pretty much universal as time passes and perhaps manufacturers will want to reconsider making these sealed units. I don't know how much additional cost would be involved in designing these units to allow replacement of defective parts, but even if failure is rare, most owners are going to howl when faced with a $1000 bill to replace a headlight. The last halogen headlight bulb I replaced cost me less than $10 to buy.