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Carrera front headlight repair

PostPosted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 6:59 pm
by sportblazer350
i have several 1/24 and 1/32 Carrera analog cars, 5 years old or so, that when new the front lights quit working after a few laps, apparently a factory defect. has there ever been an answer to how to repair or replace them? all rear lights still work, so the issue is just the front lights. any help is appreciated.

Re: Carrera front headlight repair

PostPosted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 7:55 pm
by waaytoomuchintothis
That was an issue with the '32 Hot Rods. For them, it was almost impossible to fix them (they were in stalks either side of the radiator). All it took was a jolt in shipping or god help you, a roll upon de-slotting, and they were faulty, one or both headlights, never the tail lights. I was suspect that the lights seemed a lot tougher after Carrera started the policy of "no lights unless you pay extra for pointless digital", trying to ignore the fact that they had lights in analog cars forever before the digital stuff started.

Re: Carrera front headlight repair

PostPosted: Mon Jan 08, 2018 8:04 am
by buspor63
Which cars have they stopped working on? The 3mm LED's are used almost exclusively on the fronts. It may be as simple as a broken wire to the board or broken solder joint on the board. Use your volt meter to follow the current, LED's work on 3 volts. If you're seeing higher than that at the bulb, the regulator/resistor may have failed, I can't help with that though.

If it's a digital car, the voltage coming of off the board is already stepped down and it's just a need to replace the bulb. There are plenty of tutorials on YouTube and LED's can be bought from eBay or specialty local electronics stores. I bought some on eBay that had the correct resistor already attached.

Re: Carrera front headlight repair

PostPosted: Mon Jan 08, 2018 8:48 am
by dw5555
Delete

Re: Carrera front headlight repair

PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 6:34 pm
by sportblazer350
yes the headlight failure issue is with both 1/32 and 1/24 scale 30's-40's hot rod series car. they were factory failures, and at the time, Carrera refused to do anything about it. I thought after all this time that somebody out there knew what that issue was. I just started running these cars after sitting for a few years. I am guessing that it has something to do with the board? it is not a broken wire issue.

Re: Carrera front headlight repair

PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 8:05 pm
by waaytoomuchintothis
Agreed. It takes only the slightest bump to kill them. I sold almost all of mine, and I was lucky they all arrived intact the way theu left here. I was sweating out the long delivery to Australia because the guy is a friend, and I just knew those blasted delicate boogers were going to mess up. They made it, though. The one I kept has headlights that have never worked.

Re: Carrera front headlight repair

PostPosted: Wed Jan 17, 2018 2:23 am
by Dangermouse
and the lights are still working on the all the hot rods :)

Re: Carrera front headlight repair

PostPosted: Wed Jan 17, 2018 7:00 pm
by carlosinseattle
Funny...I've never had any problems with headlights. I've had maybe 3 or 4 cars that have had issues, but never from right out of the box. I have close to 300 Carrera cars, mostly digital.

Have you checked the pins on the connectors? Sometimes one or both wires slip out of the backside of the connector.

Re: Carrera front headlight repair

PostPosted: Wed Jan 17, 2018 8:03 pm
by Austin
My hotrod lights have gone out to, lights in all the other carrera cars work forever