Sylvania 7443 Offerings

Ls400

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Jun 27, 2018
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A person I know had a burned out tail lamp bulb in their '13 RAV4. I offered to fix it. I drove to the only open Wal-Mart in the area at 1am and find that of course they're sold out of 7443 bulbs! Seems to be a very popular bulb, as all the other bulbs were in stock.

Well, they did have the Sylvania branded, non-Zevo LED in 7443 and in red. From reading this forum, I know they are bad. But, given that I had no where else to turn for bulbs, I grabbed the LED. They needed the car early in the morning and I figured that a lit taillamp compartment would be better than an unlit one.

I have read a lot of descriptions of the non-Zevo bulbs on this forum as using frosted domes and the like to diffuse the light, but this had no such dome. The Sylvania 7443 I grabbed had a similar design to the Zevo 7443. The Sylvania is Y-shaped and the emitters directly face the reflector, like the Zevo. I figured this would have a stab at working well with the RAV4, which uses a clear taiilamp lens.

I plugged it in and walked in an arc around the rear of the vehicle at about 25 feet away. The LED appeared to create a mostly identical beam pattern to the side with the incandescent bulb. So, off I drove. I would have tested the "major filament" of the LED but I didn't have a helper or a stick to hold the brake pedal with.

Dropping off the car, I enlist the help of my friend. They depressed the brake pedal with all the lights on. The Sylvania 7443 LED did not change in intensity at all. I tried the other Sylvania 7443 LED in the two-pack of LEDs I purchased. Neither changed in intensity. I swap in a working 7443 incandescent bulb. Both filaments lit up fine!

Now, I do understand that the non-Zevo line is bad. I wasn't expecting something this bad though, as in completely fail to work. I mean, this non-Zevo at least has a somewhat sensible design. The design mimics the Zevo and seems to be designed to take advantage of the reflector rather than "shotgun" a path out the lamp. I've seen plenty of obvious LED retrofits on the road, and the change in intensity is very low. But 0 change in intensity? I wasn't quite expecting that. Is this what is meant by "non-Zevo = bad?" That the non-Zevos fail to even light up in America's best selling vehicle? Was there no testing with the most popular vehicle on the road? I thought that at the very least the Sylvania 7443 would change perceptibly with depressing the brake pedal, if not take full advantage of the optics and be visible from all relevant angles! Did I just purchase a defective pack of LEDs, or are all non-Zevos like this?

Second, yes, I did return the non-Zevos. They grabbed some Sylvania long life 7443 bulbs to replace the LEDs. No, they weren't interested in premium Stanley or Toshiba offerings. The Sylvania bulbs said Made in Japan. What are they, repackaged Stanley or Toshiba (seconds?)
 
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jzchen

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Jan 16, 2015
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328
Location
Arcadia, CA
I have access to the 7443 red ZEVO LEDs. Are they also bad? Haven't tried them, in a '14 Scion iQ tail/brake lights.

Thank you in advance!

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk
 

Alaric Darconville

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Sep 2, 2001
Messages
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Location
Stillwater, America
From reading this forum, I know they are bad.

They depressed the brake pedal with all the lights on. The Sylvania 7443 LED did not change in intensity at all. I tried the other Sylvania 7443 LED in the two-pack of LEDs I purchased. Neither changed in intensity. I swap in a working 7443 incandescent bulb. Both filaments lit up fine!

Now, I do understand that the non-Zevo line is bad. But 0 change in intensity? I wasn't quite expecting that. Is this what is meant by "non-Zevo = bad?"

Well, we've been saying they were bad :)

Glad they took the return; clearly there was no fitness of merchantability.
 

Ls400

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Jun 27, 2018
Messages
276
Well, it is Walmart. I think they'll pretty much let you return anything. I've seen too many people treat Walmart as the clothes/tools/food/electronics rental destination.

I guess I wasn't being cynical enough when it came to Sylvania LEDs. Never expected them to have put me in grave danger on the drive back! At moderate risk, sure! On a spectrum of good to bad, I knew to expect something on the bad end of the spectrum, but completely failing at a basic function? Seems too dangerous to belong at Wal-Mart.
 
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