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2011 Nissan Rogue. Issues with LED 7443 brake/tail light replacement

1236 Views 3 Replies 2 Participants Last post by  VStar650CL
So both brake lights in my Rogue were burnt out, confirmed visually by inspecting the filaments in the bulbs. Looked up online replacement and went to auto parts store. The Sylvania website, AdvanceAuto, and AutoZone all list both the Sylvania 7443 ZEVO bulb and the cheaper Sylvania 7443 LED bulb as compatible with the 2011 Rogue. The ZEVO was not in stock so I bought the cheaper bulb. When I returned home and installed I found that the bulb would only work for either the tail light or the brake light depending on which direction you installed the bulb. I called Sylvania tech support, when they looked up their notes on the 2011 Nissan Rogue they told me that the cheaper LED bulb would not work on the 2011 Rogue, even though their website says it is a direct replacement. They said only Version 2 of the ZEVO bulb will work on the 2011 Nissan Rogue. I asked how I identify a version 2 vs a version 1 and was told that it had been a while since version 1 and that I should not find them on store shelves anymore. Based on the faded color on boxes in the auto parts stores, I'm not sure if this was a good answer or not.

So I went on Amazon and bought a Phillips Ultinon LED bulb that in the description says it is a direct replacement for any car with a 7443 bulb... Unfortunately it has the same issue as the cheaper Sylvania bulb, so I have two sets of bulbs to return. I've found a store that has the ZEVO in stock. Will report back whether or not the ZEVO really works.
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There's no fixed polarization scheme for "reversible" bulbs like the 7443, since incandescent bulbs don't care with side is hot and which is ground. So engineers designing-in a 7443 socket can power either element in either direction. It's likely Nissan simply designed one of the throws opposite the direction your LED's want to flow. You'd think the big guys like Sylvania and Phillips would add full-wave bridges to the reversible types to remedy that, but to my knowledge no one does that. You'll need to figure out which element is reversed and rewire it to suit the bulb's polarity.
Whatever the issue is, the Sylvania ZEVO bulbs work great.
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Then the v2 ZEVO's must have bridges built-in, that's probably the "difference" between the v1's and v2's. Good to know!
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