Menards Light Up Vehicles

On one of my Menards cars, the headlights quit working but the taillights still light.  Once in awhile the headlights flash on but go right back off.  Haven't tried to get into the car yet to replace the headlights.

Ron

@RON ARNDT 091718 posted:

On one of my Menards cars, the headlights quit working but the taillights still light.  Once in awhile the headlights flash on but go right back off.  Haven't tried to get into the car yet to replace the headlights.

Ron

A loose wire?

I had the same issue as @RON ARNDT 091718 where one headlight flickers and then it eventually just stops working all together.  I have checked all the wiring on my cars, some are wired together to the same barrel jack on the Menards power adapter, one car works fine the other has burned out.

I haven't taken the cars apart to see if there is something loose in the car but given that 3 have burned out I'm guessing that is not the cause.

I have a few but only one (hummer) on the layout. Its wired to a generic wall wart. Been fine for a couple years.

Sounds like you might have an unregulated power supply. Menards had this problem with buildings early on.

You may want to do for the future splice in an adjustable output buck converter so you can drop the voltage input to the LED's and also make sure it's a Regulated 4.5 Volt DC Power Supply or less to make the LED's last longer if too much voltage or current is the actual problem. I would say figure out how to take one apart that has died to try to see if it's the LED's that have burnt out or bad wires. Check to see if you have power to where the LED isn't working

I opened up the lighted plug and play menards car I have. Two screws, one under the front bumper, and one under the back bumper, remove the screws and  bumpers, and you should be able to pull apart the top from the chassis. Check to make sure you don't have any broken connections or that the bare wires aren't touching and shorting out your lights. In mine I moved the wires apart more as they were quite close together.Then just push the top of the car back onto the chassis, put the bumpers back in place, screw in your two screws, and test it out.

Since it's DC, I wonder if correct polarity is critical and, if so, are you sure correct polarity was maintained when you re-connected the cut wire or when connecting the car wires to the barrel jack ?

Also, the center pin on barrel jacks is not always the same polarity.

Did you use these ?

@Richie C. posted:

Since it's DC, I wonder if correct polarity is critical and, if so, are you sure correct polarity was maintained when you re-connected the cut wire or when connecting the car wires to the barrel jack ?

Also, the center pin on barrel jacks is not always the same polarity.

Did you use these ?

 

If they are LED bet your shorts it's critical but I don't think you would damage anything wiring them backwards, it just won't light.

I purchased a wiring extension kit from Menards to simplify installation of my Menards LED cars.  I found a least one of the extension cords in the kit wired backwards causing my car not to light.  I corrected the manufacturing error and all was well.

OK, I opened one of the Menards light up trucks and I'm not able to tell if the LEDs are burned out, how do I figure that out?  Everything else looks ok, except the one wire that is disconnected in my pictures which I think happened when I opened the truck. 

I'm using a power pack I bought from Menards that is sold along side these cars, so I assume that is regulated as mentioned above?  I have 5 of these cars and 3 have stopped working.  They are all hooked to the same power supply, I spliced the wires all together.  Could that be the issue?  That I took a power supply with 3 barrel jacks and hooked up 5 vehicles?  I double checked under my layout, no loose connections and all the polarity is correct.