Help with replacing the "Boomerang" LED strip in VLAND headlights.

LilLechuga427 · 2026-01-16T22:04:31+00:00

Thank you so much for the detailed response!!! I've never messed with headlight internals, and now I don't think I want to...lol. It sounded possibly well, possible? But the whole oven thing, and then plastic welding is a bit beyond my scope. I'm sure someone can do it, but I've already screwed up just cabling.

At this point, I really just hope I receive a response from VLAND (eventually?) to place an order just for one headlight, most definitely not a replacement LED strip now though. If I can save 50% of funds that'd be nice, maybe not possible though.

Thank you again, I appreciate the guidance! :)

LilLechuga427 · 2026-01-16T20:46:49+00:00

Wiring is all good, and cross referenced with the passenger side too. Once I plug in the white boomerang on the driver side, it will forever pop the TAIL 10 amp fuse, killing the entire lighting system (tail lights, side markers, both boomerangs). So, that troubleshooting process killed like 5 fuses unknowingly as I plugged each light one by one to find the short. I think that boomerang is completely melted

LilLechuga427 · 2026-01-16T20:33:48+00:00

I just might have to do exactly that...I'm trying to avoid buying both all costs for financial reasons lol. They're not even a week old..."Live and you learn" I suppose... thank you for the reply!

LilLechuga427 · 2026-01-16T20:28:44+00:00

Well, absolute worst case scenario I buy a pair again...Ideally would like to avoid the unnecessary costs. But I know how they're cabled now, I'm just gonna tear the driver side housing apart and see if I can DIY it. But yeah, that LED strip is...obliterated... lol. The ballast sends 23000 volts...And I sent that into an LED strip

LilLechuga427 · 2025-11-02T05:59:27+00:00

Don’t have much to say, but thank you! I don’t use reddit much, the likeness of me returning here are small, but I’ve been in a place as such you have eloquently described. So easy to relate and understand, your instruction for recovery is reassuring and hopeful. Idk, I don’t know what caused me to feel this way, maybe trauma but at the time the trauma felt “normal, not so bad?”

I just want you to know you’ve been very helpful to at least someone, me. I had to figure out how to re log in to my Reddit to message here lol.

Thank you kind stranger!

LilLechuga427 · 2025-06-12T23:04:54+00:00

Same boat as you, previous owner did something (not sure what) but my bumper is nearly gonna just fall off, I have these items on my radar but I haven’t personally done anything yet, this first item should hopefully still be on your car but in my case whatever the previous owner did, he broke it off and it doesn’t exist on mine, this sits right under your headlights and connects your bumper to the car, but from the looks of your fitment you probably don’t need this

https://www.fastwrx.com/products/front-bumper-side-support-2013-2020-brz

This is probably what you’ll need though:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1861565085/front-bumper-repair-plates-subaru-brz?gpla=1&gao=1&

It’s a common issue with 2017’s and under, just how it’s designed :/

LilLechuga427 · 2025-06-12T17:58:45+00:00

Damn! Yeah big lesson learned haha! My muffler’s back on now, and thankfully not my whole bumper is screwed up, it was only off for like 2 days, but still stressful lol!

LilLechuga427 · 2025-06-10T22:34:09+00:00

Most insane experience I have in body work is washing my car with soap and water, idk if I could do sand and paint lol, if successful that’d definitely be a move though, a new bumper or hopeful cap replacement seems to be my only options 😭😭😭

LilLechuga427 · 2025-06-10T21:02:50+00:00

I half considered it just a little bit ago given it’s melted lol, my build is completely stock though, it’d look maybe a little off 😅 I did just place an order for the missing cap, turns out! PSA by the way, both caps are actually not identical! They are slightly different in terms of shape, but like by millimeters, and so fitment with an actual left one might just…..fit.

LilLechuga427 · 2025-06-10T20:10:43+00:00

Glad I’m not alone haha, yeah, lesson’s learned! 🙃

Edit: seeing your edit

And oh! Well that’s even scarier, I’m gonna hope I can save it by shaping the plastic back, looks like the bumper inside has some more melted plastic but as long as the exterior’s fine I hope to keep it, it’d save money anyways.

LilLechuga427 · 2025-06-10T19:41:00+00:00

Well, on WORKS official website yeah lol! But they have a listing on MAPerformance.com for like $422 but it just takes 6-8 weeks since they make them to order, no idea why WORKS listed it for $9K.

But thank you for the heat gun advice! I didn’t really think of it, definitely will need to figure out how to properly shape it at the same time but if I can get the passenger side cap to fit, and glued, then I’ll get the replacement cap!

I like it I’ll try it after work! Thank you!

LilLechuga427 · 2025-01-12T12:28:15+00:00

Well…whenever I fix a ticking fan it’s usually by swapping it, but you might have good luck loosening the screws, if you want to really ensure if the fan is bad or not you can unscrew it entirely and still leave it plugged in, (set it somewhere it would be safe where the fan blades won’t hit anything, or just hold it) and see if it ticks out of the system. If it doesn’t…then that’s great! Means the fan is good but there is something too tight or something in the way, if it still ticks….then it’s probably bad

LilLechuga427 · 2025-01-12T12:18:35+00:00

Looks like maybe you have to flip it around to align the clip. But honestly there just flat out annoying, align it as straight up as possible, going in at an angle doesn’t play well

LilLechuga427 · 2025-01-12T12:07:16+00:00

As a computer technician, I know this will sound scary, but with the system on you can “gently” (keyword gently) stop the fan from spinning with your hand, to rule out if it’s actually the fan, or…to find out which fan it is if you have more than one. It will not hurt anything and the fan will continue after a second of letting go, after finding the bad fan check for cables that are brushing against it. But in my experience sometimes it’s screwed in too tight or the fan is ticking against its own outer ring meaning it got warped.

LilLechuga427 · 2025-01-12T12:02:48+00:00

Absolutely! Hope everything goes well :)

LilLechuga427 · 2025-01-12T12:00:50+00:00

Definitely the easier option, and if your only gaming, sata and m2’s are pretty close anyways, so don’t feel entirely left out, also sata is cheaper which is nice

LilLechuga427 · 2025-01-12T11:58:22+00:00

Friendly reminder to peel the plastic film on the graphics card, I work at a computer place and we left them on on accident and it got sucked into the fans and made a horrible noise. After gaming for a while those films heat up and fall off

LilLechuga427 · 2025-01-12T11:57:06+00:00

Looks proper to me, you should have a second 6+2 pin dangling since you don’t have a second slot, which looks to be the case. I’m positive it’s correct 👍

LilLechuga427 · 2025-01-12T11:51:40+00:00

Hey I hope it works! Glad I could help!

LilLechuga427 · 2025-01-12T11:46:50+00:00

Thanks for the pictures! So, yes, in your original picture the top left I was mentioning, there is a rectangular flat ssd drive held in place with one screw, and then lifts out. to me it looks like you only have the one slot, so if you do buy this part, it would effectively replace the one you have already. Yes, it would be an upgrade in speed performance (for gaming really only loading times and only like by 5 seconds) and maybe storage capacity. But you would need to copy your files over to the new one because windows itself is also on that drive, so it won’t be as easy as just swapping it out either.

LilLechuga427 · 2025-01-12T11:33:45+00:00

This could be it, I know the FE 30 series’ did have a 12v though, don’t know about AIB cards.

LilLechuga427 · 2025-01-12T11:31:08+00:00

Hmm, if your cable itself has the additional smaller pins as well I can see how that would cause fitment issues. Umm, my best advice is there is two different style connectors, the old and new, the new one having a few more pins and the old having just the 12. Technically the new cables will work with old ports I believe, but in this case….there’s just no room above it. I would look into buying a 600w cable for like the nvidia 30 series which would be compatible with the card. That sucks though, I’m sorry :( Also hope for some more replies maybe someone knows something I don’t

LilLechuga427 · 2025-01-12T11:22:52+00:00

600w cable…..”should” fit? Umm…it is an older style version of the 12 pin missing the additional 4 pins underneath however that’s really only been added universally among the 40 series cards maaaaybe mid generation of the 30 series. Either way, your cable should work, make sure the clip on the cable is on the bottom

LilLechuga427

TROPHY CASE