Patrick - LED Taillight problems

[DanEC]

I just had a thought (no snide remarks please) - the people who have chimed in on this thread and said LEDs work in their tail lights in ERAs, have the round tail light option which I believe uses 4 bulbs instead of one being a reflector. Kevens2 has round lights, I know Patrick does, I think Large Arbor does. I have the rectangular tail lights with one bulb each.

Possibly, it takes the 4 LED lights together with the front ones to create the resistence properties necessary for everything to work. Without my parking lights on there just isn't enough load in the system and something is going wrong. When I turn on my parking lights the extra load on the system brings everything on and it works fine.

Is there anyone out there who hasn't given up on this thread already, with rectangular lights and had sucess with LEDs in the tail lights.

[patrickt]

I have the rectangular lights. Put everything back together, with the LEDs in the back, and REMOVE the #6 fuse. Try turning on your tail/parking lights. You shouldn't be able to because the fuse is out. Now, try your turn signals and see if they work normally.

[patrickt]

Now, assuming, with Fuse #6 out of the car, and both of the two little fast blow fuses installed properly, the LED turn signal still flashes all four corners regardless of whether you're signalling left or right, then I want you to remove ONE of the fast blow fuses and try the turn signals, in both directions, and report the results.

[DanEC]

Duhh - yeah guess I should see you have rectangular in your avatar. But, I think you have wired in a third brake light too - which may add some load somehow.

I'll see what happens with #6.

[DanEC]

I pulled #6 fuse killing the parking lights. When I turned the turn signals on all 4 corners and license plate light flashed including the parking light led units in the tail lights. Turn the parking light switch on for the heck of it and there isn't any change.

Reinstalled #6 fuse and pulled one fast blow TR fuse. Key on and turn signal on - all 4 corners flash with the one TS direction. In the other direction only the front light flashes and the rear are all dark. License plate light also flashes so turn signal circuit is energized.

Pulled #6 fuse and one TR fast blow fuse, key on, parking lights off, turn signal on - all four corners flash including the parking light led units as well as the flasher ones. Flipped parking light switch on but no different.

Forgot to check with #6 fuse out but I tuned off the parking lights and turned on the turn signals and the panel lights do blink with the lights. I hadn't noticed before as I had the adjustment turned to off.

Grounds still hooked up from lights to battery.

[patrickt]

I think I might know what it is, but I want to be absolutely sure, that with Fuse #6 out of the car, and both fast blow fuses in, with the key on and the turn signal on can you see if the panel lights on your gauges are blinking? I understand that all four corners of the car are blinking.

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by patrickt

I think I might know what it is, but I want to be absolutely sure, that with Fuse #6 out of the car, and both fast blow fuses in, with the key on and the turn signal on can you see if the panel lights on your gauges are blinking? I understand that all four corners of the car are blinking.

Yes - with #6 pulled.

But I've know for some time that the parking light circuit is somehow getting energized by the flasher circuit when the parking light switch is off. The dash lighting controller is pulling power from the common termination at fuse 6 with the parking lights.

There's not many places the parking lights could be getting power from - Dimmr relay to headlights to light switch - something at the ignition switch?? Or the brake light switch could be feeding power from the turn signal switch through fuse 5 and then fuse 4 to the flasher unit. It seems this would be showing up with regular 1157 bulbs in place however.

I'm still kind of on the theory of some sort of internal cross-talk inside the LEDs because of low load.

[patrickt]

You might not have noticed this, but see if when all four corners are flashing, because you're just signalling left or right, and Fuse #6 is out of the car, look and see if the panel lights for your gauges are also blinking ever so slightly. That would be a real clue if that was occurring.

[Xack]

Originally Posted by DanEC

I just had a thought (no snide remarks please) - the people who have chimed in on this thread and said LEDs work in their tail lights in ERAs, have the round tail light option which I believe uses 4 bulbs instead of one being a reflector. Kevens2 has round lights, I know Patrick does, I think Large Arbor does. I have the rectangular tail lights with one bulb each.

Possibly, it takes the 4 LED lights together with the front ones to create the resistence properties necessary for everything to work. Without my parking lights on there just isn't enough load in the system and something is going wrong. When I turn on my parking lights the extra load on the system brings everything on and it works fine.

Is there anyone out there who hasn't given up on this thread already, with rectangular lights and had sucess with LEDs in the tail lights.

Patrick and Dan,
Dan, You did mention that you have 4 blinker relays? or 2? or 1? In most cases the blinker has at least 3 incandescent lights in a normal circuit. Front, Rear and the dash indicator. If you have a blinker relay for each light, the problem may be that each relay only has one LED for it's load. It's not easy to tell from the discussion. Most LED distributors sell loads for the LED blinkers to operate correctly. Do you have something like this installed? However it seems this is the opposite problem... Normally the load is needed to get the relay to blink. All your lights are blinking !! ??? I am cornfused!