Patrick - LED Taillight problems

[DanEC]

I tried some of my above mentioned testing this afternoon and came up with some interesting results.

1. Disconnected both red (parking light) leads at the rear tail lights. Turned on the key and the flasher. Tested both red leads for any sign of voltage and came up with 0 volts.

Stuck the VOM probe on the tail light socket for the red wire and got a significant fluctuating voltage at both of them (fluctuation with flashing). To me that is pretty convincing that the power to the parking lights (with lights off) is coming through the bulbs.

Installed my 2357 bulbs and repeated the test and got 0 voltage at the red wire socket on the bulb holder.

2. Next I took one of the pilot bulbs and hooked it up to my battery charger (putting out about 10 volts - thought they would be higher) and with a VOM checked voltage at the other contact.

With voltage to the flasher contact I got bleed over of .46 Volts at the parking light circuit. With voltage on the parking light circuit I got voltage leaking over to the flasher lead of 6.26 volbs.

I pulled one of the SuperbrightLEDs out of my GTX and tested it. Power to the flasher contact I got 0 volts at the parking light contact. Power to the parking light contact I got 3.64 volts at the flasher contact.

So, in conclusion I'm pretty sure the Pilot lamps are junk and anybody reading this shouldn't waste money on them. Still doesn't completely explain my problems with the SuperbrightLEDs and maybe someday I will pull them out of my GTX and go through some checks. But they seem to also have some leak over between circuits and I don't know why this affects my car more than some others. Re-installed my 2357 bulbs and buttoned everything up for now.

Thanks for all the help and support.