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  #16  
Old 02-26-2015, 09:47 PM
cowboybilly9mile cowboybilly9mile is offline
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Default Re: LED lights not working.

1n4007, a one amp diode. This is ok to use with the LED's but if you opted to wire a diode(s) in permanently, and if you ever went back to the incandescent bulb, and if you used one of these diodes with the brighter of the two filaments in the incandescent bulb, then it the draw would be more than one amp and it would fail. Again, only if you went back to incandescent and for that one filament would this matter.
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Last edited by cowboybilly9mile; 03-03-2015 at 10:15 AM. Reason: Ooops....part number correction.
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  #17  
Old 02-27-2015, 12:17 AM
buggman buggman is offline
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Default Re: LED lights not working.

The load resistors really try to trick the vehicle into thinking it has regular bulbs by increasing the resistance.

I'm thinking it may be the style of led you're using as I've encountered some issues with some types of led's in brakes/turn signals. A lot of the led's out there have nothing to prevent the "low" setting voltage from leaking back through the "high" voltage wires & vice-versa... in other words when the parking lights are on low, some of the voltage may leak back into the brake high setting causing the issues.

By using a couple diodes, one on the high & one on the low power input to the led bulbs, any excess voltage from one shouldn't leak over to the other. Since my 96 has the 3 bulb tail light setup I haven't been able to do extensive testing with this theory for those who have the 2 bulb tail lights, but the principal should hold true for both.

I always like to use "protection" diodes in my circuits to prevent just such an issue even when there's only one voltage source coming into the circuit.

When/if I ever get caught up with some other projects I plan on digging into this more in depth myself... I have some super bright red 3157 led's that some have had issues with & it could be this same leaking voltage causing the issues. For now I'm going back to getting some older style red led's that have always been reliable even without additional diodes to be modded in.

Let's keep this thread updated as I know a few of us are trying different things & I'm sure once a solution is found it will be valuable to everyone upgrading to led's in the brakes & turn signals.
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  #18  
Old 02-27-2015, 06:31 AM
Conner9802 Conner9802 is offline
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Buggman do u think I should get the ep27 and just try it?
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  #19  
Old 02-27-2015, 08:20 AM
johnday johnday is offline
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Default Re: LED lights not working.

The EP27 flasher will do nothing to prevent anything but hyperflash. In other words, it will do zero to prevent backfeeding from either side of the LED "bulb", and causing your other lights to glow.
Are you sure you have the correct LED tower? From what I've seen, some that are sold for tail lights, etc., are really not what you want. You need dual brightness LED's, like one rated to replace your OEM lights, like a 3157, for tails/turns, and for your front turn signals. Now this is for a Ranger that uses those bulbs. Make sure you replace with the correct LED.
What Terry and Bill are saying makes perfectly good sense. When you have your "park" lights on, power is flowing to the dim/low side of your light, and with a regular bulb, there's no problem. With some LEDs, power leaks back into the bright/high side, and will illuminate your brake lights etc., And if enough power "leaks" back, it could light up everything. Diodes will help with this.
I've a small 6X10 trailer, that I wired all LEDs into. When I plug it into the Ranger, [all LEDs], and turn park lights on, ALL my lights on the Ranger brighten up, even the third brakelight. I know what the problem is, just haven't fixxed it yet.
You could try going to superbrightleds, that's where all on my Ranger came from, and I've had almost zero problems. The almost comes in when it is subzero out, I turn the parks on, and the third brakelight faintly glows. Not a huge problem, and I'm even a little OCD.
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  #20  
Old 02-27-2015, 08:24 AM
shelbyrhymer shelbyrhymer is offline
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image-2890344840.jpg

This is how I had to do mine
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  #21  
Old 02-27-2015, 08:25 AM
shelbyrhymer shelbyrhymer is offline
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My flashers wouldn't work had to use stock bulbs and if you use all LEDs you can't see the numbers
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  #22  
Old 02-27-2015, 08:30 AM
johnday johnday is offline
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Default Re: LED lights not working.

Possibly, some of the problems that guys see with LEDs, is not buying quality ones to begin with. Good ones are not cheap, I think mine ran me around $25 a piece. Are they really worth that? Only the vehicle owner can determine that. I like the way they look, so in my case, yes.

----------

Quote:
Originally Posted by shelbyrhymer View Post
My flashers wouldn't work had to use stock bulbs and if you use all LEDs you can't see the numbers
That is caused by "hotspots", not really the same thing as the OP's problem. Buggman has a habit of taking care of that.
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  #23  
Old 02-27-2015, 08:35 AM
Conner9802 Conner9802 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by johnday View Post
The EP27 flasher will do nothing to prevent anything but hyperflash. In other words, it will do zero to prevent backfeeding from either side of the LED "bulb", and causing your other lights to glow.
Are you sure you have the correct LED tower? From what I've seen, some that are sold for tail lights, etc., are really not what you want. You need dual brightness LED's, like one rated to replace your OEM lights, like a 3157, for tails/turns, and for your front turn signals. Now this is for a Ranger that uses those bulbs. Make sure you replace with the correct LED.
What Terry and Bill are saying makes perfectly good sense. When you have your "park" lights on, power is flowing to the dim/low side of your light, and with a regular bulb, there's no problem. With some LEDs, power leaks back into the bright/high side, and will illuminate your brake lights etc., And if enough power "leaks" back, it could light up everything. Diodes will help with this.
I've a small 6X10 trailer, that I wired all LEDs into. When I plug it into the Ranger, [all LEDs], and turn park lights on, ALL my lights on the Ranger brighten up, even the third brakelight. I know what the problem is, just haven't fixxed it yet.
You could try going to superbrightleds, that's where all on my Ranger came from, and I've had almost zero problems. The almost comes in when it is subzero out, I turn the parks on, and the third brakelight faintly glows. Not a huge problem, and I'm even a little OCD.
I got my LEDs from o Riley's and they're the OEM replacement ones. Lol this is my first time doing all LEDs. I'm just confused.
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  #24  
Old 02-27-2015, 09:57 AM
johnday johnday is offline
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Default Re: LED lights not working.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Conner9802 View Post
I got my LEDs from o Riley's and they're the OEM replacement ones. Lol this is my first time doing all LEDs. I'm just confused.
I've looked at ones at AZ and AA, but didn't buy them, they just didn't look like high quality to me. Pretty sure that you're back feeding. Have you had time to do what Bill said? He's got some pretty good photos in his album that shows what he's talking about.
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  #25  
Old 02-27-2015, 10:02 AM
Conner9802 Conner9802 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by johnday View Post

I've looked at ones at AZ and AA, but didn't buy them, they just didn't look like high quality to me. Pretty sure that you're back feeding. Have you had time to do what Bill said? He's got some pretty good photos in his album that shows what he's talking about.
Haven't tried it yet. I need to. I'll look in his album to see
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  #26  
Old 02-27-2015, 12:58 PM
buggman buggman is offline
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Default Re: LED lights not working.

It's always a good idea to upgrade to the ep-27 flasher when using led's in brakes & turns. It generally remedies most issues related to led's like hyperflash but there has been some new issues popping up lately that we need to dig into further... a few of us are spitballing some ideas & I think we're on the right track.

Not all led's are created equal, even the uber expensive ones can have issues, it has a lot to do with how they're made & if they skimp on parts to make them quicker or easier.
I've had to mod some of my led's by adding heavier duty resistors, diodes, etc to help prevent as many issues as possible, but sometimes the led's are made so that it's nearly impossible to get them apart to see what's going on inside.

For the cluster led's, there are literally dozens of different T10 base led's that will physically fit in the bulb holders but in my experience I like my 5smd style led's that throw light in all directions. They tend to have less hot or dim spots than other style led's. While not 100% perfect they're still better than the old dim bulbs & should last much longer.

If/when I find a led that's better than what I like right now it will replace my current led's.
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  #27  
Old 02-27-2015, 01:13 PM
Conner9802 Conner9802 is offline
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Buggman ik your the guru of LEDs so I'm just gonna explain my exact problem cuz I have no clue what to do. I have a 98 xlt. I put LEDs in the reverse lights and tail lights and had no problems whatsoever. Then I put LEDs in the rear turn signals and it hyperflashed so I installed load resistors in each side and it fixed my problem 100%. Now the problem. I go to install even one led in one of the 4 front turn signal slots and if I have all lights off and turn on a blinker everything starts flashing. I guessing that's the back feeding. But if I turn on my parking lights or headlights the led bulb only has half of the lights on like its supposed to so that it will be dim, then I turn that blinker on and it hyperflashes. I'm just so confused with wiring
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  #28  
Old 02-27-2015, 02:22 PM
johnday johnday is offline
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Default Re: LED lights not working.

You need resistors on the front as well, or, get an EP27 flasher. The flasher will cost about the same, or less, as 2 resistors. The flasher is the better way to go, no splicing anything, just plug and play. Using the resistors work, but in effect, you're damaging the insulation on your wires by the splicing, and have to tie up the resistor somewhere. And if you used something like quick splices, instead of strip/solder, you've wound up with an inferior splice.
If it was me, I'd get the flasher, remove the resistors, and heavily coat the damaged insulation with either liquid electrical tape,[preffered], or get some heat shrink on there.

This will only remedy the hyperflash, NOT the backfeed.
Where did your LEDs come from? Like Terry said, ""Not all LEDs are created equal". I'm suspecting there is at least one maker out there that really cheapened the process, and is putting out inferior units.

Oh, I see you did say O'Reallys.
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Last edited by johnday; 02-27-2015 at 02:33 PM.
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  #29  
Old 02-27-2015, 02:31 PM
Conner9802 Conner9802 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by johnday View Post
You need resistors on the front as well, or, get an EP27 flasher. The flasher will cost about the same, or less, as 2 resistors. The flasher is the better way to go, no splicing anything, just plug and play. Using the resistors work, but in effect, you're damaging the insulation on your wires by the splicing, and have to tie up the resistor somewhere. And if you used something like quick splices, instead of strip/solder, you've wound up with an inferior splice.
If it was me, I'd get the flasher, remove the resistors, and heavily coat the damaged insulation with either liquid electrical tape,[preffered], or get some heat shrink on there.

This will only remedy the hyperflash, NOT the backfeed.
Where did your LEDs come from? Like Terry said, ""Not all LEDs are created equal". I'm suspecting there is at least one maker out there that really cheapened the process, and is putting out inferior units.
I got mine from orileys
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  #30  
Old 02-28-2015, 10:32 AM
cowboybilly9mile cowboybilly9mile is offline
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Default Re: LED lights not working.

Quote:
Originally Posted by johnday View Post
Using the resistors work, but in effect, you're damaging the insulation on your wires by the splicing....
IMO, never tap into a wiring harness unless there is absolutely no other way to accomplish a task. Which brings us to the next point...

Quote:
Originally Posted by johnday View Post
And if you used something like quick splices, instead of strip/solder, you've wound up with an inferior splice.
I personally hate those with a passion, they are noting mre than a cheap cop out to doing it right (splice + solder + marine grade shrink pipe) that results in an exposed connection, subject to becoming a future bad connection and potentially being a PITA for you or someone else to locate.

Quote:
Originally Posted by johnday View Post
If it was me, I'd get the flasher, remove the resistors, and heavily coat the damaged insulation with either liquid electrical tape,[preffered], or get some heat shrink on there.
Get out the jewelers screwdrivers or "the tool", remove pin and wire from the connector, remove the offending cheap a$$ wire tap, inspect the wire for damage, slide on marine grade heat shrink pipe and complete the job. Water and winter road chemical tight.

----------

Quote:
Originally Posted by buggman View Post
The load resistors really try to trick the vehicle into thinking it has regular bulbs by increasing the resistance.
For people that feel they need to use resistors or have not got the desired result with the EP27, they could always use those test leads I mentioned earlier and a 3156 or 3157 bulb as a resistor to do a quick test. Yeah, the resistance of the bulb is about what those resistors are, and you can do the test with those test leads BEFORE tapping into your harness (if you really think you must tap into it).
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