LED bulb replacement

Hi all, I recently replaced my rear taillight globe with LED, success on the reverse lights but the indicators nothing and an alarm sounding. Do I need to replace the indicator flasher with an updated LED version ? Thanks

yes you do i have done the same thing and had to change it. It is under the drivers side dash if you remove the lower dash pad you will find it near the ignition switch.

Thanks Ruffnut, is it a 3 pin ??

by memory yes it is but I would check it first.

The flasher relay needs modding or changing out for a LED compatible one as stated.
I modified mine to stop it flashing super-fast by making the internal current sense resistor bigger (adding some thin wire in a loop in series with it), but that is slightly insane when a new one is so cheap . Just check the connections, Battery, Ground and Lamp.

OldestP i swapped in led bulbs for the stop/tail bulbs...only the stop works...tail does not...any clues?

geoffreyKZH138V wrote:

OldestP i swapped in led bulbs for the stop/tail bulbs...only the stop works...tail does not...any clues?

I discovered that all the LEDs I added to the tailgate, failed the moment I slammed it shut. It seems a certain design of LED (The high power ones with 3 faces/strips are a bit fragile...!

I suspect the 'corn cob' style ones are tougher, which I switched to.
Also some LEDs have interconnected tail/brake elements which causes odd effects.

You'll have to take them out and test them with a 12V source (battery, not a charger - too much voltage).

In my humble 'been there, got the T shirt' view, LEDS only make sense for brighter front driving/side lamps and the indicators (with a new LED compliant flasher relay) as the crisp on/off looks very cool!

Contemplating LED lamps, too.

One reason for my possible change is that I hope they draw and therefore need to dissipate much less heat. In addition to less draw on wiring and general electrical load I’m hoping to lessen the brittling in fittings that happens with light + age. Am also contemplating LEDs for interior too, for broadly the same reason, but there the domestic electrical draw rather than heat will be the thing.

Back to the outside, there are quite a few posts on here about LEDs and a while ago I saw a post asking for a volunteer to do a complete swap. I volunteered but heard nothing back.

Interested to know whether LED lights are allowed as direct swaps (from H4(?) headlights for example) in the UK? Same for fogs? I can’t see any problem with indicators and side lights, though I’ve got some odd side bulbs that I’ve posted elsewhere about. I think the original one in there is a shielded 35W/5, yes not a P21W/5 which are a common bright/steady bulbs like stop/tail.

One nugget I’ve heard is to use ‘red coloured’ LEDs in stop/tail situation. I can’t comment, but it makes sense. LEDs have a very narrow spectrum output unlike incandescent bulbs, so a white light and a coloured (red) filter might mean insufficient light is emitted. Possible the same might apply to indicators, I don’t know.

Seems best to use the best quality LEDs there are. Fit once – last forever, especially in the tailgate which are subject to the door slam, plus they are a real pain to get to. I’ve replied to another post on the tailgate trim where I showed my working on tailgate disassembly.

Thoughts??

Keep in mind that a filament lamp gives a nearly constant light output until the instant the filament fails or the bulb gets broken, while LED arrays progressively diminish in light output from the day they're first installed (I read that the actual diode stays OK but the epoxy coating becomes progressively more opaque thus reducing the transmitted light) so you'd need to be assured that even after quite significant fade your lights will still be compliant with your country's regulations. The pattern of emission differs in many cases also and this may make them non-compliant too.
No issue in the domestic part of course, but care needs to be taken with the colour temperature so that there's no great eye strain and colours of objects are rendered nicely.
You would certainly need red LED's for brake and rear clearance lights and orange for indicators for the reason @LH119V stated above.

LH119V wrote:

Seems best to use the best quality LEDs there are. Fit once – last forever, especially in the tailgate which are subject to the door slam, plus they are a real pain to get to. I’ve replied to another post on the tailgate trim where I showed my working on tailgate disassembly.  

Thoughts??

Hi!

Mine were very bright and solid, high quality items.. these LEDs are simply not designed for the type of impacts doors receive. They have tiny wires connecting them up, and in mine they simply failed.

My advice is to leave them all alone except perhaps the side lights and indcators - in practice it's a waste of time changing the tail lamps. Although in the lamps fitted to the body, LEDs may work well - no slam there, and filiaments on automatics don't last so long.