LED

    Hello,


    I have a 2004 wrangler TJ and installed rear LED tailight/turnsignal lights, not just the bulbs, but the whole housing.
    I then replaced my front turn signal and side marker OEM bulbs with LED's.


    My issue is, when my headlights are off everything works fine, no hyper flashing, just the normal flashing.
    Now when I turn my headlights on, my taillight turn signals work fine, but front turn signals and side markers do not flash at all. They are lite like normal, but no flashing.
    I put a LED flasher in, but did not rectify the problem.


    Do I need LED load resistors for front turn signals and side marker lights?


    Any insight would be greatly appreciated.


    Thanks

    Hmmmm... interesting. In my YJ, I have also changed all of the bulbs out to LEDs except for the front turn signals (near future). I also used the full LED replacament housing on the rears but haven't had any adverse side effects with any of the lights, front or rear. I would say try the load resistors to see if that helps your issue. I know that the rear housings have all of the necessary circuitry built in to allow them to work with the stock wiring and the flasher relay you installed shoud do the same for the front turn signals. I'd say take the flasher relay back and exchange it for a new one on the off chance you may have got a dud. Please keep us updated on as I'm curious how this turns out since I'll be changing out my last two lights to LEDs here soon.

    Your life is made up of 2 dates and a dash... make the most of the dash!

    I had LED's in all of the exterior lights with a LED flasher from NAPA and they barley light up. I had a friend behind me one night and he asked if I was using my turn signals, which I was and he said could not hardly see them working.


    I ordered Rear LED tail lights form Quadratec, and was waiting on them while I had the LED's in. A new LED flasher came with the LED tail lights and switched out the one from NAPA and installed the one from Quadratec. Like I said, everything works fine, all are bright, much better than the NAPA LED flasher, which barley even worked.


    Just really strange how when I turn on the headlights, the front turn signal and side markers do not flash.
    I am going to try the load resistors on front and will keep you posted.


    Thanks for the response

    These (click here) are the ones I picked up from Pep Boys a few years back. When you open them up, the control board is inside the housing. I didn't need to use an LED flasher relay with these as the control board lets them work off of the stock wiring and flasher relay. I may need to add a flasher relay when I change the front turn signals to LED bulbs though. I'm hoping that if I need to use a LED relay that it won't affect how the tail lights work.


    Is it possible to reseat the front LED bulbs with a 180* turn into the socket? I don't know if it will help w/ the flashing issue when the headlights are on but it's worth a shot. My experience with LED bulbs are if you put them in 180* wrong they just don't work until you orient them correctly. I'm guessing it probably won't help since they work when the headlights are off though. Do they flash if you just turn on the running lights w/o the headlights on? Will they flash when you turn the hazards on both w/ and w/o the headlights on? Just trying to spitball some off the wall ideas that may save you some headache of splicing in a resistor.

    Going to try that tomorrow. Did not have much time today to mess with it.


    I did however turn the bulbs 180 when I put them in, because at first they did not light up at all until I turned them.


    Yea, and my tail light LED's look just like those in the picture.


    I will keep you posted as to what I find when try the things you mentioned.


    Thanks

    When headlights are off, all turn signals work fine. As well as hazards.


    When I turn the driving lights on, tail lights work fine, front turn signals are lite, but do not flash and side marker lights do not light up at all or flash. Same thing happens when I turn on the headlights.
    Also, only tail light hazards flash when driving lights are on as well as headlights.


    I do not know where to go from here. I am not sure if the resistors will make a difference. I guess it is worth a shot.
    Have not purchased them yet.

    It would be really odd for it to die at the same time as the the LEDs were swapped in but the symptoms sound similar to when the multifunction switch craps the bed. Id either start taking stuff back to stock and testing all the permutations of signals and headlights on until the problem goes away and you isolate it or pay the $50 for the switch if you feel like throwing $$ at it.


    Just my 2 cents, from what I've read a lot of the drop in led's put out significantly less lumens than the stock bulbs. A long life 1157 bulb might run $2 or so and last a few years, if it's cheaper and brighter and can be swapped in 30 seconds when it does die I wouldn't say LEDs are an upgrade.

    Thanks will check that as well. This is the strangest thing. LOL


    Works fine when headlights are off, but as soon was I turn on parking lights or headlights they just light up no flash, the side markers do nothing except when lights are off, then they flash just fine.

    Try swapping the front sidemarkers back to an incandescent and retest...without some wiring an LED in the front sidemarker won't work and will have some funky behavior. If you're intent on LED's for the marker bulbs there are ways to wire around it but this will at least show if that's the issue.


    --Ian

    Thanks,


    I did do that and the front turn signals worked fine, so put LED side marker's back in and same problem, so has to do with the side markers.


    Any suggestions. I would like to keep the LED side markers if possible. Does it have something to do with the floating ground or no ground to the side markers?


    Do I need resistors on side markers and front turn signals?


    Thanks

    Yes, it's 100% to do with the floating ground and doesn't require any changes to the turnsignal, just the sidemarkers. The only way around it is to either convert to just a marker (won't flash with signal), a signal (doesn't light with parking lights), or rewire to be a 3-wire FPT setup (requires a resistor and two diodes to prevent backfeed). The first two just require changing the appropriate wire to a ground, the second is more difficult as it would require a ground and the additional wiring/components noted. IMHO none are worth it, stay incandescent on those.


    --Ian

    The side markers in my Xenon flares only light and don't flash. I recently changed them to LEDs and haven't had any issues with them. The new flares were put on before I really even drove the Jeep (3 days then BOOM accident) so I don't know if they were ever part of the flasher. I do know that there are only 2 wires running to each marker... a positive and a ground.

    Your life is made up of 2 dates and a dash... make the most of the dash!

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