I am following the lead of another member thinking I should install led lights for the brakes/blinkers/back up lights. What I have discovered:
"When converting a vehicle for use with LED Turn Signal bulbs, it is often not enough to simply replace the regular incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs. In many cases, you will have to either replace the car's flasher module, or trick the flasher module into thinking that there are "regular" bulbs in your car......and here is why:
An LED bulb only consumes a very small amount of electrical current. The turn signal flasher (if it's a regular "thermal" flasher) was designed for bulbs that consume a lot of power: The power consumed by the bulb runs through the flasher and heats up a bimetal switch. When the bimetal deforms from the heat, it breaks the circuit (causing your lamp to go off), this causes the switch to cool down and go back to it's original shape (it will close the circuit again, the lights come on, the switch heats up, and the cycle begins again).
If the amount of power going though the switch is very little, not enough heat is generated in the flasher to cause the bimetal to bend. The most common symptom is that your turn signal lights simply stay on. If you run a MIX of regular and LED bulbs (say regular in the front, LED in the back), you may not notice it but if your incandescent bulb breaks, you're back to nothing-flashing. "
BTW, my duster has 2 flashers:
Turn Signal EF32 Hazard TF552/536
To fix, you either get an equivalent led compatible flasher (or 2 in my case) or install load resisters. I have found an equivalent for the first but not the second.
How would you go about adding a load resistor on the line and how would you spec it out.. ?
I have looked for the power use specs on several lights but no joy..
ian.
