I have LED's all around and all of the sudden i have the relay flasher just bussing w/ no flash at all. Went and bought a replacement electronic flasher from the local parts store and same issue. Anyone have any ideas of what might be causing it? If I remove one LED from any corner it goes away. I am so confused. Thanks for the help in advance.

 

LEDs require different resistance and voltage. So it could be causing the issue. And once you remove the LED on the corner it works. Just an idea. I know the kids in the 4 cylinder cars that do this get whats called "ricer flash" or "tweeker blinker" Since the voltage is not the same as a regular bulb the system thinks a bulb is out and causes a faster flash.

 

What's the bottom line on the attractiveness of LED lighting?

It can't truly be reliability, as I see them with individual segments out, and THAT looks like crap!

It might make sense for the OTR guys, who have lots and lots of lights, and they DO draw less current, freeing up generating capacity for other things, but that's not usually the case for SuperDutys.

Can anyone give me a good reason to consider converting?

Pop

 

When comparing lumens per watt...LEDs are far superior. However, the diodes are highly directional so the optics needs to be carefully designed to diffuse the light evenly across the lens so it's intensity and visibility is more uniform. This generally makes for a very expensive lens so the hard truth is that incandescent bulbs are still a better choice. This is especially true for vehicle that were not originally designed to have LED fixtures so there is no good reason to convert.

In my opinion, converting to LEDs is more likely to cause problems with electrical system or even the PCM so I've always just stuck with the OEM bulb type and they seem to last quite a long time. In fact, more than half of my bulbs are original after 12 years of service so I can't complain. Why change something that isn't broke?

The ONLY exception might be for trailers. We generally leave our trailers parked until we need them and it's nice to have a fixture that is almost guaranteed to work (even if a diode or two is out...). I have converted all my trailers to LED lighting because it's one less thing that I have to worry about when I need to hook up. Luckily trailers only need red and amber for most locations....red and amber are the best and most reliable LEDs out there. White is horrible...it's really just a blue diode with a phosphorus lens that tries to make white (sorta like a fluorescent lamp) so it's a poor substitute for a real white light bulb in my opinion.

 

I second everything above. I have a sailboat and power is not in ample supply. All my lighting is LED - anchor and interior is an excellent use of white LEDs. My trailers are all LED and I have no problem using LED dome/courtesy lights because one could always leave a door open without risking the battery charge.

Back to the answers: Blinker relays count on a certain amperage through the lighting circuit to work properly. Remove an incandescent bulb and the flashing speeds up. Remove two and the flashing goes nuts. Install LEDs and the flash relay sees the same current as removing several lamps - and you see the result. You need a lamp relay designed for low amperage and I don't know if the aftermarket has caught up with that or not.

 

Just installing an electronic flasher may not be enough. Make sure you have an Electronic LED flasher.

As mentioned above, the normal flasher relies on the resistance of a normal light bulb to create the timing for the on/off cycle of the turn signal. Replacing the bulb with LEDs removes that resistance. The 2 strategies to get around this are are to use an electronic LED flasher or install a resistor kit.

 

Anyone had detailed pics of installing a resistir kit? I searched to no avail. Thanks

 

Nope, I sure can't, but I sure see alot of Municipal and State vehicles with them.

 

Just installed LED's all the way around on a 2002 F-350 and a LED specific electronic flasher from NAPA (about 25 bucks) fixed all the issues I was having. The hardest part was finding the flasher relay under the dash and ended removing most of the dash to get at it.