Had a tail/brake light out so I replaced both of them with two 45 SMD red dual-intensity LEDs. They give a great, bright, crisp glow compared to the halogens. Of course, they are causing the light-out indicator to glow so I bough two 6 ohm load resistors to trick the computer. The problem is I cannot figure out which wires to connect them to. The tail/brake lights have three wires coming from them: red, green and black. I have tried the load resistors on all combinations of the three and still have the light-out indicator.

What's going on? Does anyone know specifically which is the "hot" wire and which is the ground (these are the two the resistor is supposed to connect to)? Thanks.

 

I'm no expert here but I thought they went from ground to the power wires, that is in parallel with the bulb.
Do a search on the use of them on Google.

 

Yes you are 180

 

Please explain further, as I'm sure you're more of an expert than I am. My biggest problem is identifying the right wires.

 

There is only 1 ground wire. The other 2 wires are for the brake and tail filaments. You are going to need 2 resistors for each lamp in order for the bulb out lamp to stay out. Figuring out which wire is which should be easy. Turn the tail lights on, only 1 wire will be powered. Same with brake on but tail lights off. The third wire is ground.

 

I just read something on a Honda forum that said the red wire is the tail-light power, the green is the brake light power and the black is the ground. With that said, should I wire two resistors? One that is red wire to black wire and the other that is green wire to black wire (Ground)?

 

Saved this from the trailer threads.. don't blame me if it's wrong.. lol


Trailer Wires --------------- Crossfire Wires
1. Green (right turn signal) -- Orange in right trunk
2. Yellow (left turn signal) --- Orange in left trunk
3. Brown (running lights) ----- Red either left or right trunk
4. White (ground) ------------ Brown, ground nut on either wheel well
5. Blue (brake light) ----------- Green either left or right trunk

 

Yes, you will wire a resistor between each individual power wire and the single ground.
The resistors are there to act like the resistance that a normal filament type bulb has. LED bulbs have no internal resistance, hence the need for an external one.
The computer is simply looking for this resistive connection between the power wire and ground to determine if the bulb is still good/present or not. When the bulb burns out, or removed, resistance goes to infinity and no current can pass through the circuit.

 

Thanks for the great responses. Any ideas from anyone on where to mount the resistors to keep the from bouncing around? And also to keep them from melting anything?

 

WOW, Really??
6 ohm resistors are WAY low, they draw 12 volts /6 ohms = 2amps per resistor. Thats too too much.

I would anticipate nothing less thatn 12 ohms for a 1 amp load, more likely 18 ohms for my choice, but remember that they generate heat so they have to be big resistors physically.

I would consider a safer choice, add a regular light bulb in parallel with the led light bulb. This needs to be a socket and leads to parallel the existing socket so that your doing two lamps to draw the correct power. The car is looking for a certain current to believe the lamp is good, the leds are going to draw a goodly less current value.

There are many ways to add to the current but resisitors are hard to match up and not melt something, you could be in traffic for many minutes at a time, MORE than youd guess. You dont want to have a concern for leaving your foot on the brake for fear of overheating something.

By the way the power lost in a resistor is 12 x 12/ your resistor . Example 144/6 ohms = about 24 watts per resistor. There are soldering irons that are 25 watts............

12 ohm resistors are going to heat up with 12 watts, 24 ohm resistors would draw 1/2 amp and dissipate 6 watts. You picks your resistor and you takes your choices.

Woody

 

Exactly what I did Woody when I went to LED's. I picked-up a bunch of ashtray lights (pigtails and bulbs) at the boneyard and wired them in to prevent the annoying bulb out light. This has been discussed in several other threads as a solution, a very simple fix.

 

I'm starting to like the idea of the even easier fix of electrical tape..

 

I don't understand this statement, and I re-read the rest of the thread.
Please explain about the electrical tape fix ........

 

You carefully take a piece of electrical tape

and place it over the light out indicator..

Creative people can/will cut in a circle for appeal...

 

O !!!
THAT electrical tape mod .......
Now I'm with you.

 

I'm just starting to think a patch.. is a patch.. pigtails and bulbs or tape.. either way you'll still have to check to see if all lights are working.