Definitive led thread for 80s (2 Viewers)

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I am sorry for not being more specific. The question is about the diff lock light. I am sorry for not being clear.
 
I was fortunate and the park and so forth only come on when they are suppose to. But this light won’t go off. Any suggestions? I may see if I can find an oem bulb if that will help. when I put the truck in 4wd low it does get brighter, but is always on otherwise. It’s the only light that seems to be doing that after putting in leds.
Try turning the bulb 180* and reinstalling it. I had this happen on a couple of the led bulbs I installed. I think it has to do with the polarity. I’m not sure But it worked for me.
 
First issue with new leds: when I push the brake pedal the turn signal indicators illuminate on the dash. They’re not as bright as when the actual flashers are flashing but it’s noticeable. Is this typical for an led swap? Anyone have led bulbs up there that don’t do this or will I have to put normal bulbs back in?
Thanks.

I went back into my dash and replaced the led turn signals with stock bulbs. I was tired of the issue I posted above and the led bulbs I used for blinkers are a little too bright at night when the other dash lights are turned down.
 
Let me start by apologizing for not reading through all 23 pages of this forum. I would appreciate the secret of knowing how to change the little light bulb out of the ashtray? second I am thinking about ordering LED lights from superbrightleds.com for the dome lights, door lights, glove box, vanity visor lights, and the map light. I did read a lot of the beginning pages and I came across the concerning issue of the LED early demise due to voltage surges in the LED vs halogen bulbs. So do I need to install an inline voltage regulator or something along those lines?

i was thinking that since all of the lights I am planning to install are off when the ignition is started that they might Not be susceptible to the power surging issue?

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I bought most of my LED bulbs from SuperBrightLEDs.com. They listed the bulb for the ashtray the same bulb as the key ring light. Unfortunately, that was wrong. The bulb plugged in, but was too long. I never bothered researching more into what the correct bulb is, but the stock bulb is very short. I couldn't find an LED that short.
 
I bought most of my LED bulbs from SuperBrightLEDs.com. They listed the bulb for the ashtray the same bulb as the key ring light. Unfortunately, that was wrong. The bulb plugged in, but was too long. I never bothered researching more into what the correct bulb is, but the stock bulb is very short. I couldn't find an LED that short.
Yes but how do I get to the light bulb in the first place? I tried twisting and pulling, pushing, twisting, pulling.... I tried to take out that green plastic piece but I dint want to force things and break something. i checked the owners manual but nothing tells me how to access it.
 
Yes but how do I get to the light bulb in the first place? I tried twisting and pulling, pushing, twisting, pulling.... I tried to take out that green plastic piece but I dint want to force things and break something. i checked the owners manual but nothing tells me how to access it.

The green plastic stays. It's been a while since I worked on it. So, actually don't remember. Don't want to give you wrong info.
 
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The green plastic stays. It's been a while since I worked on it. So, actually don't remember. Don't want to give you wrong info.
Success... next road block! Now how do I remove the light bulb? I mean wow it just seems to be one whole mechanism sorta like the 12v lighter bulb.

for anyone stumbling across this the black port going into the ash tray needs to be twisted so that those flat grip areas are accessible side to side and then push it to an side angle and use a miniature flat head screw driver to pry it out.
 
It is
The green plastic stays. It's been a while since I worked on it. So, actually don't remember. Don't want to give you wrong info.

It is a #74 bulb, the same as the glove box. I took the bulb out of the glove box and replaced the ashtray dead bulb to test it. For some reason the light bulb doesn’t work in the glove box, it just slips out of the socket... that is next on the repair list.

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I installed a full set of exterior LED bulbs from superbrightleds.com today, as well as their LED blinker module.

The I ran into an issue where the tail/brake light dont work right when I have LEDs installed though.

Basically, when the lights are on, the LED tail lights work at first, until I press the brake. The brake light turns on (they get brighter), but when I let off, the whole bulb goes dark.

Once its dark, the brake light still works, but the tail light never comes back until I cycle the lights.

When I put one LED and one incandescent bulb, everything works normally, so this is some kind of resistive problem, or some kind of relay I need to replace.

I used their flasher module for the flasher circuit, which fixed hyper flashing, so I guess I need to find if there is a tail/brake light LED module for the rear, or I need to install a resistor.

I can hear a relay clicking in the rear near the sub. I suspect this is whats controlling the tail/brake light when I press the brake.

Any ideas?

Bulb in question:


Details on the bulbs I bought:

 
It just occurred to me I have the towing package, which may add some complexity to the circuit. Anyone else run into this (or not) when running led tail/brake lights?
Going to also try swapping the tail light relay.

would be cool to find a solution that doesn’t involve load resistors
 
I find it hard to believe it is the relay. Especially if you hear it working. LED's are weird. I have never run into more problems with lights before. The only LED's I use are some super bright reverse lights which work for me since they diffuse well. I have seen problems with lag times with LED's so it would not surprise me if it is a lamp voltage issue. Some LED's require precisely 12V or they either burn out or don't work. Could have something to do with the towing package as you suspected. But to be honest, I would check new bulbs before doing rewiring. Bulbs are cheap and easy to replace quickly in order to check.
 
I find it hard to believe it is the relay. Especially if you hear it working. LED's are weird. I have never run into more problems with lights before. The only LED's I use are some super bright reverse lights which work for me since they diffuse well. I have seen problems with lag times with LED's so it would not surprise me if it is a lamp voltage issue. Some LED's require precisely 12V or they either burn out or don't work. Could have something to do with the towing package as you suspected. But to be honest, I would check new bulbs before doing rewiring. Bulbs are cheap and easy to replace quickly in order to check.
I ordered 2 sets of the red. I’ll try swapping today. Blinkers and reverse leds seem to be working find.
 
Some progress:

- I openen the rear side panel to re-discover a towing brake light thingy vamp tapped into my brake/tail light wires. Not planning on towing so I removed that.
- LED Tail lights work perfectly now.

except....

When when the key is in in LOCK or ACC, and I turn on the lights, tail lights turn on in parking lights, but as soon as I switch on the headlights, the tail light turns off. While off, if I hit the brake, tail light comes back on.

When I turn the key to ON, started or pre-start, the tail light works perfectly, and I can toggle headlights as much as I want and the tail light stays on.

Good enough for me.

I tried removing the headlight relay, and the issue with tail lights turning off between parking and headlight goes away.

So I'm concluding that relay noise, under certain circumstances causes these LEDs to shut off....

So... maybe there is a way to clean up the relay noise, maybe tapping some caps to compensate for the voltage drop due to the headlight relay. Probably just deal with it as is. I'm planning to upgrade to LED head lighting as well, so maybe that will affect the situation further, we will see.

So, if you are having sporadic LED behavior:

- Check the behavior when the car is in ON, running or not.
- Look for any relays in the tail light wiring, and consider moving or removing it.
- Load resistors might also help. Test by having one incandescent and one LED to simulate this.

My only idea right now is these 1157 LEDs have some kind of shutoff circuitry to prevent LED everglow, and the noise from nearby relays can set it off.
 
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I think I remember trying to find some and it was hard to find. I think I ended up having to go to some of the parts yard guys to have them pulled. I bought some but they didn't fit. I ended up just changing them out to green LED's. I will check to see if I saved the old covers. I remember being careful to save them, but now I will have to dig around and see where I put them.
 

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