Turn signal flasher/ relay
08-03-2007, 09:35 PM
#2
There isn't one. It's built into the BCM. I asked this question a few months ago because I was designing some LED taillights and didn't want to use load resistors.
Some guys who run Euro lights have messed around with reprogramming the BCM to not get a "fast-flash" that is associated with the low current draw of LEDs.
What did you need to do to the relay if there was one? Doing LED work?
Some guys who run Euro lights have messed around with reprogramming the BCM to not get a "fast-flash" that is associated with the low current draw of LEDs.
What did you need to do to the relay if there was one? Doing LED work?
08-03-2007, 09:55 PM
#3
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
There isn't one. It's built into the BCM. I asked this question a few months ago because I was designing some LED taillights and didn't want to use load resistors.
Some guys who run Euro lights have messed around with reprogramming the BCM to not get a "fast-flash" that is associated with the low current draw of LEDs.
What did you need to do to the relay if there was one? Doing LED work?
Some guys who run Euro lights have messed around with reprogramming the BCM to not get a "fast-flash" that is associated with the low current draw of LEDs.
What did you need to do to the relay if there was one? Doing LED work?
they turned out Perfect! all exterior light are LED
no funny light patterns or anything,
just flash to fast.i tried resistors but those did not work right, id rather do it the other way
08-03-2007, 10:08 PM
#4
I'm not sure if its possible to yet to reprogram the BCM to disable the "burnt-out bulb" via a Predator-type device. I don't get my car until September time-frame, but I plan on trying to remove that feature so I can run my LED tails without load resistors.
You can buy load resistors here:
http://autolumination.com/equalizers.htm
You'll want the 6 ohm versions. MAKE VERY SURE YOU DO NOT ATTACH THEM ANYWHERE CLOSE TO PLASTIC OR EVEN USE SCREWS TO ATTACH TO PLASTIC. They get so hot and even will transfer that heat down metal screws to plastic and eventually melt that too.
You can buy load resistors here:
http://autolumination.com/equalizers.htm
You'll want the 6 ohm versions. MAKE VERY SURE YOU DO NOT ATTACH THEM ANYWHERE CLOSE TO PLASTIC OR EVEN USE SCREWS TO ATTACH TO PLASTIC. They get so hot and even will transfer that heat down metal screws to plastic and eventually melt that too.
08-03-2007, 10:21 PM
#6
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
I'm not sure if its possible to yet to reprogram the BCM to disable the "burnt-out bulb" via a Predator-type device. I don't get my car until September time-frame, but I plan on trying to remove that feature so I can run my LED tails without load resistors.
You can buy load resistors here:
http://autolumination.com/equalizers.htm
You'll want the 6 ohm versions. MAKE VERY SURE YOU DO NOT ATTACH THEM ANYWHERE CLOSE TO PLASTIC OR EVEN USE SCREWS TO ATTACH TO PLASTIC. They get so hot and even will transfer that heat down metal screws to plastic and eventually melt that too.
You can buy load resistors here:
http://autolumination.com/equalizers.htm
You'll want the 6 ohm versions. MAKE VERY SURE YOU DO NOT ATTACH THEM ANYWHERE CLOSE TO PLASTIC OR EVEN USE SCREWS TO ATTACH TO PLASTIC. They get so hot and even will transfer that heat down metal screws to plastic and eventually melt that too.
i hooked as directed and every other way but all has same effect fast clicking with little difference between on / off
in other words it was better without them
i looked at the relay box under hood and was no signal relay
08-03-2007, 10:26 PM
#7
Ok, trying to understand here. You won't get an error on the DIC, just a fast flash indicating burned out bulbs.
Did you do both the fronts and the backs? You basically need 1 load resistor per LED bulb. So if you did the tail lights, each of the four needs a load resistor placed in PARALLEL (NOT series) between the TAIL and GROUND wires of the harness. I did this with my LED taillights and it worked perfect, got the same flash rate as before.
For the fronts, same idea, but you probably don't need as big of a load resistor. Figure out how much current the front turn signals draw and then get the appropriate load resistor.
Hope this helps. I tried thinking different ways of not using the load resistor, but unfortantely it is the only way for now. Let me know if you have any more questions.
Did you do both the fronts and the backs? You basically need 1 load resistor per LED bulb. So if you did the tail lights, each of the four needs a load resistor placed in PARALLEL (NOT series) between the TAIL and GROUND wires of the harness. I did this with my LED taillights and it worked perfect, got the same flash rate as before.
For the fronts, same idea, but you probably don't need as big of a load resistor. Figure out how much current the front turn signals draw and then get the appropriate load resistor.
Hope this helps. I tried thinking different ways of not using the load resistor, but unfortantely it is the only way for now. Let me know if you have any more questions.
08-03-2007, 10:33 PM
#8
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
Ok, trying to understand here. You won't get an error on the DIC, just a fast flash indicating burned out bulbs.
Did you do both the fronts and the backs? You basically need 1 load resistor per LED bulb. So if you did the tail lights, each of the four needs a load resistor placed in PARALLEL (NOT series) between the TAIL and GROUND wires of the harness. I did this with my LED taillights and it worked perfect, got the same flash rate as before.
For the fronts, same idea, but you probably don't need as big of a load resistor. Figure out how much current the front turn signals draw and then get the appropriate load resistor.
Hope this helps. I tried thinking different ways of not using the load resistor, but unfortantely it is the only way for now. Let me know if you have any more questions.
Did you do both the fronts and the backs? You basically need 1 load resistor per LED bulb. So if you did the tail lights, each of the four needs a load resistor placed in PARALLEL (NOT series) between the TAIL and GROUND wires of the harness. I did this with my LED taillights and it worked perfect, got the same flash rate as before.
For the fronts, same idea, but you probably don't need as big of a load resistor. Figure out how much current the front turn signals draw and then get the appropriate load resistor.
Hope this helps. I tried thinking different ways of not using the load resistor, but unfortantely it is the only way for now. Let me know if you have any more questions.
never had a D.I.C message. ONLY fast flash
yes leds all arround, so your saying i need 6 total resitors??? one for EACH bulb?
i have only seen them in loads of 3 or 6 ohm... so i need 6ea. 30ohm
resistors before they all flash normal?
i thought the resistors would slow each bulb down independently.
w/o all of them beiing installed.
i have no electrical tools to test anything. i dont know if i installed series or parallel. i did one wire to ground and one to turn wire as directed. made little difference,
sory if this hard to follow i dont type to well and it takes allot of time hehe
thanks!
08-03-2007, 10:55 PM
#9
The C6 Corvette uses a three wire system:
1) Ground
2) "Tail" (which is the low voltage signal that makes your taillights "dim" when the lights are on but no brake or turn signal active)
3) "Brake/Signal" which is the high voltage signal that is active during braking or turn signal activity. This is the wire you need to connect your load resistor to and ground.
This is how it works: When you activate your flashers the BCM is able to detect how much current is drawn from the voltage supply on the BRAKE/SIGNAL line. When it draws too little, it trips the warning circuit, giving you a "fast flash". Load resistors basically "spoof" the circuit by drawing the same amount of current that the old incandescent bulbs used to.
The 3357 bulbs in your taillights draw about 2.2 amps of current each; quite a bit. Your new LEDs probably draw about 1/10 of that. In order to draw the same amount of power and spoof the BCM, you need a 6 ohm resistor installed for EACH LED bulb.
The 5702KA bulbs in your front turn signals/DRLs supposedly draw 1.92A when blinking, which is quite a bit. You are safe putting a 6 ohm, 50W load resistor for EACH LED bulb up there too.
You also could have installed the load resistors on the WRONG wire. You could have installed them on the TAIL (the signal that makes the bulbs DIM when you have the headlights on but no turn signals or brakes active) wire instead of the BRAKE/SIGNAL. This would help explain why you see no difference with them installed, but even if you did install one per side correctly, it still isn't drawing enough current (drawing 2 A instead of expected 4A from the power supply) and thus you're still tripping the "burned out bulb" feature.
You need to get a multimeter and find the correct wire for the turn signal and not the brake line and tap your load resistor into that and ground. If you need more help on finding those wires, let me know.
So in summary,
1) You need four(4) 6 ohm resistors for the taillights, and two (2) 6 ohm resistors for the front turnsignals/DRLs.
2) Make sure you install them on the turn signal(BRAKE/FLASH) wire and NOT the tail(DIM) wire!
1) Ground
2) "Tail" (which is the low voltage signal that makes your taillights "dim" when the lights are on but no brake or turn signal active)
3) "Brake/Signal" which is the high voltage signal that is active during braking or turn signal activity. This is the wire you need to connect your load resistor to and ground.
This is how it works: When you activate your flashers the BCM is able to detect how much current is drawn from the voltage supply on the BRAKE/SIGNAL line. When it draws too little, it trips the warning circuit, giving you a "fast flash". Load resistors basically "spoof" the circuit by drawing the same amount of current that the old incandescent bulbs used to.
The 3357 bulbs in your taillights draw about 2.2 amps of current each; quite a bit. Your new LEDs probably draw about 1/10 of that. In order to draw the same amount of power and spoof the BCM, you need a 6 ohm resistor installed for EACH LED bulb.
The 5702KA bulbs in your front turn signals/DRLs supposedly draw 1.92A when blinking, which is quite a bit. You are safe putting a 6 ohm, 50W load resistor for EACH LED bulb up there too.
You also could have installed the load resistors on the WRONG wire. You could have installed them on the TAIL (the signal that makes the bulbs DIM when you have the headlights on but no turn signals or brakes active) wire instead of the BRAKE/SIGNAL. This would help explain why you see no difference with them installed, but even if you did install one per side correctly, it still isn't drawing enough current (drawing 2 A instead of expected 4A from the power supply) and thus you're still tripping the "burned out bulb" feature.
You need to get a multimeter and find the correct wire for the turn signal and not the brake line and tap your load resistor into that and ground. If you need more help on finding those wires, let me know.
So in summary,
1) You need four(4) 6 ohm resistors for the taillights, and two (2) 6 ohm resistors for the front turnsignals/DRLs.
2) Make sure you install them on the turn signal(BRAKE/FLASH) wire and NOT the tail(DIM) wire!
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N8 Wavy (11-03-2021)
08-03-2007, 11:19 PM
#10
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
ok i get exactly what your saying...
all i need to figure is what wire is wich w/o multimeter...
on the rear left theres blk, a brown grn wire
on right rear theres blk brn and pale yellow wire
unknown fronts yet.
i only have 2 resistors so even hooked up correctly ill they still shouldnt work
does that sound right
how much would you charge for 4 resistors>?
all i need to figure is what wire is wich w/o multimeter...
on the rear left theres blk, a brown grn wire
on right rear theres blk brn and pale yellow wire
unknown fronts yet.
i only have 2 resistors so even hooked up correctly ill they still shouldnt work
does that sound right
how much would you charge for 4 resistors>?
08-03-2007, 11:41 PM
#11
This is the picture of the taillight socket looking INTO it. Note the socket is round except at the top which is somewhat rectangular where the three wires enter the socket. Note my diagram is keyed this way.
Unfortantely, as I do not have my Corvette yet, I cannot tell you which wire is which. Hopefully this diagram above can help. You would need to connect the resistor between the wires that are connected to the BRAKE(+) and the ground wire (the BRAKE and TAIL pins share the same ground wire).
You really should invest in a $20 multimeter from radio shack to figure this out. If not, I guess you could tap one wire, turn on your headlights ONLY and see if the resistor gets warm. If it does, then you tapped the wrong wire. Tap the other one.
I'd sell you a set of four resistors for say $20 + shipping. PM me if you're interested.
04-09-2010, 12:05 PM
#14
Intermediate
Member Since: Feb 2007
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Did you or anybody else ever try to reprogram the BCM to disable the "burn-out-bulb" function? Those load resistors tend to get VERY hot if you keep your foot on the brake for more than a couple of minutes (eg. traffic jam). I screwed them on an old CPU-Cooler. But they still get pretty hot sometimes and even start to melt the surrounding wires.
Would love to disable the burn-out function. Or maybe one could simply change the fast-blinking frequency to a lower frequency.
Would love to disable the burn-out function. Or maybe one could simply change the fast-blinking frequency to a lower frequency.
Last edited by Bitbuster; 04-09-2010 at 12:12 PM.
04-09-2010, 11:17 PM
#15
Drifting
Are there 12 ohm 50 watt resistors available? If so you could use 2 in parallel to give you the 6 ohm value but you would have 100 wattts of cooling available.
Also I found 4 ohm 100 watt load resistors they are 7 inchs long and should dissipate the power well with out any very hot temps on the case. Those would have to be fastened to something due to the length and mass.
Also I found 4 ohm 100 watt load resistors they are 7 inchs long and should dissipate the power well with out any very hot temps on the case. Those would have to be fastened to something due to the length and mass.
I'm not sure if its possible to yet to reprogram the BCM to disable the "burnt-out bulb" via a Predator-type device. I don't get my car until September time-frame, but I plan on trying to remove that feature so I can run my LED tails without load resistors.
You can buy load resistors here:
http://autolumination.com/equalizers.htm
You'll want the 6 ohm versions. MAKE VERY SURE YOU DO NOT ATTACH THEM ANYWHERE CLOSE TO PLASTIC OR EVEN USE SCREWS TO ATTACH TO PLASTIC. They get so hot and even will transfer that heat down metal screws to plastic and eventually melt that too.
You can buy load resistors here:
http://autolumination.com/equalizers.htm
You'll want the 6 ohm versions. MAKE VERY SURE YOU DO NOT ATTACH THEM ANYWHERE CLOSE TO PLASTIC OR EVEN USE SCREWS TO ATTACH TO PLASTIC. They get so hot and even will transfer that heat down metal screws to plastic and eventually melt that too.
04-10-2010, 04:14 PM
#16
Did you or anybody else ever try to reprogram the BCM to disable the "burn-out-bulb" function? Those load resistors tend to get VERY hot if you keep your foot on the brake for more than a couple of minutes (eg. traffic jam). I screwed them on an old CPU-Cooler. But they still get pretty hot sometimes and even start to melt the surrounding wires.
Would love to disable the burn-out function. Or maybe one could simply change the fast-blinking frequency to a lower frequency.
Would love to disable the burn-out function. Or maybe one could simply change the fast-blinking frequency to a lower frequency.
Regulations state that if a light of the turn signal is none functional a fast flash must be enabled.
Anybody selling LED compliant to regulations will have to implement that feature, installing the load resistor is losing compliance to the regulations.
a++ Cedric
04-12-2010, 06:19 PM
#18
04-12-2010, 10:11 PM
#20
Electrical contact issue. BCM hyper flashes when it thinks that a light bulb is dead.
If no light bulbs have issues then it is probably the bumps on the road that are your ennemy.
Start with the front turn signals as they more prone to dislodging and dirt. Take the bulbs out, clean the contacts and make sure they are firm.
You can have a clue if you notice whether it is the left or the right turn signal.
a++ Cedric
If no light bulbs have issues then it is probably the bumps on the road that are your ennemy.
Start with the front turn signals as they more prone to dislodging and dirt. Take the bulbs out, clean the contacts and make sure they are firm.
You can have a clue if you notice whether it is the left or the right turn signal.
a++ Cedric
Last edited by CroOrange; 04-12-2010 at 10:45 PM.
