Brake light bulb type and LED bulb discussion

[notquitesane]

Yeah it's in parallel.  I was lucky with my old 2008 Fusion and only needed 1 resistor when I replaced both front and back bulbs.  I was able to do that with the C-MAX too until I started using the ebay bulbs.  It would be fine if the headlights are off, but with the headlights on it would hyperflash. 

 

I suppose you could measure the load your bulbs draw, compare that to what an incandescent draws and calculate what resistor you'd need to make up the difference. 

[okashira]

I need less then stock power draw. thats the point of the LED's lol

I guess for the turns it's not a big deal.

[notquitesane]

For me, instant on/off and no amber showing when off was the whole reason for switching to LED!

[okashira]

For me, instant on/off and no amber showing when off was the whole reason for switching to LED!

 

The benefits are numerous.. they are a no brainer. I cancelled my order for the turns on ebay, found some on Aliexpress for $2.50 each.

 

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/2pcs-Car-Brake-Light-LED-Automobile-Lamps-W21W-W21-5W-27-LED-SMD5050-T20-7440-7443/1611976111.html

 

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/2X-T25-3156-3157-3047-3357-Car-Auto-Stop-Brake-Turn-signal-Backup-light-bulb-5050SMD/932141725.html

 

Think they will fit?

Edited August 26, 2015 by okashira

[notquitesane]

They might.  Does your 2013 have that extra bit covering the rear turn signal and reverse bulbs?  The bulbs you listed will stick out 22mm more than the stock bulb.  

[okashira]

Dunno. Its an early 2013 I think. Low vin #. Guess I'll find out

[okashira]

I did get the led headlight working, kinda.

 

 

The problem is the PWM circuit in the car. The car uses PWM to control the bulb brightness. The car uses two settings:

66% duty cycle for DRL, and 90% duty cycle for HL.

 

The problem is, between 60% and 91%, the car has some reaction with the LED driver and thinks there's a short. But it works fine from 1%-59% and at 100%. Even dims the LEDs fine.

Except that you can only use those settings when running FORScan so it's useless. Don't think I want to load up FORScan just to turn on DRL and HL everytime I drive. Maybe a custom OBD command can be programmed to always tell the car to set a certain brightness.

 

There is some reaction between the PWM and the LED driver circuit.. I will try a RC circuit smooth it out... or will have to build another circuit to piggy back.

 

Ford could fix this with a software update ..

 

I have some "new," adapter circuit coming from China that might work.

[notquitesane]

When I had HID's in my Fusion, I used a 4700 uF capacitor per side to smooth out the PWM stuff.  Could work with the LEDs I think.

[okashira]

My Chinese VCM II / Ford IDS shipped today,maybe I get lucky and there are settings for lights that can be changed ...:-/

[okashira]

When I had HID's in my Fusion, I used a 4700 uF capacitor per side to smooth out the PWM stuff.  Could work with the LEDs I think.

 

The problem is not the LED but the car. A cap could make it worse. I will try it... but I think an RC filter would be better,something like 0.5 ohm - 1 ohm series resistor.

[okashira]

As I posted in other thread, got the LED headlights/DRLs working with 50 ohm parallel resistor. Pretty happy with that.

 

Also installed the LED amber turns in the mirrors and the white puddle lights. Was pretty easy and I didn't do it like the other guides say to do it.

I accessed it from the outside by adjusting the mirror in and down. just pull on the mirror a little and if you have small hands you can get in there and fish the lights out and back in.

 

And did the inner red tails.

Question - They don't seem to be dual brightness- are they supposed to light up brighter with applied brakes, or light up at all without HL on and brakes applied??

 

 

 

Led on left stock on right. In the pic the LED looks dimmer,but I couldn't see the difference in person.

The inners don't get brighter with applied brakes, and don't light up with applied brakes with HL off. Is that normal?

 

Edited September 7, 2015 by okashira

[notquitesane]

The inners do not get brighter when you press the brakes.  They only come on when you turn the head lights on.

[okashira]

thanks. they are working fine then

Also did the outer tails, and not happy with them. they are crap.

They could be good, but poor quality. One is brighter then the other, and the first one has the projector LED flash randomly with brakes.

I will avoid all in the future with the center projector crap. useless

already ordered some replacements

 

Edit: so that means the inner tails should be 1156 style NOT 1157 style. I wonder if mine would be brighter if I flipped them 180 degrees or shorted the two positive pins.

Edited September 8, 2015 by okashira

[notquitesane]

If you use an 1156 or short the two pins, then it will look like you have a European car with rear fog lights always on.  As soon as you turn your headlights on, the inner tail lights will light up bright, like the outer lights with the brake depressed.  This is why an 1157 is required, so it will light up dim and match the outer lights when you are not pressing on the brake.  1156 has either bright or off.  1157 has bright, dim or off.

 

Now if you hacked into your wiring harness and connect the inner tail light wire to your center brake light wire, then you would have all 4 tail lights on when you hit the brakes, but the center ones wouldn't glow dim with the head lights turned on.  Or if you added an additional contact below the 1157 bulb and connected that to the center brake light, then you'd have all 4 tail lights turn on dim with the head lights and bright when you hit the brakes.

[okashira]

If you use an 1156 or short the two pins, then it will look like you have a European car with rear fog lights always on.  As soon as you turn your headlights on, the inner tail lights will light up bright, like the outer lights with the brake depressed.  This is why an 1157 is required, so it will light up dim and match the outer lights when you are not pressing on the brake.  1156 has either bright or off.  1157 has bright, dim or off.

 

Now if you hacked into your wiring harness and connect the inner tail light wire to your center brake light wire, then you would have all 4 tail lights on when you hit the brakes, but the center ones wouldn't glow dim with the head lights turned on.  Or if you added an additional contact below the 1157 bulb and connected that to the center brake light, then you'd have all 4 tail lights turn on dim with the head lights and bright when you hit the brakes.

Good point. It's supposed to be dim. I'll leave it. Thanks for the info. :)

Edited September 8, 2015 by okashira

[okashira]

50 Ohm resistors arrived and replacement brake lights. They are good. Bright and good fill.

 

1k resistors are required across the bright side to ground. Otherwise, they will throw a code and be too bright when taillights are on. As soon as you connect the 1k resistor, they get dimmer.

 

Here is the best way to add the resistor for the brake light. This is the RH side. Just solder straight to the steel plates.

 

 

And the LH side:

[okashira]

Also did center light. This one also needs a resistor to stop codes. Really easy to add, just soldered to the back copper connects on one of the bulbs:

[okashira]

When my new turns come in 

(THESE ARE GARBAGE: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/2pcs-Car-Brake-Light-LED-Automobile-Lamps-W21W-W21-5W-27-LED-SMD5050-T20-7440-7443/1611976111.html)

I will see what kind of resistor is needed for the turns.

These are the turns I have coming:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/330928569212?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&var=540180904502&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I am quite sure they will be good because these are good for the rear tail light:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/191604813306?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[okashira]

By the way, the diagrams for CK sockets online are WRONG for the brake lights!!! I had to switch the dim/bright leads.

 

^^ that is WRONG. Swap dim/bright. I doodled it correct in blue.

Edited September 13, 2015 by okashira

[notquitesane]

yeah it seems there isn't a standard when it comes to vehicle wiring.  I had to flip the wires for a set of brake lights that were  7443 CK.  Seller told me my car is wired backwards.  I soldered in my 1K ohm resistors the same way as you did for the tail lights.

 

I hope your new turn signal lights work better!  I like the ebay ones I bought.  Nice and bright.

[okashira]

Got the rear turns, and did resistance testing with my rheostat on the rear turn circuit.

 

16.6 ohms, with my turns in the rear was the cross over point between hyper flashing and normal. I will go with ~15.8 Ohm (three 50 ohm in parallel with three 1000 ohm in parallel)

 

At first I thought it was strange that the blinkers required much lower resistance then headlights, but I think it is because the blinker LED is much lower power then the headlight LED's..

[okashira]

I'm just going to order 15 ohm resistors. Too lazy to mount up all those crazy resistors in parallel.

BTW, just to confirm, these did turn out great for the turns:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/330928569212?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&var=540180904502&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&rmvSB=true

Nice and bright, about as bright as stock bulbs (this is great, stock is pretty bright)

Excellent fill. You can't even tell they are LED except for the instant response.

[okashira]

How the hell do you get the license plate bulbs out? I think i busted them up trying to get the cover off.

[notquitesane]

I totally deformed the spring clip removing one for the first time.  I had to bend it back into roughly the same shape for it to fit tight.  I think you just try to push over the spring clip with a screw driver.  There should be a notch for it to fit on one side.  What I did wrong was that I just started prying down and bent the spring clip the wrong way and bent it all out of shape.  The other side went much more smoothly after ruining the first one. lol

[okashira]

Uh, could you make a video how you removed it? :D