LED Compatible Relay Question

[Midnight Specialist]

I installed LEDs from superbrightLEDs on all the exterior and most of the interior lights yesterday and was not able to get to changing the LED compatible relay. However, the turn signals and hazards work without the new relay in. The flash rapidly, but still work. Should I replace the relay anyways or will this work? I only ask because I am going on military orders for a few months at the end of the week and leaving the car with someone and don't want to leave them a "time bomb" if that relay is not replaced.

[Christian Dietrich]

Yes you should replace it to have a normal flash rate. All my LED are from SBL also. I got the LED relay from a vendor.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200722/36b10909ca9c08de445be0c5704361af.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200722/d9a41c119ef04b2237a2e0e6ef3ac13c.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200722/784f04780a9a4db3730226553a802c03.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200722/419488d56324c64e6ca65ba856881590.jpg

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[Midnight Specialist]

Thanks Christian,

I'll try and get over to my car before I go and swap that out. I appreciate the help.

[Christian Dietrich]

No problem. Its not hard to replace at all. Under the dash on the left side of the steering column next to the Lucas wiper module.

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[jangell]

You won’t damage the car with the wrong flasher unit. The resistance of the bulbs is used as part of the timing circuit. LEDs have very little resistance, so the capacitor in the unit charges faster causing the lights to blink faster. This is also why the turn signals flash faster when one of the bulbs is burned out. The LED flashers use a different method to time the flashes and don’t have this problem.

I also did an LED conversion a few months back. The flasher module is very common part; I got mine from Amazon. The trick is picking one where the E and B pins are one he correct side of the center pin. If you get it backwards, your LEDs won’t flash at all, although you can kludge a fix to that by building some jumpers to swap the pins (or just return it and buy the right module). I have a picture of the module I’m using and the original module side by side here: http://www.tmproductions.com/repairs-and-maintenance-blog/2020/1/6/led-taillights

— Joe

[tc connors]

I use this flasher purchased from Amazon with no problems: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00XAU66V4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Bitsyncmaster]

You don't need to rush to change it. Not a safety issue, just gives you the correct flash rate.

[Midnight Specialist]

Thanks for all the help guys. I attempted to change it out and the connector is really brittle and started falling apart. The cover of the relay also fall off. Since I don't want to open that can or worms so close to leaving the car for a while, I sealed up the ares of the connector that was broken off with electrical tape and connected it to a wiring harness that was next to it. Should hold till I get back. Function check of the lights still works. 64046640476404864049

[Elvis]

You won’t damage the car with the wrong flasher unit. The resistance of the bulbs is used as part of the timing circuit. LEDs have very little resistance, so the capacitor in the unit charges faster causing the lights to blink faster. This is also why the turn signals flash faster when one of the bulbs is burned out. The LED flashers use a different method to time the flashes and don’t have this problem.
...

— Joe


oh really ? LEDs have a lower resistance than a bulb ? so why is everybody using LEDs now ?

Mr Ohm's law...


has nobody ever tried to modify the original blinker relay to work with LEDs ? Shouldn't be rocket science.