modifying flasher for led signals
Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Lights, Neon, LEDs, HIDs
Forum Discription: Under Car Lighting, Strobe Lights, Fog Lights, Headlights, HIDs, DRL, Tail Lights, Brake Lights, Dashboard Lights, WigWag, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=95335
Printed Date: April 16, 2024 at 12:41 AM
Topic: modifying flasher for led signals
Posted By: wungun
Subject: modifying flasher for led signals
Date Posted: July 04, 2007 at 6:02 PM
I need to modify the way my Ford Focus flashes the turn signal to compensate for LED signal lights (rapid flashing) I think the flashing duties are handled by the GEM... Has anyone modded one before?
Replies:
Posted By: i am an idiot
Date Posted: July 04, 2007 at 9:40 PM
The Led's do not pull near the current that your incadescent bulbs did. The car thinks you have a burnt bulb, the lack of current draw is the culprit. You may have to figure out how to get the bulbs back into the circuit along with the Led.
Posted By: copcarguy
Date Posted: July 04, 2007 at 11:52 PM
Whelen Engineering sells a part which is basically a dummy load that we use when converting fire apparatus from incandesent to LED. Part # LEDLOAD. You will have to purchase an individual load for each flashing lighthead. Good luck!
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R Jackson
Owner/Installer
TRM Emergency Vehicles
Information is advice only and should be confirmed with OEM or quality test equipment.
Boyertown, Pennsylvania
Posted By: wungun
Date Posted: July 05, 2007 at 7:28 AM
Posted By: copcarguy
Date Posted: July 05, 2007 at 8:58 AM
I cna't view this without a username and password but sorry my solution wasn't what you were looking for.
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R Jackson
Owner/Installer
TRM Emergency Vehicles
Information is advice only and should be confirmed with OEM or quality test equipment.
Boyertown, Pennsylvania
Posted By: wungun
Date Posted: July 06, 2007 at 7:45 AM
Here is what controls my flashers (I think), among other things... 
Posted By: copcarguy
Date Posted: July 06, 2007 at 7:52 AM
OK...so do you want the flashers to behave as the regular incandesent bulbs did or are you looking for some special flash pattern?
If you want to have them operate factory original then the LEDLOAD will work, you just put one in series with each bulb/array at the lense assembly and away you go.
Let me know and I will try to help out as much as I can.
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R Jackson
Owner/Installer
TRM Emergency Vehicles
Information is advice only and should be confirmed with OEM or quality test equipment.
Boyertown, Pennsylvania
Posted By: wungun
Date Posted: July 06, 2007 at 8:09 AM
Thanks...when you say in series, do you mean inline with the ground OR positive lead, or across both the + and - lead? I imagine it would work either way?
Posted By: copcarguy
Date Posted: July 06, 2007 at 8:16 AM
Here is a link to the installation instructions Whelen is usually pretty straight forward with their directions.
www.whelen.com/install/135/13574.pdf
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R Jackson
Owner/Installer
TRM Emergency Vehicles
Information is advice only and should be confirmed with OEM or quality test equipment.
Boyertown, Pennsylvania
Posted By: js305
Date Posted: July 22, 2007 at 11:20 PM
When changing regular stop and turn signals to LED's you need to add a resistor to each side. I use a 10 ohm 50 watt resistor. This simulates the load that a lamp like an 1157 or equivalent draws. This needs to be wired in parallel with each turn signal lamp. Splice one lead into the "hot" wire and ground the other to a convenient location.
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Joe in Texas
Posted By: MrMikey83
Date Posted: July 31, 2007 at 4:40 AM
The newer Cadillacs use a relay after the turn signal flasher that includes a built in resistor across the coil (thats what it looks like on the picture anyway).
I might grab one of these and see if it will trick my flasher unit into a normal flash rate.
~Mike
Posted By: js305
Date Posted: July 31, 2007 at 6:56 AM
I don't believe that's a resistor. Typically there is a diode in some of the relays of this type. Bosch relays have this diode in many of the relays they build. In addition to this, the Cadillac LED lights are not "added on", they are designed to use them to start with and don't need to be "fooled" into flashing.
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Joe in Texas
Posted By: MrMikey83
Date Posted: July 31, 2007 at 12:08 PM
Damn, didn't even think of that. Oh well.
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