Man do I feel stupid....

After spending countless hours of pondering, making several un-needed trips to Autozone and Advance Auto.... trying to figure out WHY my new 1157 LED Lights would not flash as turn signals, only stay on, I FINALLY got it fixed...

At first, I replaced the flasher in the convienience center with about 3 different ones, all with the same result..No more burnt bulb indication, but still no flash, all it would do is stay on..

I then went to Autozone to return the excess flashers and saw something called "load equalizers"... It said on the box "Corrects All Known LED Problems", so of course I bought them hoping for the best.

I went home, installed them into my bulb socket's wiring...AND IT WORKED!!!

My new LED Bulbs were actually flashing like a normal light should, but only one problem.....It was SO SLOW

Well, after searching a bit last night on the good ole' TGO forums, I read a couple times that there was another flasher besides the one in the convienience center, and that the one I had replaced 3 times was actually the HAZARD flasher...

Well, today I went out and took off the bottom plastic of my footwell, unplugged my hazard flasher, and turned on my turn signal, and listened for a clicking noise...

Up behind a metal bracket, there it was, the elusive flasher....

I then went and bought an Electronic flasher from Advance Auto, I got home, pulled the old one off, plugged the new one in, and hoped for the best...

IT WORKED!!! It flashed just like a normal bulb...and better yet, it was flashing as fast as normal, maybe even a little faster then the old flasher did.

Simply put folks....If you have LED bulbs that you are wanting to run in your tail lights or your T/A's front parking lights or side markers, then you HAVE to have an electronic flasher, no buts about it. Dont go through the trouble I did..
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Also...something I noticed during the process, is that If you run LED Bulbs up front on your T/A's parking lights...you HAVE to buy a heavy duty thermal flasher to replace your current hazard flasher, if you don't, it will throw a burnt bulb warning everytime, it did in my GTA.

 

Hi,

Just curious, after replacing your flasher, did you still need the load resistors?

I'm having a strange problem and I don't think it's the LEDs, but something else.

If I take the front bulbs out of the sockets, if I turn the key on, and turn on the parking lights. My right indicator in the cluster comes on, and stays on. If I turn on the right turn signal, I don't hear the clicking.

So I went ahead and put in my LEDs, thinking maybe something had to complete the circuit for it to work. Still doesn't work. Indicator stays on, and no blink..

Put the bulbs back in and everything work fine.

I've already replaced the flasher, with a load independent one, and no difference.

Not sure why that would light up, just taking the bulbs out... That doesn't seem right.

 

I went through the same scenario when I was using LED exterior lights (I removed them because they weren't bright enough in the daytime, and difficult to distinguish tail from brake on the dual intensity type LED). The park light as a blinker is dependent on the load from the side marker to work (or vice-versa) and I couldn't get the blinkers to work at all until I put in a load resistor on each front corner (even with a load independent flasher). For now I'll keep the incandescent lights until the LED lights that are bright enough come down in price.

 

alright, im almost to my end with this situation of mine as well. I added LEDs to my car six years ago. They, as I expected, didnt work until I could find an electronic flasher.

A couple years later I had found one at a truck stop and bought it. Came home, didnt effing work. I bought all my leds in order to decrease the load on my battery/alternator and the have increased intensity in order to better shine through the blackouts I have over all of my lights. I didnt like the idea of having half non-led on my car in order to increase the load. Load resistors are basically the same thing, power hogging.

So in the message at the top it states that theres apparently two flashers? Nowhere on any site does it indicate that a particular flasher unit works for one or the other so Im assuming that they are interchangable?
I have an "LED" unit now and again at least my four ways are working but when I use the brake the flashing dies and they stay on.

Where is this other flasher located exactly as opposed to the one im aware of that is near the horn relay? also, Would I still have to use regular bulbs or a resistor on the marker lights up front to get the turn signals to work with or without a second "LED" unit in this secret location?-YES, due to re-reading the post above me. -NO, due to actually attacking the problem

Im desperate. This is starting to infuriate me

Solved it as well myself after taking a second look at the bracket. The signal flasher is installed up-side down. So the unit is itself is hidden with a two prong wired up to it. It sits directly above the connector to the cars brain. I forget what thats called.

Resistors add load to your system so that the stock flashers work with LED bulbs. This defeats 90% of the purpose of LEDs, less power draw. 10% is the better blinking. So just get the "electronic flasher" or "LED flashers" for both locations or just the turn signals if you prefer.