Jump to content

led brake globes and cruise control


Panda Eyes

Recommended Posts

  • flame magnet
  • Gold Donating Members
  • Member For: 16y 9m 12d
  • Gender: Male
  • Location: adelaide hills- 'race air' central

hi all

 

on searching the forums re cruise control not working it would appear the cruise control on a b series wont engage if there are led brake lights installed. 

would anyone know or be able to work out if a resistor could be put inline to give the correct signals for the cruise?

 

cheers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • skids
  • Donating Members
  • Member For: 12y 2m
  • Gender: Not Telling

I believe this is true, you need a resistor so the car thinks its turning on a standard globe. However, I thought it mattered more if you switched the indicators for LED's (otherwise they'll flash too fast).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • less WHY; more WOT
  • Site Developer
  • Member For: 16y 10m 19d
  • Gender: Male
  • Location: Melbourne

This is all true and I've done some extensive searching on this topic to discover this (with some first hand experience from @yenchy).

 

This thread does a good job of explaining it, but doesn't have a great solution (wiring globes in-line).

 

For the lights in the rear light assembly:

Brake/Tail-light LED's stop cruise control from working (and possibly even ABS).

Reverse-light LED's are on 24/7 (quite dim), even when you don't want them to be.

Indicator-light LED's make the entire indicator circuit to "blink" faster. (not entirely a bad thing :P)

 

yenchy put his globes in (he can link them, as I don't know which ones specifically he's using) and putting a 5-ohm resistor in-line didn't fix the cruise control problem.

 

yenchy and I measured the resistance of the stock globes (and read off the power ratings)...

Tail/Brake      2.3 ohm & 0.5ohm   5W & 21W

Reverse         1    ohm                  21W

Indicator        0.5 ohm                  21W

 

The LED resistance is practically zero in comparison :)yenchy might provide the resistance of his LED's :stirthepot:

 

I think the problem with the cruise is that when an incandescent bulb lights up, the resistance spikes briefly as the filament quickly heats up, so an in-line resistor may not solve that problem...

 

The amount of engineering to get these incandescent bulbs to work with these systems is astounding... all it does is cause problems for LED's...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
  • Member For: 8y 4m 8d
2 hours ago, k31th said:

Reverse-light LED's are on 24/7 (quite dim), even when you don't want them to be.

 

I have noticed this in my FG. Is it a big issue at all? Apart from aesthetics?

 

Might go back to standard, that sh*t will annoy me....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • flame magnet
  • Gold Donating Members
  • Member For: 16y 9m 12d
  • Gender: Male
  • Location: adelaide hills- 'race air' central

I have standard reverse globes so no probs there. 

led indicator globes did blink fast until I put the cheapy eBay 6 ohm resistors in. now they're fine.

 

I did consider wiring standard brake bulbs back in and leaving them behind the side boot carpet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Manual mode ________________________ All day, erryday
  • Donating Members
  • Member For: 17y 3m 4d
  • Gender: Male
  • Location: Probably above atmospheric pressure

Nice thinking.  Leaving them wired in but not visible is the sort of solution I'd probably end up with.  Just make sure they can't light anything on fire as they do get hot!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
  • Create New...
'