Cure for rapid flashing turn signals after installing LED light bulbs.

[BrooklynBay]

Listen for the sound of your flasher, then you will find where to plug new flasher in.

 

[Saleen_SR71]

It could be either yellow or blue. It slides on to something under the driver side dash.

 

[buggman]

This sticky would be great if it were broken down into Expo's by year and what (if any) flasher relay would work & where the specific relays are located.

I'm just becoming familiar with my 03 Expo, but one of the first things I want to do is to replace all the brake/turn/reverse bulbs with my custom LED's.

I stopped in the local auto parts store today & asked about an LED flasher relay, but their system shows it as a standard 5 pin relay under the hood.

From my Ranger experience, the EP-27 electronic flasher works in nearly all Rangers from 95 to 11.

From what I've read so far, some of the Expos are able to simply switch the flasher relay while others have the flash rate controlled by one of the computers.

Does anyone have any specific info on which year suv's can use the flasher relay to work & which require more intrusive modding for led's to work properly??

I"m not opposed to using load resistors, but I'm not a huge fan of them.
This info would be great to have when I start doing complete led conversions for Expos.

 

[mitchness]

04 XLS. Mine needed a 5 pin ep-27. Got it eBay 10 bucks. "TMILED" is the brand it says and it's part # is EL98-EP27. It's a part match based off the fordparts website and wiring diagrams. The flasher itself is the safest way without having hot resistors as jumpers which can potentially cause issues at the worst time during a road trip, because we know issues never come up until you're a 14 hour walk from home...

 

[Insanejuggalo]

Any pictures of this flasher installed on a 93 explorer I'd rather do this than cut and splice

 

[dersch6221992]

the only issue i have noticed with this is when i hit my breaks... both of my front turn signal lights light up but will still flash if turn signal on.

 

[Readyt]

Yup you just need resistors!

Resistors get HOT, and defeat the purpose of a lower drain on the system that LEDs provide. LED Flasher is the only way to go.
Increased Battery life on my Goldwing by switching all lights to LEDS and HIDs

 

[FIND]

the only issue i have noticed with this is when i hit my breaks... both of my front turn signal lights light up but will still flash if turn signal on.

Put a resistor on your brake lights. They aren't on long enough for the lower power consumption to benefit you much anyway, or for the resistor to get too hot. Just bridge a 25 ohm resistor between your ground and brake light wire on each side. Honestly, one can do the same with turn signals. They aren't on long enough to really matter from a power consumption point of view. The savings with LEDs are in lights that have to stay on for extended periods, like you running lights.

Although... normally they shouldn't do that... Do you have a trailer harness on your truck?

 

[BigGreenV10]

I had the resistors and they got way too hot and melted the harness when it fell against them. I went to the flasher and problem solved without any heat buildup. Remember when people on here say they are getting hot this is not a understatement they get so hot you can touch it without burning yourself.

 

[Readyt]

I've Seen resistors melt the wire casing on motorcycles. I wont use them. I want extended electrical system and Battery life out of LED use. Resistors kind of defeat the purpose and are dangerous

 

[FIND]

When you use resistors you should isolate them from the rest of your wiring or other parts that could melt, and attach them securely to metal parts to ct as a heat sink.

Resistors aren't dangerous, people doing things when they don't know what they are doing are dangerous.

 

[Readyt]

Let me put it this way, load resistor increases the electrical draw to mat h that of an incandecent bulb then what's the purpose? No electrical savings and
If I have a choice of splicing a load resistor into my wiring and hoping its in the best spot not to make contact with anything that will melt or using a plug and play LED flasher that causes no issues the choice is easy.

 

[FIND]

The power savings are negligible on a light that is only on momentarily. The benefit from an LED in a brake light is the fast on time. Real power savings only comes from the fact that they are replacing your running lights. When people use a combination of resistors and LEDs to trick a bulb out warning, then they aren't gaining anything.

A Prius has LED running lights, an LED brake, and an incandescent turn signal. The LED running lights are to save power, the LED brake is for the fast on time, and the turn doesn't matter. This is the reason it is common for most manufacturers to have switched the tail/brake to LEDs, but it is still common for them to use incandescent turns. They are trying to save money and increase vehicle safety. Some put LED turns on some vehicles now too, but that is only for show.

But. If you still think you are losing out...

An incandescent bulb draws 27 watts on its bright mode. So, two of them are drawing 54 watts. That is a lot of power, over 4 amps, and per OHMs law, that is about the same as you are drawing with your LED with a resistor in parallel.

Now, the average time a turn signal is lit is about half the time for... let's say 30 seconds.

Good enough, with those two incandescent bulbs that draw 54 watts per hour together, or LED/resistor combinations that draw a similar amount, you have just saved a whopping 0.2 watts of energy as compared to using that LED on its own.

Now, given that the EPA says that a gallon of gas is roughly equal to 33.7 kw/h of power when used by an internal combustion engine, and let's assume an 80% energy conversion by your alternator from the turning of your engine (that means we will assume you are actually saving 0.25 watts of engine power), and you only need to run that blinker for 134,800 times for 30 seconds before saving a gallon of gas. That's right, about 1200 hours of running your blinker.

When using those LEDs as your running lights, you are saving power based on twice as many of them being on at at time on an Explorer, so it only takes 300 hours of using your lights to save a gallon of gasoline, since you have twice as many bulbs, and they are on constantly instead of half the time.

Your brakes? Guess that means you are sitting with your foot on the brake for 600 hours before you save a gallon of gas from those two LEDs having no load resistor.

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty honest with myself. I only replace bulbs with LEDs because they are cool, though, it is pretty easy to justify the replacement of running lights, as you can see.


Hoping it is in the best spot? Do you install parts wearing a blindfold?

Yes, the digital flasher works great. BUT. For some things, a resistor is a better choice. For instance, on a first gen, if you replace the third brake light with LEDs, you usually lose your cruise control, and they will light with your markers, because the cruise control measures the small voltage through the 3rd brake when they are off, and with the lights on, there is enough voltage to light the third brake light. A similar problem is happening with Dersch's brake lights. Voltage is leaking over through his markers, which is why I suggested a resistor on his BRAKE lights. Note, I didn't suggest any others, but the resistor could go on his turns as well. Just as long as he doesn't wire them going through his running light circuit, he will not ever lose out on the gains that can be had from running LEDs.

 

[imp]

Old Thread, but new members constantly coming on, might be a good idea to be forewarned:

Putting resistors in parallel across the LED lights will increase the current amount drawn at each such installation. Noting that the LED flasher shown has a MAXIMUM rating of 20 amps., it would be wise to find out how much total current it's handling, if LEDs are installed all around. imp

 

[BrooklynBay]

LED lights require significantly lower current than incandescent bulbs so I wouldn't worry about overloading the contacts in the flasher. The main purpose of this thread is to show that an electronic flasher will replace a mechanical flasher so that you don't need resistors.

 

[keggersport]

the only issue i have noticed with this is when i hit my breaks... both of my front turn signal lights light up but will still flash if turn signal on.

Did you solve this with yours?

I have an 05 ST and I have the same issue with just the front turn signals installed. I'm waiting for the switchbacks for the fronts and the other LED's for the tail lights.