Rear Turn signal LED bulb mod for my new 2023 Explorer? Update: installed with video on page 2

[ExplorerBMW]

Hello all, I just got a 2023 new Explorer today and I know the fronts are LED turn signals, but the back seems to still be incandescent bulbs, any recommendations for LED and does it need to be anti-hyperflash/canbus?

 

[jsgoofn]

I used regular LED turns and programmed the Body Control Module (BCM) using the free FORScan software to disable the "bulb out" hyperflash. If you feel adventurous, you can check out the forum thread below.

2020 LED Upgrades - Links Added

EDIT: See Post #10 below for links to the bulbs I used and additional comments According to the owners manual, the 2020 Explorer has all-LED lighting in the front, sides and interior. In fact, there are only 3 incandescents listed: license plate, rear turn signals and backup lamps. I did LED...

www.explorerforum.com

This should work for the 23 too.

 

[themishmosh]

Is that an ST-line? I like how clean that grill looks without the "ST" on it.

Yeah, there's a lot of info on this forum that should apply to your '23. Congrats on the purchase.

 

[peterk9]

Is that an ST-line? I like how clean that grill looks without the "ST" on it.

Yeah, there's a lot of info on this forum that should apply to your '23. Congrats on the purchase.

Yes, according to his previous posts.

Peter

 

[peterk9]

Hello all, I just got a 2023 new Explorer today and I know the fronts are LED turn signals, but the back seems to still be incandescent bulbs, any recommendations for LED and does it need to be anti-hyperflash/canbus?

The stock rear turn signal indicators are 3757NAK, PY27/7W, 27W.

Peter

 

[MikeHTally]

Amazon product ASIN B07H6TM331 I put these on - The only hyper-flash is on the instrument panel indicators. Haven't taken the time to turn that off yet. It's a distraction, but not a deal-breaker.

 

[jsgoofn]

Those are the ones I used too but did the FORScan thing to stop the hyperflash. They work perfectly.

 

[ExplorerBMW]

The rear turn signal indicators are 3757NAK, PY27/7W, 27W.

Peter

from this person's video the bulbs are different? i'm confused now. lol

 

[jsgoofn]

The bulbs Peter is referring to are the stock non-led bulbs I believe. I used the ones mentioned by MikeHTally in his post. They do not have resistors and you would need to disable the hyperflash with FORScan or just get used to it as Mike said he did.

 

[peterk9]

The bulbs Peter is referring to are the stock non-led bulbs I believe...................................................

Yes, they are. I should have mentioned that. I updated my post to mention that they are stock. Thank you.

Peter

 

[J_C]

Considering that aftermarket LED retrofits are probably more likely to fail than the stock bulbs, I think I'd rather keep the warning working and would experiment with a rheostat, to dial in the maximum resistance the circuit can use to disable the warning, which should cause it to warn again if the LED bulb itself fails because it's then above that current threshold. I mean find the value with the rheostat, then buy the right resistance and wattage resistors since they are not cheap enough to buy a box full of assorted values. You can get a 100W, 100ohm rheostat on Amazon or ebay, etc for about $15.

 

[blwnsmoke]

I would not get bulbs with resistors. I did this first and the resistors were getting quite hot where I was not comfortable leaving them behind the tail light with little air circulation.

Just got normal LEDs and used forscan. Don't have to worry about overheating and melting anything.

 

[J_C]

^ You can mount the resistor upstream where you find a good location. If it's only on the turn signals, it shouldn't get all that hot anyway, unless you leave the turn signal on a long time by mistake?

 

[MikeHTally]

Those resistors don't just get hot ... They get damned hot. I had them on my Ram.

 

[J_C]

^ Yeah, needs mounted to a heatsink, then strap, screw, or bolt the heatsink where there's space, not in direct contact with plastic/wire/painted metal. The heatsink can be as simple as a piece of aluminum plate, though something anodized will hold up a lot better to the elements, like an old computer CPU heatsink.

 

[blwnsmoke]

^ You can mount the resistor upstream where you find a good location. If it's only on the turn signals, it shouldn't get all that hot anyway, unless you leave the turn signal on a long time by mistake?

I've tested them, they got too hot to feel comfortable. I've had my blinker on for 1-2 min during my commute. And hope you never break down and need your hazards on.

There is zero reason to add resistor bulbs when you can use forscan to disable the hyperflash.

 

[J_C]

^ What do you mean "disable hyperflash"? We're talking about disabling reporting of the bulb failing and there is good reason not to do that, because then you don't know if the bulb has failed and it's that much more likely to fail if swapping in an LED retrofit bulb.

You mount the resistor on the heatsink plate then mount the heatsink plate... anywhere you want, really, the thermal density is far lower at the mounting points of a heatsink plate. Behind the rear cargo trim panel would be a spot I'd consider because it's then not exposed to outdoor rain/snow/etc. Plenty of people have audio amps in their vehicles that produce a lot more heat than that.

 

[Dale5403]

^ What do you mean "disable hyperflash"? We're talking about disabling reporting of the bulb failing and there is good reason not to do that, because then you don't know if the bulb has failed and it's that much more likely to fail if swapping in an LED retrofit bulb.

You mount the resistor on the heatsink plate then mount the heatsink plate... anywhere you want, really, the thermal density is far lower at the mounting points of a heatsink plate. Behind the rear cargo trim panel would be a spot I'd consider because it's then not exposed to outdoor rain/snow/etc. Plenty of people have audio amps in their vehicles that produce a lot more heat than that.

Why would a LED bulb be more likely to fail? My experience with LED bulbs in the house is the complete apposite.

 

[jsgoofn]

I've swapped regular incandescent for LED in my two Explorers (15 and 22) using FORScan and never had any burn out. As you know they are not the usual filaments - as the name says they are light emitting diodes which draw such a small current and they will last a very long time.

 

[J_C]

Why would a LED bulb be more likely to fail? My experience with LED bulbs in the house is the complete apposite.

They're more likely to fail, far sooner, because they try to get the most amount of light possible out of the least # of LEDs, in the form factor small enough to fit where the incan bulb was, so they run the LEDs quite a bit hotter than the typical household LED bulb, plus being sealed in a housing doesn't help at all, nor the extremes of running hotter in summer vs large thermal expansion in winter.

LED retrofit bulbs tend to last less than 1/3rd as long as long life incandescent alternative, sometimes not even 1/10th as long. You can get better results than that, if you stick with a very conservatively designed bulb, say from philips et al major bulb manufacturers.

Then again, back in the day, most of us managed to survive without an indicator telling us our bulbs were bad. We just checked them every now and then, but LED bulbs I trust a lot less than the time tested incan bulbs.