What would cause this???

Need a little help here,

I recently installed LED Headlights in my 09 tacoma and love the look and output. They look identical to the Lifetime LED's but they are not and I knew that when I bought them.

The problem is that when I turn on the headlights, I get radio interference. I can have an FM station coming in clear as a bell...turn the park lights on and still clear as a bell...turn the headlights on and the radio station now is full of static...turn the headlights off and the radio station is clear as a bell again..

When I first installed, I used double sided tape to mount the control boxes. Thinking that the problem might have been because the boxes were not grounded, I went back and hard mounted the control boxes with screws going into the sheet metal, near the headlights.

Tried again and......BAM...same damn thing!

This weekend I am going to put my stock bulbs back in and see if the interference is there but, I doubt it will be because the only change was the LED Headlights and I didn't have this problem before.

What could be causing this and how can I fix it??

I really like these but not if I can't listen to the radio!

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

 

Must be one heck of a ground loop going if its that bad. Im with you in betting that the stock bulbs will fix the problem. I bet their cheap ballast is causing the hum/static you are experiencing.

 

Sounds like a ground problem somewhere. Good luck, I hate odd ball issues

 

Yeah, If there is gonna be an odd-ball issue...I am the one that's going to have it.

It's definitely very strange. It's not really a hum but more like you just clipped half the antennae off. I can still here the radio station but with alot of static....almost like poor reception. Turn the lights off and its back to clear.

Shame too...because I really like the lights.

Oh well.

 

You sure you don't have a VW?

 

Did you miss a step during installation ?

I has to be an improper ground

Our VWs beetles had this issue back in the day

What brand ? I'd like to take a look

 

These are the ones that I have, although not from this seller.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Awsome-2x-2...es&hash=item3f30a5a66a&vxp=mtr#ht_4703wt_1108

Only the pictures at the top of the listing.

There were no instructions included and it seems straight forward enough. One end of the wire from the control box has a mating plug on the LED light and the other wire from the control box has a mating plug to the existing headlight harness. The LED itself has a removable mounting flange that mounts where the existing headlight bulb was, install the stock rubber boot over the mounting flange, then re-insert the actual LED into the mounting flange and twist to lock in place. The only thing left to question is the mounting of the control box.

A litte more info is that I do have an aftermarket stereo system in this truck, as well as an aftermarket antenna (car wash took out the stock antenna). Not sure if any of this matters but, want to make sure that I share all parts of the equation.

Some other things to note is that while I have an aftermarket stereo and antenna, NO interference issue existed prior to installing the LED headlights.
Also, it is only the "Tuner" source that is effected. All other sources (CD, USB, Bluetooth) are un-effected.

This weekend I will put the stock bulbs back in and make sure there are no issues. If everything is fine with the stock bulbs, I will try again with the LEDs but this time I will try to run a ground wire from each control box chassis to the battery ground and see if that does anything.
If not, then it's time to break out the sledge hammer and get some redemtion!

 

I installed the lifetime LED headlights no static good luck

 

Yeah, I hear ya. If I can't get this figured out, I'll try Lifetime or Retro.

 

Hmmmmmm, aftermarket antenna? How does that work? Maybe if you isolate the grounds away from each other?

 

Not sure what you mean by, "How does that work?" but my original antenna broke off in a car wash so I unscrewed the stub that was remaining and replaced it with one of these.



No new grounds or wiring of any kind involved.

 

ah ok, I thought maybe you meant you wired in a new powered antenna or something. Just screwing a new antenna on shouldnt effect it unless the way it was mounted to the fender was with something that isolated it from the metal. Maybe when it broke off it took a washer or something with it?

 

It's the ballast itself. I had the same problem and when I went with different ballast the noise was gone. I eventually went with something completely different but the humming you are experiencing is the ballast. If you have extra ballast try switching them out and have the low beams on only. Guarantee that the humming will be gone with a different ballast.

 

Jorge here in Tidewater VA,

I'm having the exact same issue with my '04 Taco with the Lifetime LED. Mine also had no instructions.
What's a Ballast?