Another question about led's

I have a 2015. I have searched, read, and watched everything and there seems to not be a simple answer. I know VLED is the prime answer but they are sold out and won't restock for a few months. I plan to change all my lights to led, except for the actual headlight bulbs. My question is this, if I run led corners and switchbacks in the front with led 3rd brake lights, tail lights, turn signals, and reverse lights in the rear, do I need to run 6 resistors? 4 at each corner for the turns and 2 on each corner for the brake lights and 3rd brake lights? Do I just need two in the rear for the turns and 2 for the brake lights and none up front? None needed for the brake lights? Do I have to run 50w 6ohms or 50w 3ohms? Or what? Help is greatly appreciated

 

For turns you would need 4 50W 6 ohm resistors. That will give you 2 amps of current at 12V. This is what I run for the turns. You will need to run 2 up front and 2 in the rear.

Up front, be aware that you need a CK type bulb. If you don't, you'll blow fuses. When using a switchback bulb in the front it will glow amber all the time except when the headlights are on. If you buy from DiodeDynamics, be aware that the XP80 bulb is not a CK type bulb. However the HP11 and HP48 are CK. They also have a switchback thats not shown that will work and operate as described earlier. I've argued with them before that it will work but some don't believe the Tacoma front turn/DRL's use a dual filament!

When installing resistors up front, because the DRL uses the same circuit as the turns, the resistor will be constantly energized when the DRL is on and will get really hot. I bought some heat conductive epoxy and mounted the resistors on the radiator support to help dissipate heat. In the rear the resistors aren't on continuously and even when blinking only experience a 50% duty cycle. Honestly in the rear, my resistors are zip tied hanging below the wiring harness. I let the light hang out and blink for a few minutes to see how hot things got and it wasn't warm enough to be concerned with.

VLED uses some other connections and electronics for their switchback to make the DRL and everything white and only turn amber when flashing. It's neat, but expensive, nothing wrong with that though!


I don't have LED's for brakes yet, but you shouldn't need resistors for them.

 

Thanks for the clarification! I plan to run all clear lights, that's why I was asking because I plan to run led's for everything in the rear and I read that you need some resistors for the brake and 3rd brake because it could throw the code for a bulb out. I want the white/amber switchbacks and I see in the manual it is a 4157NAK which I assume is CK too.

 

Mounted both resistors behind rear tail lights (two per side) - CK white amber switchbacks up front, amber 3157's rear. Brake lights already LED, no resistor needed (194 LED's in high mount)

 

When I ran them in a van I had I just changed out the flasher relay with one meant for leds. Is that not an option for some reason?

 

Apparently no one makes one, at least for ones that come with dtrls and if you want to run full led. And i'm not electrical savvy at all so I don't want to be taking apart my factory one and doing that mod and screwing something up and having to buy another relay or something.

 

jbrnigan

Just was curious as to why you used 2 resistors per side on the rear turn signals? Did you have an issue with hyperflashing with just one or do you not have them both connected to the same circuit? I've got one per side with no issues on the turn signals using the same size resistors.

 

From what I read you need one on each side for the turns, then if you run led brake lights and 3rd brake lights you need to run resistors in that circuit.

 

The resistors are mounted behind the rear tail light assembly's, on the metal bulkhead, for heat management. One resistor, each, for the FRONT switchbacks and REAR turns. (separate resistors for each lamp)

 

You do not need resistors for the brake lights.

 

Ok, so you just put the additional load at the rear instead of the front! I've got a resistor on each corner, hadn't considered doing it your way. My rear resistor is basically hanging there as it never got hot enough, the fronts I have mounted to the radiator support with a heat conductive epoxy. It really surprised me how much the epoxy helped cool the resistors.

 

Check your reverse lights before you buy a replacement bulb. The reverse lights in my 2015 were already LED. They are not a traditional bulb socket that you can put a direct replacement in. Don't be like me and waste your money on led replacement bulbs without checking...

 

My reverse lights were regular incandescent bulbs, I replaced them with LED. My brake lights were LED from the factory.

I never knew there were so many differences in the 2015's. I've seen some that had regular bulbs for brake and reverse, some like mine with factory LED for brake and incandescent for reverse, yours is the first I'd heard of that had LED for reverse!