ABS and Traction Control warning lights come on ONLY when headlights/marker lights turned on

2014 4x4 V6 DCSB Canadian model, has DTRL (I think that's the only major difference from USA model)

I installed LEDs (purchased from SuperBrightLEDs) in all exterior lights except headlights and foglights. I had the expected issue of hyperblinking turn signals, and solved that via 3 Ohm resistor in each tail light. The issue I did not anticipate, and can't really find any information on, is that now my ABS and Traction Control lights come on when I turn on the marker lights and/or the headlights. No issues with just the normal DTRL.

As soon as I turn on the marker+ lights, I can feel that I lose traction control, so it's not a false alarm; However, I made no other changes within a week of this happening, so it's almost definitely an electrical issue. I'm assuming it's similar to the hyperblink, wherein the cause is the decreased resistance through the taillight electrical circuit. I'm not keen on installing a resistor across the tail/brakelight wires since they are "on" for extended periods (in the dark) and would likely heat up significantly.

Can anyone shed some light on this? Ever heard of this happening with an LED upgrade?

I really like the brightness and vividness of the LEDs, so I'm looking for a way to solve this while keeping the LEDs, if possible.

 

By trial and error I can conclude that the old halogen brakelight bulbs fix the issue, so I'm guessing it's something to do with the lower current draw of the LED "bulb" -- the same way this causes hyperblink in turn signals. The only other thing I can think of is that these LEDs are 3157-CK, and the old bulbs are 3157.. so [I don't think so but] maybe the different wiring is a factor here. I have ordered 3157 LEDs to test that theory, should be here tomorrow. I'll be stoked if the 3157 LEDs work -- I love how vivid RED the taillights are with the LEDs.

If it turns out to be the lower power draw, I will opt for regular bulbs again because I don't want to be running a resistor as often as I run my marker lights. In the turn signals, the resistor is a great solution because they (the rear ones) are on only intermittently and for short periods (worst case maybe 3 minutes?). In the marker/brake lights they'd be on for hours, and I'm not too worried about the heat, but it just feels sloppy... I dont know.... We shall see!

 

I swapped in the 3157 LEDs.
It all works as it should! I have only tested it as far as a quick back-and-forth in a driveway with the lights on. That was enough to disable ABS before, but now it is all mint!
I checked my OBDII readings and before (with the 3157CK LEDs) I had error codes:

• P1604 Startability Malfunction
• B1660 Passenger's Seat Airbag Active Mode Indicator
• C1425 Open in Stop Switch Circuit

And after swapping the 3157's in, clearing the codes, and running another scan... Nothing to report.

Wooo! I'm stoked on this outcome!

So, in summary, don't use *CK bulbs anywhere except front turn signals (=DTRLs) or you may experience some bizarre and surprisingly serious (no traction/ABS in winter?) side effects.

 

Glad you got it figured out. Here’s a little more info on the CK, non CK situation. The front turn signals must be CK. The rear turnsignals don’t matter since there’s only 2 contacts in the sockets. The tail/brake lights must be nonCK. I knew about the tail/brake light sockets, but didn’t know what would happen if you got it wrong. Thanks for confirming what happens when you get it wrong. Here is a pic I drew up that shows the difference.