LED DRL bulb replacement with stock DRL flasher and NO RESISTORS!

i was asking how you guys removed your factory module in order to replace it i was having trouble getting the module itself out the piece i'm grabbing is indeed the flasher module i was just curious to know if it had some type of tab or clasp that has to be either pressed in or something.btw i was talking about the module itself lol i'm not yanking on the whole fuse box.

the module itself just does not feel like it wants to come out from the back of the fuse box i was more or less asking if their was a clip or a tab that holds it in place. if not and i just have to wiggle it out firmly and gently but thats the way it comes out then thats even better because as some of you who have swapped out this module know there is limited hand room back there and everything is done by feel alone.

i'm having the flasher module viet2100 posted up overnighted to me but i need the 4 led version. this is my second and i believe final question i have 6 led turn signal bulbs altogether now with the 2 in the arb. would the flasher for 4 leds be enough to handle that ok do you think?

 

Works like a charm. Thank you, jgraham. One of the best mods ever.

2011 Tacoma PreRunner with DRL’s

Notes:
-Installed 2 of the 60 led SRCK towers replacing the front OEM 3156 bulbs.
http://autolumination.com/3157_led_s...eshooting.html
-OEM bulbs are maybe 1/16” shorter than the 60 LED SRCK towers. The 60 LED towers fit into the lamp housing just fine.
-When grinding on the resister hoop I had to grind on it 5-6 times taking off just a tiny bit of the metal. After each grind I would do a test. When I was getting a couple of normal flashes and the flasher would go back to hyper flash I new I was getting close. Grinding a little more did the trick.
-Bulbs seem to be almost as bright as OEM and better in a couple of ways. LEDs produce a crisp light due to the many LEDs that make up the tower. The flash is a true instant on/off like you see on newer vehicles.
-Attached a note to the flasher housing indicating that it had been modified for future reference as it could be quite awhile before I get back in there.

I am very pleased with the mod as it will address the high temp/melting lens issue some folks are having with the OEM bulbs. Those OEM bulbs do get extremely hot as I tested them with a heat gun and I am sure will give you a nasty burn if you touch an illuminated bulb. Years of that kind of heat has to affect the lamp housing in some way. Also the orange bulb appearance looking at the lens is gone. LEDs are clear in color when off, but amber when on. Nice touch.

I do have a couple of concerns. Now that I have changed the resistance of the resister hoop what would happen if an OEM bulb was installed? Blow a fuse? I would guess as I have not tried it.
How long does a LED lamp last? My experience it is for a long long time but as this is an unknown, a couple extra of the LED towers as spares would be nice to have in the glove box.
It took me approximately 3 hours to complete this mod.












cont........

 

You can see the tiny 12 led lamps on the top of the tower through the lens.

Length comparison

LED Tower

OEM Bulb

Richard

 

Nice work OP!

I added these LED DRL's a while ago. They were $55 and took me an hour to install, I had very low expectations going in, but over 20k miles and almost a year, they have held up great.

 

Anybody else get this to work with switchback led's?

 

Hello, glad I could help. I still want to write this up better so that it's easier to follow, but just haven't really had the time to sit down and do it.

If you put a normal OEM type bulb back in the socket, it will work like it did before the mod, flashing at normal speed. The only drawback is, when using the original bulbs in the front after doing the mod, if just one of the bulbs (front or back) burns out, you won't get the hyperflashing on the turn signal to warn you that you have a bulb burned out. If both burned out, you would get hyperflash.

It also won't hyperflash if a few LEDs in the LED lamp assembly were to burn out... but if the whole thing goes open circuit, it will hyperflash as long as you didn't remove too much material from the hoop. Note that if your rear incandescent turn bulb burns out while using LEDs in the front, you WILL get hyperflash to warn you even after doing this mod (since the back bulb increases the resistance of the circuit significantly when it burns out).

I know this because I tested the flasher with the original bulbs back in the front sockets after doing the mod, and simulated bulb out conditions by unplugging them accordingly.

There is a pretty wide resistance range for higher wattage lighting loads being connected in order to accomodate trailer turn signals, etc. (I also tested it with my trailer lighting, using a 4-pin flat with the Hopkins plug in adapter and a small utility trailer with ~20 watt bulbs and everything worked as expected)

 

sub'd. thanks for the info OP!!

 

Update on the LED mod:
I thought I had ground down the resister hoop enough as the LEDs seemed to operate as advertized.

However, after they have been on and operating for awhile the resistance value seems to change and they started to hyperflash when stopped at a long red light. I had to go back in and grind down the resister hoop a bit more and this solved the problem. No hyperflash at all even after 20 minutes.

For those doing this mod. I suggest giving the lights some warm up time and a good work out before closing everything up. (15 - 20 min). It may save you another trip in there.

A note on the DRL flasher: The flasher is located on the side of the fuse box. You would think that it could be released and slid off the tab lock without having to mess with the fuse box at all. Not so. There is no clearance at the top of the flasher for it to move upward so at the very least the fuse box would have to be unbolted and moved forward. I tried that for awhile but in the end I decided just to drop the fuse box again. I notice my clock and the seat belt chime lockout had to be reset.

Arrow points to the location of the DRL Flasher

Here is the top of the flasher with the fuse box released and pulled forward.

All the best

Richard

 

You must have been right on the edge of having enough material removed. Maybe it's a good idea, once you have it blinking at the slow rate for a while, to just go ahead and remove a little more material, just to keep from ending up on the edge. When I did this mod, it was back in the summer time so everything was already at a higher temperature than it would be now.

Sorry you had to go back in there to make it right. I actually twisted my flasher relay up and off the mount rails without disassembling the fuse box. It was hard to do, and I was scared I would break the fuse box, but I managed to just barely get it clear, and the fuse box survived. I did cut off the latch tab on the flasher so it would be easier to remove if I needed to make more adjustments later.

 

the mods should move this to lighting and sticky it this is a really good write up op.

 

sorry, this is probably obvious, but I just wanted to make sure, is this what everybody is grinding down? thanks

 

YES!

 

sub'd, this sounds like a cool idea. I may have to give this a try when I get some time.

 

thank you, i just ordered some smd/led's today, if i get the hyperflash, then i'm gonna leave it, but last time I ordered those round bulb led's with like 18 or 24 led's and they wouldn't even fit in the socket hole, and when i flashed them once, they blew the fuse, so i'll be satisfied with hyperflashing

 

Did you get a special CK wired version, as Taco Taco and I recommended? The reason the fuse blew was because of the way the lamp socket works. One side is shorted together, instead of one end of the socket. With normal incandescent bulbs it doesn't matter, but with an LED it can blow the fuse by shorting to ground.

See http://autolumination.com/3157_led_selection_troubleshooting.html for a better explanation.

If you got the wrong type, it might be possible to modify them to get the functionality without blowing fuses. Since we only use the high output terminals of these bulbs, you could identify those (using 12V to find the pair that makes the brightest output) and cut the other pair of wires off flush with the lamp base, and it would work and wouldn't blow the fuse. (This advice is not tested, but might salvage incompatible bulbs)

 

damn, I didn't even realize there was a difference, I guess I wasn't reading carefully enough, i just bought these

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110799869487#ht_3536wt_1149

do you think it will make a difference if I have or dont have DRL, i don't by the way, thanks jgraham

 

i thought it was blowing my fuse because the resistance was too low on these LEDs, cause they would flash once, and then gone..... if I used regular bulbs, could i get away with using resistors?

 

Fuses blow because the resistance of the circuit is too low. LED bulbs have a higher resistance than ordinary incandescent, and thus lower wattage.

Quick summary: Higher Wattage = Lower Resistance = Higher Current
And: Lower Wattage = Higher Resistance = Lower Current

The reason the LEDs you had blew was because two of the wire leads on them are intentionally shorted together. This is how this type of "dual level" LED bulb normally works, using a common negative side and one positive that runs through some sort of current limiter, and another positive that doesn't get limited as much (or at all). Because our lamp sockets also have two sides shorted together, (but not the two that are "normally" shorted together) they allow a short circuit to occur between the negative and positive, blowing a fuse. This is never a problem with incandescent bulbs due to the fact that the lead wires on the bulb are never shorted together, but are actually 4 leads forming two completely independent, isolated circuits.

The irony of this is that the Tacoma only actually has wiring to the high output pair of bulb leads, which I know are the two outermost wire leads on this bulb. So, if you cut the innermost wire leads on each side you should be fine, even with the bulbs you ordered. That will prevent the fuses from being blown. Then you just need to install them in the right polarity and they should work. (If they don't light, remove, rotate 180 degrees, and reinstall) I am pretty certain that this would work, though I haven't tested it.

 

sounds like I'll find out next week and let you know, I appreciate all the information!

 

Good luck! If you run into any problems, just ask. I want to be able to write this up really well sometime, but I just keep putting it off. Having some feedback makes it a little easier to figure out where I need to make things clearer, though.