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

nah, you listed everything really clearly in the op, i just completely omitted the bulbs part, because i thought i already knew that led's would present a problem over normal filament bulbs, but thanks again, i'll keep u updated

 

hey jgraham, i'm pretty sure you're a genius! i got those bulbs in, I put them in, and of course fuses blew, then i cut off the two inner wires, and it works perfect, i do have the hyperflash though....i might spring for the resistors later, thanks a ton, man

 

sub'd

 

Thanks for the compliment! I do try my best...

Why spring for the resistors though, when you could modify your flasher relay as Taco Taco and I have described? That way, you can fully enjoy the benefits of reduced current draw on the front lighting. Even if you don't have the DRL version, it should still be the same type of solid state relay logic. (You can turn on your hazard flashers, and if they don't hyperflash like the turn signals do, then it's almost certainly solid state flasher logic).

What I hate most about using resistors to cure hyperflash is you're still drawing a lot of current, and now your system still generates a bunch of heat that has to be dealt with, somehow. Additionally, you've had to spend money to buy the resistors, and cut into your stock wiring to boot (which brings its own set of aggravations, such as possible wiring corrosion later)

 

haha, i'm so dumb, i forgot why i was in this thread to begin with, i was so happy that that the bulbs worked, yea i'm def gonna chisel down that flasher, nice free mod!

 

i sorta remember now, i was originally ok with the hyperflash, I just wanted the led bulbs to work, esp when i lock and unlock my truck, but now I can fix it for free.

 

That's okay; I often walk into a room and forget what I came for. Once you put all the ideas in this thread together, though, you end up with a truly great mod! I'm just glad I could help make it happen.

 

I have a '11 that did not come with DTRL's. I'm about to do the mod adding the DTRL flasher....

Is this process the same?

 

Not sure what you mean. It is the same, once you have the DRL flasher hardware to modify. DRLs use a different flasher than the non-DRL system. I don't have one of those non-DRL flashers to take apart, so I don't know anything about them. If you're doing the mod, then you can do all of these steps to the new hardware to get it to work with LEDs as described.

 

This worked absolutely perfectly for me. Some times the best solution is the simplest! I'd buy you a beer if you were local!

 

Thanks so much jgraham!

I just did this mod with LEDs that I got from a forum member, csjumper2003, who sells LEDs on the here. He also sells a resistor kit, but I decide to try this first. Worked as advertised! Now I don't need to use those pesky and hot resistors.

It took me about 30 mins. I was able to get the flasher relay out without removing the fuse box which made it alot quicker.

 

I was thinking about attempting this with the LEDs I got from csjumper2003 also... Since you've almost the same truck as me (Minus the mods ) I was wondering how much grinding you had to do on the loop to get it to work? Also, did you install 2 LED blinkers or 4?

 

At first I was kinda going slow, but I got sick of plugging the flasher back in over and over to see if it was good.

So, I just started grinding a bunch off of the sides and the top. I ended up grinding off a bunch, but there is still plenty left and the loop is still intact.

I only have the 2 front LED's. Stock ones in the tail lights.

 

Gonna try this after work Friday. I hate hyper flash. 4 ways work fine and hyper flash even with trailer hooked up. Thanks for the info

 

No luck. I had I ground down to almost paper thin. It broke once and had to solder it. But even with putting in an incandescent bulb it still hyper flashed. I even went as far as to remove some of the hoop and re solder it and nothing. Still fast. I have a buddy that has an FJ and found a 12 pin led flasher so I am gonna ask him where he got it.

 

I wonder what went wrong... did you have all LED bulbs front and rear, or just front with standard incandescents rear? I never tried to grind the hoop enough to compensate for an all LED setup; it may not be possible to remove enough without breaking through. It might take replacing the hoop with a fairly large resistor in that case. No idea what size you would need, but I know there needs to be at least some flow path for the circuit to work or it will simply not flash (which is why it can't just be cut out altogether).

The reason the 4 ways don't hyperflash is because in 4 way hazard mode, the bulb circuit is never checked for "proper" resistance. I don't know if there's some way to just inhibit the bulb out check in turn signal mode. That's beyond the scope I looked at, but might be possible, somehow.

 

Great thread.

FYI re: 2012's....Flash relay is light blue, larger than previous relays, located right next to the fuse box under the dash. You will have to remove the lower dash to access it. Once accessed, there are (2) 10mm bolts holding it in place. The lower 10mm bolt is easy to access, the other is located at the top of the relay and is positioned in such a way that makes access trying and reinstallation really frustrating. Once you access/remove the relay, you will need to remove the black cover on the bottom of the relay. You will need to bend the mounting bracket out of the way in order to remove the motherboard. Finally, there are (2) hoops to grind down on the new motherboard. Installation is the reverse of removal.

 

Can someone who has done this successfully with 2 or 4 led replacements get an resistance reading with a multimeter?

It would be interesting to see this and find the proper zone for doing this mod to make it more easily achieved.

 

I took mine back out to check this for you. Unfortunately, it reads as a dead short (0.0 ohms) to my multimeter, a Fluke 77. You'd need someone to measure it with an ultra low ohm multimeter. I did take another look at what I'd done to the hoop, and I ground about half of the original thickness off, on the outer facing side of all three sides of the hoop as possible.

For best results, try to grind to an even thickness across as much of the overall length as you can. Focusing on one point isn't as effective as making the whole thing thinner.

 

Without disconnecting one side of the hoop from the rest of the circuit, the resistance measurement won't be accurate. You would be measuring the resistance of who-knows-what in parallel with the hoop itself. The error may be negligible if the hoop's resistance is very low, so in the end you may still need a very sensitive meter.

Edit:
After checking out the ridgeline forum article it appears that the shunt resistor hoop resistance IS indeed quite low.. on the order of 30 milli ohms (0.03 ohms). In that article, they had to modify the resistance to 120 milli ohms (0.12 ohms). They did it by replacing the hoop with resistors soldered together in parallel to get the required value. For those on here who's grinding didn't work out, that may be the answer for them.