I'm looking for someone who may be in the know . . maybe koolgy or housecor. I recently installed cleared out lights in the back of my 2k2 and I order LED's in Red and Amber for the tail lights. I order the correct numbers (7443 and 7440) but when I install the bulbs they do not light up. If i put the stock white bulbs in they work fine but as soon as the LED's are in I get nothing. Any thoughts? And yes I did try more than one LED and yes I did try reversing the bulbs. Thanks in advance!

 

There is another part you need in order for the led's to work--a load resistor. The led bulbs draw so little current it seems the circuit is not complete, meaning the car thinks it's a burned out bulb. The load resistor gives the led's more current in the circuit to make them light up.

 

THANKS! Can anyone tell me where to put this? Is there a write up around? Where do I get it? Etc. . .

I'm kinda pressured to get this done since I can't really drive without red lights in the back.

 

you wont drive without red lights? (what, is that illegal? when did that happen? is that a safety thing? )
yet you are fine with driving without rear reflectors?

moving right along...here you go

CONNECTION INSTRUCTIONS: Using includes splice taps, connect one wire to ground and the other wire to the turn/brake wire. You do not have to cut your car's wires. Squeeze splice taps with pliers. One Load Resistor required for each turn signal bulb. No instructions are include with these kits.

buy them here http://www.superbrightleds.com/1157.htm

 

do you know if I can get these are radio shack? Home Depot? Etc?

 

best bet locally would be radio shack. im pretty sure they have them back in the drawers with the LEDs and everything else

 

I just got back from Radio Shack.They don't have them.

 

Here is a web site it would let you know witch resistor to get for your leds.

http://www.7volts.com/led_resistor.htm

 

you can either look in a phone book, call places, and ask if they have them
or use the link i posted above

 

Any other electrical engineer wanna shed light on this?


~limsandy

 

It s a 6 Ohm, 50 Watt resistor. Also, You need to tap the resistor across the circuit. I did the LED mod a while back, but took them out. Mostly cause they arent bright enough in the daytime. I was planning to make my own custom LED panel with some city bus size LEDs but I got lazy...

 

The reason the car thinks that the bulb is burnt out is that LEDs hardly have any draw. The resistor "tricks" the electrical system into thinking that there is a lightbulb in the circuit. This is why you have to tap the resistor across the circuit (tap one end into the positivem and the other into the ground)

 

Exactly.