Any electric guru’s?

[Wilson]

Hey all!

I have a 69’ Type 3 and wanted a bit more safety so I picked up a small led strip light and mounted it at the top of the rear window. It works well and is really only missing a back-up light but there is one issue.
The brake light only lights up if the running lights aren’t on because the brake lights are slightly dimmer.
Is there a way that I could put a resistor in-line to make the running lights slightly dimmer so that the brake lights show up regardless of whether the running lights are on?
I know, it’s probably just easier to get a new one that works properly, huh?

Thanks in advance…pics below!
Wilson

[Q-Dog]

Your running light being on may be dropping the voltage too low for the LED lights to work. Some of these have minimum and maximum voltage they will work with. Use a meter to test the voltage at the light ... see if you can figure out the lowest operating voltage for the LED. Cleaning up wire connections may get the voltage up at the light.
_________________
Brian

'69 Dune Buggy
'69 Beetle Convertible
'70 Beetle

[Heiferman]

Superbright LED sells various inline resistors.
Here is a link to the turn signal resistor:

https://www.superbrightleds.com/led-light-load-resistor-kit-led-turn-signal-hyper-flash-warning-fix

It is generally used when turn signals will not flash or flash really fast and increases the resistance so the system "thinks" incandescent bulbs are in place. It may work for you.

They have several options on their site. One may suit you.

I have had all sorts of weird problems in various cars when trying to go to LEDs.
_________________
- 1973 Thing, 1970 Ghia, some LandCruisers and an old Ambulance

[liquidrush]

Electrical and electronics are probably the one thing I'm good at so this is my opinion. Resistors in LED circuits are used when a LED bulb doesn't draw enough current. In our cars the bulbs resistance are part of the circuit so when you take out say an 1157 and put in an LED bulb the resistance is gone so we have to use a resistor to make the circuit work. The device you bought doesn't specify using any resistors to make any leg of it work. I'm not finding fault with you or your car but I think you bought a piece of crap is all. All it has are inputs, placing any resistors in any of those legs will do nothing for your problem. I think you should replace it with a higher quality part. There's so much of this cheap stuff out there these days and we're all tempted to buy it and we end up disappointed.

[Wilson]

Thx everyone Ill check this all out!

[Wilson]

Turns out that it was just the old blinker sending unit. It was a bit rusty inside and I was not able to bring it back to life.

Picked up a new one and it works, just have to track down why the dash blinkers aren't light....something to do with the newer part perhaps?


Thx,
Wilson
2.0 69'Type 3 Square