Led lights

Hi everybody, so my son has recently acquired his first Land Rover 90 pickup. It has LED lights all round and we are having an issue with the indicators. Right side works fine but when he indicates left, all four flashers come on. We need to replace all the lighting stalks as they are pants but I was just wondering if they would be causing that or if it’s more likely to be an actual wiring issue? Any help or advice greatly appreciated!

The 2 side repeater flashers on the front wings need to be standard bulbs. It's to do with the resistance they provide to stop current feeding to the LED indicators via the dashboard flash warning light. Or you can try a replacement dash led with an earth lead from boltonbits on ebay. However, this did not fix my problem and I had to replace the side led repeaters with standard bulb ones

kidsproject said:

Hi everybody, so my son has recently acquired his first Land Rover 90 pickup. It has LED lights all round and we are having an issue with the indicators. Right side works fine but when he indicates left, all four flashers come on. We need to replace all the lighting stalks as they are pants but I was just wondering if they would be causing that or if it’s more likely to be an actual wiring issue? Any help or advice greatly appreciated!

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Make sure that the headlight wiring is good and the earths are secure and clean ...

MJE said:

The 2 side repeater flashers on the front wings need to be standard bulbs. It's to do with the resistance they provide to stop current feeding to the LED indicators via the dashboard flash warning light. Or you can try a replacement dash led with an earth lead from boltonbits on ebay. However, this did not fix my problem and I had to replace the side led repeaters with standard bulb ones

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I’ll check them today, I know they are standard lights but they do not work so I will check the bulbs in them as that child be the issue then.

When I was trying to resolve this problem a few weeks ago, I found that different bulbs had an effect. I had about 4 that I had spare. One of them would flash very very dimly when the opposite side indicator was selected. Probably not bright enough to notice even at night. I tried another and there was no errant flashing.

@kidsproject , this is a common problem with two straight forward resolves

1. keep side repeaters as std bulbs
2. buy a residual drain resistor https://www.bettercarlighting.co.uk/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=700

Fix #1 can throw up some other residual drain issues, so #2 is the correct way of operating LED bulbs

Out of curiosity would you need one of those drain resistors for every LED lamp fitted?

Birdbrain said:

Out of curiosity would you need one of those drain resistors for every LED lamp fitted?

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No, only for the indicator cct - best place to install is across the hazard o/p wires. If you'd like to all there is to know re' automotive LED's, talk to Gil Keane at Better Car Lighting...his knowledge/LED's are the best in the market

The explanation in Bettercarlighting is complete bollocks. The sheer mass of wiring storing energy...

Not saying a resistor won't work but that's a perfectly ordinary wirewound resistor being sold for about five times what it would cost on Fleabay.

headintheclouds said:

The explanation in Bettercarlighting is complete bollocks. The sheer mass of wiring storing energy...

Not saying a resistor won't work but that's a perfectly ordinary wirewound resistor being sold for about five times what it would cost on Fleabay.

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But what you're missing is the size/spec' of the resistor...Ohms, current, resistor robustness and build quality. Not all resistors are the same

You could hazard a guess at the resistance. Incandescent side lights are 5W each so a drain of 2W maximum through the resistor shouldn't be far off.
Much more than 2W added to the power drawn by the LED and you lose the advantage of the upgrade.

At 12V a power of 2W gives calculated R of 72 ohms. Nearest approved value is 75 ohms.
RS components do a decent quality 10W, 75 ohm resistor for £1.43 + VAT

Yes, it's a guess and they have hopefully tried and tested the value but that doesn't affect the fact that their explanation is horse ****.
That doesn't fill me with confidence.

My trailer has LED lights and the dash does not "recognise" when it is connected, I'm planning to install a couple of resistors in the indicator lines to create more of a load to cure this, I believe it is an easy fix and should be the same for the vehicle itself.

I really don't get this modern obsession with leds. They just seem to cause more trouble than they are worth

For old vehicles with a dynamo the conversion to LEDs makes huge sense. Dynamo output about 20A.
Headlamps 55W per side - about 9A
Ignition 3A
Blower 3A
Side lights & instruments 3A
Radio 2A

And that's you lot! As soon as you use your wipers or rear screen heater you are discharging your battery in a big way.

If you convert to LED headlamps you are saving about 5A, so back within dynamo output.

The light output from some of the latest conversions also seems as good or better than halogens, although there are plenty of LED offerings that have very dubious patterns as they don't quite work the same in the reflectors.

Beneagles said:

I really don't get this modern obsession with leds. They just seem to cause more trouble than they are worth

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Reliability for one. I once had an MOT fail because the brake lights worked one day and the following day at the MOT test one didn't. I also fitted some pricey Uproar front light guards. Worth stealing, so I put some effort in to making them time consuming to remove. Therefore bulb replacement would be time consuming. So LED headlamps went on, alongside the existing LED lights that were already on when I bought the 90.

Just as a response to the issue, it is now resolved, it turned out one of the 5w incandescent side indicator bulbs had had it. Looked fine at a glance but replace it anyway and hey presto all is working as it should.

unfortunately we also replaced all indicator, headlight and wiper stalks as they were hard it...... ow the wipers and washers don’t work lol. Fix one issue gain another!

Beneagles said:

I really don't get this modern obsession with leds. They just seem to cause more trouble than they are worth

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Yup, I'm with you on that one. keep it simple, keep it standard and you can pick up a replacement bulb from almost any supermarket etc.

frog hopper said:

Yup, I'm with you on that one. keep it simple, keep it standard and you can pick up a replacement bulb from almost any supermarket etc.

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Replace with bayonet style led bulbs, not the sealed units. Job’s a good ‘un, one can swap back to the original incandescents whenever they like.

Headlamps were 50w not that modern 55w junk, and 40w low beam.
When i was running extra lighting for main beams, i rewired so that the land rover headlights stayed off, to keep the amps down.
Never had a problem with flat battery, you're not always driving around with mains on