LED Tail light globes in WH Statesman

[Wheelzy]

(This is my very first post and I apologize in advance if I have placed it in the wrong section)

Hey guys, I purchased 4 Tail/Brake globes for the tail lights on my WH Statesman, Because i have tinted my tail lights and the original bulbs just don't cut it. The ebay add said they were just plug & play but when I put them in they didn't work at all and started to smell like they were burning, I thought it may be that they were getting too much power so i tried wiring a resistor in, but no luck, Then I figured out that WH's clusters tell you if a Tail light is out so I'm wondering if the Computer is even bothering sending out power to the LED globe because it thinks the original bulb is blown.

The SMD LED Globes I'm trying to Install:

If anyone could shed some light on the subject or tell me how to fix the problem that'd be muchly appreciated,
Cheers,
Axyl

 

[MARAUDER]

You could confirm the operation of the globes by hooking them up directly to the battery. I.e, the metal side to the -ve terminal and then the +ve to each terminal individually. There should be a brightness difference between the two [one for tail, one for brake].

If the WH runs a sensing current through the globe you may be able to trick it with a resistor [say 1K for example] from each terminal to ground. What value however I'm not sure. You don't want the value to be too little otherwise it may trip some other sort of error as it may think that the "bulb" is drawing too much power.

Good luck.

 

[MY_84_VK]

Try an original bulb back in and see what happens? As far as bulbs like the smd goes they should just be plug and play. And cause of the offset pins there should be no real way to put them in wrong.

 

[Wheelzy]

Hey there and thank you for your reply, I put the globe in some narva tail lights at work just to see if they'd work and there is a distinct difference between the park and the brake, I've tried putting them into a brand new hilux and in my stato and it doesn't work but the original bulbs work fine, so you think a 1k resistor would do the trick? Do I wire 2 individual resistors to the park and brake feed or just a single resistor to only one of the park or brake feeds?

Cheers!
Axyl

 

[MARAUDER]

Hey there and thank you for your reply, I put the globe in some narva tail lights at work just to see if they'd work and there is a distinct difference between the park and the brake, I've tried putting them into a brand new hilux and in my stato and it doesn't work but the original bulbs work fine, so you think a 1k resistor would do the trick? Do I wire 2 individual resistors to the park and brake feed or just a single resistor to only one of the park or brake feeds?

Cheers!
Axyl

There will need to be one each for the park and brake.

You may need to experiment with the resistors. This can be done with a potentiometer, but bear in mind that the lower your value gets the more power the reistor will need to dissipate and more heat is generated. You could probably go as low as 150 ohms with a 1W resistor and about 600 ohms with a 0.25W pot.

It it were me I'd just try the 150ohm 1W resistor and leave it at that, the 1k value was just to be prudent and work down.

The difference between diodes vs standard globes is that the diodes will have a constant voltage accross them where ass the voltage accross a filament globe is proportional to the current flowing through it. So the resistor in parallel with each terminal of the globe and ground will trick the sensing circuit into thinking there is a normal globe there.

I cannot confirm if this is the mode of operation but if I had to guess; if the BCM isn't seeing a near ground voltage when the globe is off it may not bother even energising the circuit. If it's using a sensing resistor, when the normal globe is off the voltage will be near zero, when the LED bulb os off it will still read about 10.5v making it think that the globe is blown.

Good luck.

 

[jasonstatesman]

hi mate
i have just brought the same thing and i have the same problem they short out even tho they have the two connection points at the bottom the lights are wired up all wrong it has nothing to do with resistors, i was lucky to get my money back. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CAR ITS THE GLOBES !!!!!
im still trying to find the right LED globe for the connection in my statesman im about to buy these 2x 42 LED SMD Hid White Car Bulb 1157 380 bay15d P21/5W Stop/Turn, can you see the 1157 and the 380 these are the number you are looking for (i think), if you cross referance the 380 with narva globes for the p21/5w the number is 47380

i dont know what everyone else is going on about but im pretty sure the problem is as simple as this

 

[Husky]

Look up monsterled on eBay. Their globes work great in my vx.