Hey fellers, was hoping to join under better circumstances but unfortunately not the case... recently installed the front and rear clear bumper markers complete with LEDS and had about a good hour drive with them till I started noticing issues. Whenever the brake is applied, and left turn signal on; the rear fog indicator flashes with the turn signal on the Dash. When the rear fogs are on with brakes applied and the left turn on. The left turn light flashes rapidly. I was hoping it was just the cars odd way of telling me rear bulb out. When I checked the back itself, wedging a stick to press the brake, whenever the left turn signal is on all left rear lights dim. When the rear fogs are on barely anything lights up, flashes, and the reverse proximity sensor activates faintly. Im thinking but hoping its not a bad ground. I did re wrap the right rear marker light since the electrical tape on it was cracked and it's directly beneath the gas tank. Don't want any further mishaps. Could've yanked or loosened a connection but I don't see how that would work. Any ideas guys? Thanks.

 

Have you figured this issue out? How did you wire the LEDS? Hardwired into power source?

 

Hey thanks for the reply, just replaced the lenses with clear marker pieces and just swapped the 194 peanuts with regular 5 LED 194 bulbs. They really complete the modern clean look on a black X-Type. Coincidentally this is when the left tail light issue started (don't know if something that simple could've caused a short or ground break somewhere) I checked out the left taillight and its connector, didn't see any melting so I'm assuming it's a ground somewhere else, I'm pretty busy and lazy right now so I'll probably end up taking a look next week. If it's a ground point issue on the body somewhere then I'll most likely just get my mech to do it. So far I've swapped every 194 bulb out with LEDs. Bought a spare boot plinth and will eventually get the plinth mod going, then Illuminated grill. Many more plans in store for her but life tends to get in the way. Thanks for the interest!
*oh also have soldered a few connectors to the wiring. The crimps they use to attach the wiring to the connectors seem to be fairly loose. I lost my right rear marker light thanks to this and had to extend the wiring plus solder the connector.

 

Duke, it is sounding like you have a bad LED bulb or you have a bulb that is not seated properly. I would set up the conditions that cause all the bulb to light dimly and then remove the 4 LED bulbs that you just installed and see if things go back to normal. If they do, then odds are, you have a bad LED bulb and I would try installing the new LED bulbs one at a time and see which one(s) are causing the problem to occur.

The next thing that you will need to do (assuming removing the LEDs bulbs didn't fix your problem) is to remove the left taillight light assembly and with the use of a multimeter, put the red lead on the black wire in the plug and the black lead to any bare metal post back in the trunk. The multimeter will need to be set to monitor VDC. You should be seeing under 0.5 VDC. If you are seeing over that, then you have a bad ground and you are getting feedback through the other bulbs and that is what is causing your strange lighting issues. I would also check the bulbs to make sure that they are all seated correctly. Some of the bulbs can short between 2 contacts and cause strange indications. So, you can try removing the bulbs one at a time and seeing if removing the bulb causes the car to work right again.

If you need more help or are simply confused, let me know.

 

Hey Thermo thanks for the tips, when i first noticed the issue I assumed the LEDs could've been shorting but I replaced all bulbs back to stock using the 194s that came with the clear lenses and there was no change. When switching back to the LEDs I squeezed the contacts on the connector tighter and re - seated the bulbs to a tight fit. I will however try the tail light troubleshooting you suggested later this week if I have time. The car seems to enjoy throwing problems conveniently at the same time as other modifications or repairs are being done... thinking of naming her Gremlin haha. Thanks for the help. Much appreciated.