CubanLynx84

iTrader: (2)

No didn't do that. I couldn't spend all day on it.

vietxquangstah

iTrader: (7)

2007-2008 Type-S DRL is the same as 2007-2008 base models.

Make sure your parking brake isn't engaged. That will prevent your DRLs from coming on when you start the car.

crbnfbr

iTrader: (1)

I believe the drl is only 7v output. That would not be enough to power the led's.

CubanLynx84

iTrader: (2)

E-brake wasn't up.

crbnfbr

iTrader: (1)

Take a DMM and measure the drl voltage. I'm telling you it's too low to drive the led's.

CubanLynx84

iTrader: (2)

How is it too low if the bulbs work with the ijdmtoy harness with one bulb brighter than the other. And I get nothing at all with the vleds harness. I was one of the first people to get the drl kit from vleds and back then the harness didn't work either. Bought the ijdmtoy one and that worked

crbnfbr

iTrader: (1)

That's weird, I just know these leds need 12v to power on. I just assumed you were getting the lower drl voltage. I would try and warranty the dimmer bulb and continue to use the harness that works.

Bit off topic. How high are the drl aimed in the 07/08 base and type s, respectively?

Frosty

iTrader: (7)

I'm waiting for confirmation from a second Civic owner, but I have at least one Civic owner telling me that his 6v 9005 DRLs work perfectly without a 12v harness or resistors. This is surprising to me, but if it works for him, I don't see why it wouldn't work for the '07-'08 TL DRLs. 6v is 6v (unless the amps are different or something?).

I'll report back once I hear from the second Civic owner.

crbnfbr

iTrader: (1)

Do they stay on as drl or just when the highbeams are on? I'm not sure about th Civic, but their drl may also be their highbeams.

CubanLynx84

iTrader: (2)

That's precisely why I had asked exactly which harness from vleds would work. They have quite a few different setups for the 9005 bulbs.

CubanLynx84

iTrader: (2)

Also if you look on ijdmtoy.com their harness set up looks like it c9mes with a voltage booster of some sort. And its specific for the 07-08 TL only.

thegipper

I posted awhile ago about having problems with these LEDs messing up my FM radio reception. The seller at GT lighting was going to contact CREE and ask about my problem, but I never heard back from him.

I sent CREE an email about my issues and I'll report back what they say. I love the lights but if it messes up my FM radio to the point I can't use it, I may have to return the lights unfortunately =(

Crux

I just put in the CREE R4 XP-E 9005 HB3 from iJDMToy with the D3 Wire Setup, I haven't had an issue with any interference. Where did you mount your decoders/wiring? (Did it even come with a kit to eliminate DRL Errors?) Do you have any aftermarket system wiring? I can't imagine the little/any noise created by them being able to do much of anything to any FM frequency.

Crux

Because boredom won me over, I'll add onto previous. Pardon the lower quality pictures, just used phone.

Before


After


I also did the fogs with the Color Switchable Xenon White/Amber Yellow 20W CREE High Power H8 H11 9005 9006 LED Bulbs

Before


White


Amber


Mix


I will say, if you get these fogs, replace the rubber grommet that comes on the LEDS with the ones on the factory bulbs. They may not look to much different, but it surely restricts you from pushing the bulb in and turning it so it locks. I'm on the fence on how these look, waiting for the sun to go down to see how it really looks.
Factory/LED Grommet

Frosty

iTrader: (7)

Just received confirmation from a second Civic owner that these LEDs work great for his 9005 6v DRLs without the aid of any sort of Vled or iJDM harness (or voltage booster). According to this information, it appears that these LEDs DO NOT require 12v to power on. I'd love to have another '07-'08 TL owner try these in the DRL location without any harness to see what happens.

CubanLynx, I don't know what to tell you, man. Getting the voltage reading with a DMM is the first step in electrical troubleshooting. Report back once you've obtained those numbers and we'll go from there.

Numerous people have installed these lights in the '04-'06 fogs with no FM interference issues whatsoever (myself included). Despite the fact that the interference only happens when you turn the lights on, I'm having a hard time believing that it's the lights themselves causing the noise. It has to be some sort of other wiring issue going on.

thegipper

Mine didn't need a wire harness (04 base), simply plug and play (9006 size).

I have no extra wiring, subs or anything of the sort. Car is bone stock.

A portable FM radio sitting near my car also gets the disturbance when I turn on the LED fogs. A google search of LED FM/Radio disturbances found me several articles and complaint from people using LEDs in their house/vehicles ect. Some LEDs apparently cause a disturbance and other don't, or at least the ones that don't, have some kind of shielding or something to eliminate it.

thegipper

The car is bone stock, nothing has been changed or altered on the car. All I did was unplug the old lights, remove old bulbs, replace with LEDs and plug them in.

I said above that I also can take a portable FM radio and set it near my car and when I turn on the LEDs, the radio reception goes to hell, just like my car.

Maybe I have a bad set of LEDs?

thegipper

I had a thought.

My AM reception is also terrible but this happened after I tinted my windows. I'm assuming the tint they used was a standard metallic tint which is known to screw up radio reception.

I also noticed that my FM reception isn't all that great even when the lights are off, although it gets MUCH worse when I turn them on.

I wonder if I need to have my old tint on the rear window removed and have it replaced with ceramic tint?

Clearly the LEDs are causing an interference but when the antenna is getting a good signal (not being obstructed by metallic tint) the stations signal is strong enough that the disturbance from the LEDs is negated.

Thoughts?

RedsTL

I'm considering getting the DRL's just because I don't like the look during the day of a yellow light. I figure that the light spread won't really matter as they aren't on at night.

Avoiding the fogs for this reason...

Crux

I know this is a long shot, but do you happen to have an EMF Reader? Any MF should be crazy low on any given LED, however if you have a bad set it may show based on the reading... or you have a ghost and you can start a whole new mystery!

Do you happen to know what V the LEDs are that you have, and if so have you tried to power them on from an external power source; and tested the portable radio next to them?

I do wonder if a lot of this is from the type of tint though; which sucks.

thegipper

I could test your theory and remove one of them and give them an external power source and see if any radios become effected.

I'll do that tonight when I'm replacing my APP and report back.

thegipper

So I called the place that tinted my windows and told him about my radio interference and he agreed that metallic window tint will most certainly mess up radio reception, thus why they make ceramic window tint.

He said since he did the first tint that he would waive the $55 fee to remove the tint on the back window and I would just have to pay the $69 to have the ceramic tint put on the back window.

I'm going to test the external power source issue first, but sounds like I need ceramic window tint in the back.

thegipper

Well there is no doubt now that these LEDs (at least mine) cause an FM radio disturbance, even to radios outside of the vehicle and using a separate power source.

http://vid1127.photobucket.com/album...psfbsbqzrx.mp4

Frosty, can you contact the seller and give him the link to the video?

If at all possible, can someone else test their LEDs the same way and see if theirs does the same?

Hopefully they are just faulty and they can replace mine because I would love to keep these.

Thanks

Crux

Lawd.... sorry I wasn't expecting that in the video, I laughed with how surprising it was.

I was thinking of doing the test a little differently than that, I was thinking of isolating any other wiring/grounding and having the light source out of the car then directly to the battery both away from the car. I don't know if that'll change much though after seeing the video.

Just to play catch up since I'm new here and only lurked for a few days prior to picking up my TL a few weeks ago.. which lighting application are these, DRL, Fogs?

I've done quite a few hifi installs on cars, with equipment that is crazy sensitive to noise and I've never seen anything like that. For giggles sakes you also have ZERO issues when you have the factory lights in correct?

Hope you get it figured out soon, that would drive me crazy.

Frosty

iTrader: (7)

Interesting. Yes, I will definitely send this video to the seller and see what his thoughts are. The fact that you have metallic tint on the car does throw another factor into the equation though. Like Crux said, I'd like to see you do this experiment while being COMPLETELY isolated from the car. Not sure if it would make a difference, but I'm still curious.

These LEDs can be used in the upper fogs on '04-'06 TL's, DRLs on '07-'08 TL's, and lower fogs on '07-'08 TLs. Of course, they can be used in other cars as well. Basically, any factory halogen can be replaced with these LEDs. They're even bright enough to be used as low beams and high beams.

thegipper

I can take the bulb its self out of the housing but I'm 99% sure it wont change a thing. The bulb was just in the housing and had no electrical or connection of any kind to the car. If it changes I'll report back otherwise assume it didn't matter.

Thanks Frosty.

Ratm68

I also have the FM radio interference issue. Not in the TL, but bought to try in my '98 Civic. The first night, I just figured the local station were doing maintance then recalled reading about the problem here. The radio get immediate static when lights comes on. However, it appears that it only effect a group of station broadcasting from the same parent company (possibly same location). Other station has no impact, so it might have to do with certain frequencies or signal a particular company is broadcasting. Not a radio wave expert, but statis on the radio is quite annoying.

Crux

So I actually did some looking up on this, and it does seem that there is a very likely chance that in the (12v) spectrum of LEDs there is a chance for RF noise. A lot of it looks to be the design concept of whats powering the LED though (component), and not so much the LED itself. I'm a little shocked to be honest, I've been prototyping some LED stuff with The Ohio State University for about 3 years and haven't seen any issues nearly this bad.

Frosty, do you know where that product is made? Is it FCC or UL stamped?

thegipper

Crux,

They are made by Cree and according to GT lightings website, they are made in the usa. Don't have the box anymore so I can't verify.

Again, I would love for someone to do what I did and see if their produce the FM disturbance or if I just have a bad set. Anyone?

Crux

I know I'm with an 08 w/ the H8 but I'm using the CREE DRL and the Fogs; models mentioned in above posts and I've had zero issues.

I believe you mentioned you had reached out to CREE, have they gotten back with you on anything yet?

YeuEmMaiMai

you know you might be able to "fix" the issue by placing a capacitor across the +12 and ground a pico farad cap should do it, it will allow high RF to pass to chassis ground

thegipper

Haven't heard from Cree or anyone from GT lighting yet, I'll be sure to let everyone know what they say if I hear anything.

acupower

I haven't had LED lights on my car but I have some experience with other LED applications. In my opinion, the radio interference is not caused by the LED diodes themselves. Instead, it is probably RF released from the LED driver (which is built into the aluminum casing of the lamps).

The LED drivers use PWM (pulse width modulation) at high frequency. If this frequency aligns with the FM frequency, then you have a problem. On top of that, the wire feeding your LEDs with power from the car (i.e. the car's harness) begins to act as an emitting antenna.

There might be a cheap solution to the problem. If someone is up for it, just buy a couple of ferrite cores from amazon:


Put them on the wires going to your LEDs as close to the LED lamps as possible.

If this works, let me know. I'll buy the LEDs as well

Frosty

iTrader: (7)

This is very strange. I have 2 pairs of these installed, and don't get an ounce of radio static with all 4 running. It must have something to do with location as well. Maybe the radio signal is poor to begin with?

I'll check the packaging tomorrow. I don't believe it includes the origin details though. The packaging has hardly any writing on it.

I'll try to test all 4 of mine with a portable radio tomorrow.

TheGipper, it might be worth a shot!

thegipper

Frosty,

Did the seller ever get back to you after watching my video?

Thanks

Frosty

iTrader: (7)

Yep. He said he was forwarding the video to the factory to see what they say. I'll let you know.

Stephen00TL

Normally when I drive in town I don't really listen to the radio or have it turned down real low. Today I had to go to my other store for work about 25 miles away. Since I had to drive on the highway I was listening to the radio. It started raining so I turned on my headlights and fog lights. When I turned the fog lights on the station I was listening to started getting static. Out of the 6 stations I had programmed one was bad the other was a little bad and the other four were pretty much normal. None of the stations were as bad as thegipper though.

CubanLynx84

iTrader: (2)

Ok so I put a dmm on the stock drl harness. On the pass side I get 13.98 volts. On the drivers side I get nothing.

jays_kbp610

Well you guys, after a month of waiting ive finally installed my DRL leds for my 07 TLS. Now I can confirm that the leds will work without a relay harness but, you dont get the full light output due to the low voltage. I went ahead and installed my relay harness since I had already ordered it. I get a brighter LED output and im 100% satisfied. Ill post the pictures when I get a chance

acupower

How does their output when they are running at lower voltage (as drl) compare to the halogens? Do they flicker at all?