WestCoastin31

Okay, I haven't seen a DIY for the down and dirty, straight up way to install load resistors on your front turn signals. So here it is. Extremely simple.

What I Used:
-Pliers
-Scissors
-Wire strippers
-Load resistors found here.
-My load resistors came with wire taps, if you don't know how to use them, google.com is your friend

I'm not going into bumper and headlight removal, there are already DIY's on that stuff, so search!

FOR THE RIGHT SIDE TURN SIGNAL:
Step 1) Locate your turn signal wires. Mine had a piece of white tape around them, and they are alone. The fogs and HID's are all bundled into their own little deal. Notice mine is in the upper left hand portion of the picture.

(Keep a gun with you if mountain lions are known to come out at night around your house.)

Step 2) Cut away the tubing surrounding the different wire bundles for your headlights. Be careful not to cut any of the wires(duh). You want to do this because the load resistor is going to get pretty hot, so you have to mount it on a metal surface away from any wires or other plastic stuff.



Step 3) Tap one end of the load resistor into the ground. On both sides of the car, it is a fully black wire.


Step 4) Tap the other side of the load resistor into the white wire with silver dots or dashes.


Step 5) Find a suitable place to drill holes in your car and mount the load resistor. I haven't done it yet, therefor, pics are not posted. Use common sense when doing this.

FOR LEFT SIDE TURN SIGNAL:
Do exactly the same things you did for the RIGHT SIDE, except for Step 4: the color of the wire you are tapping into is red/blue,.

ENJOY!

KJ TL-S

iTrader: (9)

Nice write up, but why you no use relay mod instead of load resistors?

Azndjay

i like the rely mod inside the car better no need to cut or tap any necessary wires , since it can rust later on...

1black_seven

iTrader: (2)

maybe some people like doing the parkour route.

Either way nice write up. I'm sure it'l help those who purchased the load resistor.

guitarplayer16

iTrader: (8)

Nice write-up.

I prefer the relay mod, but if I were to do load resistors, I would install it in the rear, as it's easier and requires no bumper removal.

Also, the resistors in the rear has been covered a few times.

05_NBP_TL

iTrader: (1)

^What guitarplayer said...I installed mine in the rear ( the resistor is protected from rain/dust).

I have had mine installed about 3 years now with no problems

TerpNation

what do load resistors do?

guitarplayer16

iTrader: (8)

Fixes hyperblink when you replace incandescent bulbs with LEDs.

truonghthe

nice write up but I prefer the relay mod, it seem much easier.

WestCoastin31

Wait so you only have to install load resistors in one area of your car to fix the hyperflash issue? Front will work for rear and vice versa?

WestCoastin31

I just figured I'd do this because I haven't seen any DIY's on the site for this specific job, and I was dealing with a lot of splicing and tapping because I have custom fogs and plus I just installed my demon eyes, so I just knocked everything out while I had the bumper off.

Just tryin to contribute

guitarplayer16

iTrader: (8)

Correct.

WestCoastin31

hmm I must have done something wrong because I just tried to install my read LED turn signals and I got hyperflash.

WestCoastin31

Rear*

felixthecat

Yes and no as you can tell from your experience.

Per the service manual wiring diagrams, the front and rear turn signal bulbs are in parallel for each side. Since these lines are in parallel, you can vary the load resistor values to trick the computer unit into thinking the resistance is the same (in reality, this "trick" is really just a physics relationship). Thus, you can get away with installing 2 load resistors (one for the right side and one for the left side).

It seems like you're running a high resistance low power dissipation load resistor, which won't work. You'll need to get a LOWER resistance HIGHER power dissipation load resistor in order to achieve the desired effect (I know, it sounds counter-intuitive, but it goes back to the physics which I won't go into detail about because it's pretty boring to most people).

I recommend the relay mod since you won't have to worry about a lot of baggage that comes with load resistors (like extra heat, specific mounting locations, etc.) But of course this makes for a nice learning experience!

WestCoastin31

Right on, thanks a lot. Ya I'm just going to go with the relay mod since I plan on hacking into my rear turn signals too next weekend. Chief reason I went with the load resistors is because I remember reading somewhere that they help protect your LED's from burning out, but if mostly everyone is onboard with the relay mod, it must not be that big of an issue.

felixthecat

Fear not about blown LEDs. They won't happen under normal circumstances, as proven by the multitudes of people who have swapped out incandescent bulbs with LEDs.

In case anyone is wondering about the simple scientific explanation, the turn signal lights (as well as all other lights) are driven by a constant voltage power supply (i.e. the battery), not a constant current power supply. Thus, swapping out incandescent bulbs with LEDs will cause a change in the current being drawn, and not the voltage (because voltage is held constant by the battery).

Of course, you can still blow out the LED if you run too much voltage/current through it. You won't be able to run too much voltage through it because a car battery is fixed at 12V, but if something were to short circuit, a huge current would be drawn, potentially breaking down the LED. At that point, though, blown LEDs are the least of your worries.

breck569

iTrader: (1)

This seems method seems easier than relay mod

LockDots

much easier.......if rather than pulling a relay out you'd like to pull your bumper off and/or splice into wiring outside of the cabin where oxidation could form but to each his own, of course.

pwr2panda

Could you just buy a pre-wired resistor that plugs into your stock harness and has a 7443/1168 end to put the bulb into? That would you wouldnt need to tap into the wire.

LockDots

I haven't seen any like that personally. It has to dissipate a decent amount of heat. Most are ceramic resistors for that reason and so it would be a long or large connector.

TotalTL

i tapped into the same black wire that was shown in the picture with the gray dots and i got the hyperfalsh can you post another pic because i definitely tapped the wrong wire.