Ahh, yes. This is the price we pay for insane engineers who insist on adding computers to do things they were never needed for before. Instead of a bulb, you can add a resistor across your led bulbs. A typical brake light or signal light draws about an amp. A 12 ohm resistor will also pass one amp in a 12 volt circuit. The resistance value isn't real critical. The resistor will need to be about a 10 watt resistor. Higher resistance values will pass less current so they won't get as hot. You must remember too that signal lights are only on about 50 percent of the time when they're activated. A resistor won't have much time to get hot so that power rating isn't critical either.
I have hundreds of those resistors from tvs I've scrapped out. If you can't find something suitable, ask at a local tv repair shop. They will often have boxes full of them and may give you what you need. You can even try something like a 20 ohm 5 watt resistor to see if that satisfies the computer.
Jun 27, 2013 at 9:05 AM
