Resistors or "magic wire" for LED swapout of external lighting

I put switchbacks in last week and the resistors do indeed get hot.... which worries me.


Has anybody tried "method A" described here on their 2013+ ?
(it appears to involve cutting and then grounding a specific wire under the dash).
If you do it, do you lose any functionality? Will it still operate while you also have some incandescents installed?

http://www.rambodybuilder.com/2013/docs/ram/ramelm.pdf

Doesn't work. I tried.

mikz86ta said:

Doesn't work. I tried.

Click to expand...

Was it fast flashing when you tried the magic wire mod? I did a bit more reading and if it was, you'd need to put it back and go thru a reset process with the incandescents in, and THEN ground that wire before swapping in LEDs

Sorry I was vague. Kinda busy.
I did led front signals in my 2014. Thats all.
After installed (canbus style also), i got hyperflash in the cluster and my stock signal mirrors hyperflashed. The frt and rr signals themselves didnt hyperflash.

Iwanted to try the wire mod u spoke of before adding load resistors. It didnt work. I ended up doing load resistors

How have you resistors held up? Im worried on parking lights using the resistors a lot. I do a lot of night driving

mikz86ta said:

Sorry I was vague. Kinda busy.
I did led front signals in my 2014. Thats all.
After installed (canbus style also), i got hyperflash in the cluster and my stock signal mirrors hyperflashed. The frt and rr signals themselves didnt hyperflash.

Iwanted to try the wire mod u spoke of before adding load resistors. It didnt work. I ended up doing load resistors

Click to expand...

My apologies: my second post was not clear..... What I was trying to say was did you put LEDs in, and then have the fast-flash start, before trying the wire mod? Then, when you BEGAN to attempt the wire mod, was it still in fast-flash mode, or had you put incandescents back in to let it clear the "fault" before you grounded that wire?


from
http://www.rambodybuilder.com/2014/docs/cc/dddpextlitmod.pdf

plarkinjr said:

I put switchbacks in last week and the resistors do indeed get hot.... which worries me.





Has anybody tried "method A" described here on their 2013+ ?

(it appears to involve cutting and then grounding a specific wire under the dash).

If you do it, do you lose any functionality? Will it still operate while you also have some incandescents installed?



http://www.rambodybuilder.com/2013/docs/ram/ramelm.pdf

Click to expand...

I did LED bulbs in the front. I got hyper flash in the cluster and OEM signals on the mirrors as well as bulb out warning on EVIC. The bulbs front and rear flashed normally. I have seen the body builder page previously and people have said it didn't work. BUT I overlooked, and some others may have, was the reset process that is described. I went through the the reset process and cleared the warning and hyper flash. I then cut and grounded as described. Installed the LED bulbs and IT WORKED!!!
No hyper flash and no bulb out warnings. Been running for about 20 mins and no issues. Previous to this when I had the bulbs in, I got warnings within about 10 seconds.

Follow the first link (ending in ramelm.pdf) because this has good photos and tutorial. Then follow the asterisk note that is in the second hyperlink provided by the OP.

Soon to follow will be rear LED also.

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firebuff17 said:

I did LED bulbs in the front. I got hyper flash in the cluster and OEM signals on the mirrors as well as bulb out warning on EVIC. The bulbs front and rear flashed normally. I have seen the body builder page previously and people have said it didn't work. BUT I overlooked, and some others may have, was the reset process that is described. I went through the the reset process and cleared the warning and hyper flash. I then cut and grounded as described. Installed the LED bulbs and IT WORKED!!!
No hyper flash and no bulb out warnings. Been running for about 20 mins and no issues. Previous to this when I had the bulbs in, I got warnings within about 10 seconds.

Follow the first link (ending in ramelm.pdf) because this has good photos and tutorial. Then follow the asterisk note that is in the second hyperlink provided by the OP.

Soon to follow will be rear LED also.

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Click to expand...

Hey Firebuff17, OP here.... Thanks for setting this straight! I KNEW IT!!! once the fault is set, grounding the magic wire also disables the ability to CLEAR the fault code. I'm gonna proceed with this, and snip the hot resisters off my front switchbacks (I worry about their heat and all that plastic becoming something "FireBuff" would really enjoy!).

Rears are next for me also. Any special bulb recommendations? Just regular old 3157 LEDs in white? Also, what did you use for LED cab dome, and source? Please?

Thanks!!!!

Here is the list of all the ones I have changed.
License plate - 194 (2)
Reverse - 921 (2)
CHMSL - 921R (1)
Cargo - 921 (2)
Dome - 7679 (1)
Overhead console - ts212-9 (2) 4410 578
I used 5000k white LEDs with the exception of CHMSL. That 1 I got in red.
With LEDs it is best to match the color of the LED with the color of the lens it is going behind. With the exception of clear. If it is a clear lens you can do any color. So for tail lights I would get those in red. I bought mine from VLEDs. I had good luck with them. A lot of people have gone with superbrightleds.


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I am regretfully going to write this.
Grounding this wire may not work for the 1500's. I went out to the truck this am and I have bulb out warnings in the EVIC and hyper flash in the cluster and LED signal lamps on the mirrors.
Going to have to look into this more. I don't know.. :-(


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firebuff17 said:

I am regretfully going to write this.
Grounding this wire may not work for the 1500's. I went out to the truck this am and I have bulb out warnings in the EVIC and hyper flash in the cluster and LED signal lamps on the mirrors.
Going to have to look into this more. I don't know.. :-(


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Click to expand...

If my post caused your reply to invoke Murphy's Law, I sincerely apologize!

Thanks for the info, and reminder about matching lens color! I think I was among SuperBrighLEDs first customers when I put LED 1157s in my 1998 Harley (got tired of replacing bulbs). Amber up front and Red out back.

Meh! It happens. You have not done anything wrong.
When I sniped the wire I added insulated quick disconnects just in case it didn't work I can return it to original.
As stated in the files this refers to replacing rear lights with LEDs. So this may still work for the rear. I don't know. I have not done rears yet. Maybe we are just going to need resistors for the front.
If I get to the rears first I I will let you know if this works. And if you get to the rears first please let me know.
Thanks


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Update: I finally got to trying it and it does not seem to work. I'm puzzled why, though. I got hyper flash once I put LEDs in the tail lights. I wonder if it might be because I have resisters on the LEDs up front.

I have not done my rears yet. Life has been busy and now we have 2 feet of snow on the ground and temps o about 10-15F. So it will be awhile before I get to it.
Thanks for the update. I will keep you posted when I do mine.


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