I replaced all the bulbs of my MC with LEDs, I put a 1kom resistance on the trunk, license plate and stop bulbs to prevent the litle quantity of light that they have when theey are turned off. Now I got another problems:

• The turn signals blink fast like when a normal bulb is missing.
• The parking lights act like a strobe when I start the engine.

Please let me know how to fix these problems. Thanks

 

The turn signals need a greater load placed on the circuit in order to satisfy the 'bulb check' function. LEDs draw so little current compared to normal bulbs that the system thinks the bulb is burned out. To alert the driver, the flasher operates in double speed. Where a normal bulb draws about 1.5 amps or slightly more, a typical LED brake or turn signal bulb is less than 500mA (.5A). You need to add a resistor of about 10 ohms in parallel to draw enough current to trick the body module into thinking a bulb is still in place. Note too that you need about a 20 watt resistor, which is physically fairly large. It will also get quite hot during extended use, so it should not be in contact with plastic surfaces.

The strobig effect is again a function of the low current draw. If it's just at starting, I would not worry about it, simply enjoy the light show.

 

I bought 2 resitors (10ohm-10W) but it didn't work, do I need more watts??

 

sorry to bum off your thread kenros..
but i bought led's for my front and one was strobing and the other one was strobing at a really fast rate. i thought the one that was strobing slow was pretty much a dead bulb. so i was able to get a replacement and it doesnt strobe at all. does that mean the bulbs are going bad? i've only had them for not even two months.
i switched back to regular bulbs instead of the leds. the strobing bothers me as im sure it may bother other drivers.

so any input on this anyone? bulbs going dead or wat?
and once again sorry and thanks kenros. it IS on topic but i am moochin off your thread.

 

The standard bulb is 21W, so it is possible 10W is not enough to make the circuit think a bulb is there. It depends on the value BMW set for a threshold.