Hello everyone,

I installed some aftermarket 194-type LED bulbs in my wheel arches. They are color-correct and I did locate & mark the new bulb's pos/neg terminals by means of a multimeter before inserting them.The bulbs look and work great behind my new smoked arch reflector lenses.

Here's the weird part (!) : I walked into the garage tonight and before I hit the light switch I noticed the rear arch light bulb was glowing v-e-r-y faintly. I thought I was imagining things, but I checked the other three corners and sure enough, all 4 arch lights are getting a trickle of current from somewhere. The LEDs are efficient enough to glow at really low current, but this is WEIRD.

I switched the parking light switch to the 'on' position and the lights all glowed at normal brightness. I am estimating they are glowing at 1/10 their full output when the car is "off" ... any ideas??

I am concerned about eccessive current draw on the battery. I did check the battery voltage at under-hood battery post with the car off, and it reads a respectable 12.37 Volts.

I am cross-posting this in the Electricals thread for obvious reasons.

Any thoughts, comments or similar experiences anyone?

thanks,

rob

 

i have LED sidelights (the lights in the same enclosure as the turn indicators) and i a similar issue, but they eventually go out, i am assuming there is just enough residual/parasitic potential to push the LED over the threshold voltage. In the end i just ignore it and the lights eventually go out , besides LED's dont draw all that much current at all.

 

it takes almost no power to get an LED to power up....the system is still active after you shut off the car...then you just have to burn up the left over power...

Also, I bet you didn't know they strobe when you start the car....LOL...check it out at night...when I start mine...the side markers all strobe for a bit...

 

Your just a bad ***