LED load equalizers

[Snowman]

I have recently started switching out a lot of my incandescent bulbs with led lighting in my car. The challenge I have is that what normally would be a closed circuit on a bulb is bleeding low levels of power to provide a dimly lit LED strips. i need a load leveler and am thinking that the price that autozone asks for one might be a bit high. Surely building one would be cheap and effective. Anyone got any ideas?

[xr4man]

what leds are you using? are they specifically led bulbs for cars? i have switched out the bulbs in two of my cars with automotive led bulbs and don't have that issue.

[Snowman]

Yes sir, packaging even said may need load leveler for some vehicles. The load leveler looks like a basic ceramic resistor but frankly they are charging about 6 times what it is worth. The other are some automotive strip lighting that I used to replace the single 194 bulb in the corner of my trunk with.

[billygoat333]

yeah, iirc all the load leveler does is add resistance to equal the power draw of the incandescent bulb you replaced. I am sure you can use a LED calculator to see what resistor to use.

[xr4man]

do you have an information center that tells you if a bulb is out?

[Snowman]

do you have an information center that tells you if a bulb is out?

Thank god no, I got all the benefits of the mkiv body with all the feature benefits of the mkIII jetta simplicity.

[xr4man]

i guess there must be some other black magic going on with your jetta then. the only reason i can think of that there would be any current flowing to your bulbs without manually turning them on would be for an info center. but then again, VW isn't noted for their electrical prowess.

[Snowman]

i guess there must be some other black magic going on with your jetta then. the only reason i can think of that there would be any current flowing to your bulbs without manually turning them on would be for an info center. but then again, VW isn't noted for their electrical prowess.

Here is my theory, engineers design for specs not real world. 12 volt incadessant volts will operate on +- 2 volts from 12, to that extent a LED will operate on much lower lets say 9 volts plus resistor you will still get enough to close the circuit and power the LEDS. They will light but seriously underpowered. I added two more strips to the circuit and am no longer getting a glow.

either way got a picture of the resistors they sell:

[SXRguyinMA]

Funny...I replaced all my interior lights in my truck with LEDs and they all work perfectly. Guess that's what you get for buying a Jetta

[Snowman]

Funny...I replaced all my interior lights in my truck with LEDs and they all work perfectly. Guess that's what you get for buying a Jetta

Your right next time I will buy a mazda ranger, a mitsubishi cavalier, or a monaro gto. Car was never engineered for LEDs so complaining about its design is kind of like taking a house built in the 40s and expecting it to run your 220 welders and air compressor without doing any type of upgrading.