That's bizzarre. I'll look up the wiring schematic diagrams when time and see what the hell is going on. I'm really surprised that they would be some small current draw off the battery with the car off and if the brake was in no way applied. This is ridiculous but do this again and if you have the hand brake engauged......dis-engauge it and give a look.

 

Surfer, just to clarify, the car was running, but all exterior lights were off... I'd yank th e resistors right now and try the handbrake thing for you, but the car is at the body shop getting a bunch of mods done, so can't test until later next week...

 

Not that important, just curious.
BTW....you remember what VLED you have in the third brake light?

 

Yes, please come back with the PNP variant. I'd be interested in the right approach, as I'm no real electronician.
But my circuit is working for more than a year already, so that must not be too bad.

The glowing light has a cool factor, but it fools the ABS, so better get rid of it...

Btw, you can attach the circuit to any lamp socket. It doesn't need to be to the third light.

Hi Maz, that's plain normal. That's due to the way LEDs work, and the check circuit in the ABS controller.

The ABS controller, when powered up and you don't brake, applies some low load check voltage through the lamp circuit.
As long as there is a good lamp, the voltage drops to near 0V. But if all the brake lamps are burnt, the check voltage stays at 7V, and the ABS controller deactivates itself, indicating the failure. (Yes, believe me, the ABS no longer works)

Now, LEDs are not resistors like bulbs. They need some threshold voltage to start emitting light. Under that voltage, they do nothing but block current.
So, when the ABS controller applies it's check voltage, it's just over the LED threshold and some light comes out, as LEDs need lot less current than bulbs.
But conversely, the voltage doesn't drop below the LED threshold, so the ABS controller believes all lamps are burnt...

T.

 

Maz- I do not have a VLED in the 3rd brakelight, camera instead.... but the Pontiac GTO wing's LED light bar is indeed hooked to the 3rd brake light circuit.

 

OK, I will let you know when we have a working prototype.
It makes sense that you can attach to any of the 3 lights, because one of my resistors broke recently (Not getting hot anymore) and I still do not have any bad codes or loss of ABS. So we only need to make one brake light fooler per car right?
That is pretty handy. Thanks again

-C

 

What resistors did you use? Ohms? Watts?

 

no idea, but you can just use the ones they sell at pep-boys/autozone etc...

 

The same thing just happened to my 2005 Sport. I installed one red LED into the Left Brake Light to check the color, with no detrimental effects. But when I installed the other two LED Brake Lights (the right one and the center one), I got the odd symptom described above.

The symptom is two yellow dash lights illuminate, the ABS light and the Traction Control light (not the DSC OFF light). The odd part is the computer showed no codes...I was stumped. On a whim after reading this thread, I removed all three LEDs, replacing them with the original incandescents, and walla...the dash lights were gone.

The interesting thing about having the ABS and the traction control light ON, was how connected I felt to the road. It seemed a different feeling than when DSC is disabled via the DSC OFF switch. Also gone was this unexplained brake pedal drop (1/2 inch) on hard braking I have always had, which seemed to go away too. It is not the ABS kicking in, because if anything the ABS system raises the pedal. Now I am going to see how to recreate that condition (likely by pulling fuses) to determine if there really is a difference.

Once again thanks to the treasure trove of knowledge here on RX8Club.com, I was able to solve my problem. Cheers!

 

^...................it's only the LED in the third popsition causing your issue and you can eliminate that with a resistor.
Here's the link to my thread and in there is the resistor value and where it needs to be.

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-trouble-shooting-95/have-abs-dcs-tcs-issues-lights-staying-202843/


Look at #11 under possibilities and checks.

 

I know it is pretty late to reply on this thread. However this is the neatest solution I found for the ABS light going off due to LED Brake lamps. I was wondering if you could post the required part list for making this circuit. I would like to put this in my car. I somehow don't like the idea of putting in a resistor based load due to the inefficiency and the risk of the heat it generates.

Also please let me know how to wire this up with the brake lamp |(Does it go in Parallel or Serial). I am complete noob in electronics so whatever help you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

 

Bumping up the thread. Hoping for a miracle that someone replies.

 

Hook resistors up in parallel with brake lights. That's the easiest solution.

Make sure you use a good resistor load. Those cheap gold ones get really hot. When I had my Accord, I had resistor loads from VLEDs. Never had an issue.

 

Thanks for your reply. I know the Resistors may be an easy solution, but I was looking to avoid them. I would rather go with the solution in this thread as I find it to be an elegant one. Hoping that someone from the original authors reply to my question.

 

So l went ahead and built the circuit as per the schema and installed it in my car. The thing works !!
I would like to thank the forum and particularly the members here who thought of this clever circuit.

This is a much better solution than putting load resistors.

BTW: I installed this in a Mitsubishi Pajero 2.8 TD vehicle. I guess the ABS self test works the same way in most cars and that's why it worked for my car too.

Thanks once again.

 

@traveller please guide me how to connect that circuit. I am following your Pajero thread on TBHP for long and there is no way i can post my comments on that forum.
ps. I am a follow Indian and a sfx owner.

 

Hi, The circuit did not work as expected. It stopped working after a day. I had to remove it and now use normal bulbs for the brakes.

There are load capacitors available for this purpose and I purchased them also. However I never used them and they are lying unused with me.

I think it's best to use normal bulbs for the brakes because of the ABS issues at least in the Pajero.

Rest of the lights can be changed to LED's and the indicator lights need a new electronic flasher unit otherwise the indicator hyper flash.

Where are you located. PM me your contact details and I can invite you to our WhatsApp group.

 

Thanks for promp reply. My whatsapp number is 9760789153. Please add me in your whatsapp group. 😀