I will try this today. Thanks for the tip and instructions!

E: Added the resistors on my taillights. So far so good and all seems to work great now!

 

Thanks for posting. That's also pretty cool of DelRey to help you even though you weren't buying his lights.

The electrical engineer in me is a little confused by the process though. Was it ultimately just adding a dummy load (high wattage resistors) in series with the LEDs?

I would assume the car measures whether or not the bulb is "burnt out" by measuring the voltage drop across the bulbs, which is a function of resistance. Couldn't we simply use a multimeter to measure the resistance of all of the leads on the OEM tail lights, then on the aftermarket ones, and pick resistors to bring the net load up high enough?

 

The idea of metering the stock incandescent lights on the car & then designing the resistors around that is a good idea. I'm not sure it's helpful afterward because the LED's would also need to be metered as well b/c they have resistors built in to avoid error codes in the first place.

This fix "resistors in series" simply mimics the stock OEM incandescent resistance adequately to not trigger the "ctw" on the instument cluster.

 

My experience with Frank at Orange Tunning was amazing.
Just emailed him, and in less than one hour get a full response and solution to the problem. They are shipping a replacement unit at no charge.
This means great costumer service.

 

Only means great customer service if consistently provided - Orange Tuning/Frank have been inconsistent at best. You are one of the few.

 

i emailed Frank more then 10 time telling him about the problem in the last few months, but he never replayed back..... i sent him an email for a new order for a diffident car LED lights and he replayed back ...... that means that he sees my emails but he ignore them ...... never dealing with him again ...

anyway, i ordered the 50w resistors that G-forceTarga4S used to fix his lights and i will give it a try once they arrive and hope it works... thaks G-forceTarga4S

 

I does indeed work!
No failure messages ever since I did the resistors.

 

I had a terrible experience with Frank at Orange Tuning and will never buy again from him. He's super fast to sell you something but when you have a problem after he never answers emails.

 

Well good for you!

This thread was made for members who were having trouble with these lights, not to here all about your awesome experience with Orange Tuning.
Many of us have emailed several times & had problems with the lights early on.
I just came up with a work around, to get these things working the way they should of from the start.

 

I ordered the same resistors you specified from ebay, $12 for 4 pieces:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/350710387189...84.m1497.l2649

So far, so good (Knock on wood). I didn't splice the existing circuit, I replaced the stock Dectane resistor pack with two of the above resistors, one for brake light circuit, one for turn signal. Both circuits were erroring out via the MFD. I soldered a pig tail with spade connectors. Should be a long lasting connection.

I only let the car idle in the garage for about ten minutes. Normally the MFD errors would be immediate. Hopefully one of these days I won't be so damn busy so I can actually drive my turbo!

 

Scott

Happy to hear that the lights are finally working! IIRC the LED tail lights draw a lower voltage than the stock incandescent lights, therefore triggering the error codes, correct?

so are the new resistors you installed rated for a higher resistance (ohm's) than the ones that came with the Depo lights? I'm no electrical engineer but if V=I*R, then I assume a larger resistor will register a higher voltage (similar to the incandescent lights) which should signal to the ECU that the tail lights are working properly. Is this the core of the issue?

 

Did you meter the Dectane resistors before removing them & changing to the ones I suggested? Reason I ask, is the amperage change & wire tolerance.

 

G-forceTarga4S can you give us an update? your fix still holding up?

 

It's been a few weeks with regular driving of the car & no error codes!

Light seem to be working how they should.

 

I tried it out this morning and it didn't work for me. In fairness, my poor result could be due to either:
- taking a shortcut on the 'fix'
- possibly a different failure scenario in the first place

First - my failure scenario: My passenger rear taillight from Dectane (Orange) seems to be causing the problem. When both Dectane lights are connected, the passenger rear does not illuminate when the headlights are in the on position. Also, there's a fast blinker on the right side. I have the front LEDs and the right front turn signal illuminates solid when the headlights are on. When I swap the left and right Dectanes, the same failures move to the other side. Is this a similar problem to what others are seeing? Is this the problem that the resistors are supposed to fix? Does anyone have a suggestion of another possible fix? I swapped the bulb for the reverse light (I think that's what it is) and that didn't make a difference.

Second - I did try the new resistors. I bought them from Amazon, and they look very similar to the other ones posted - gold in color. I metered them and they are 6 Ohm each and I connected them in series and see 12 Ohm on the meter. I removed the Dectane resistor, patched my 12 Ohm kit into the Dectand connector, measured again at 12 Ohm on the connector blades, and connected it to the light. I tried it on the car and it didn't work. The only other thing I metered was the Dectane connector and that looks like 30 Ohm. Also, I only messed with the passenger side. The driver side has the Dectane resistor on it and seems to work fine.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
Jack