[Blue15ColoradoLT]

2nd gen owners keep asking me if 2 resistors are really needed for the tail lights if you swap over to LEDs. The answer is yes. One of my resistors went bad. Check out my video.

 

[Blue15ColoradoLT]

I did this today and still had the issue of fast blink and notice on the dash. What led lamps are folks using? I am using the diode dynamics 7443's and have used their stuff in every other socket in the truck... want to get this nailed down and thought I'd try here before going back to them. Have their 50 watt 6 Ohm resistors...
Thanks in advance folks.

Do you have 2 resistors on each side?

 

[goormove]

I did - but I want to do it again and see if I did something wrong.
Not a fan of the taps, so I am going to do something a bit nicer with solder and shrink wrap... after I make sure it works.

As you noted - one before both lamps and one before the last lamp, correct?
Thank you.

 

[Blue15ColoradoLT]

I did - but I want to do it again and see if I did something wrong.
Not a fan of the taps, so I am going to do something a bit nicer with solder and shrink wrap... after I make sure it works.

As you noted - one before both lamps and one before the last lamp, correct?
Thank you.

That is correct. Just make sure the resistors work. I need to get new resistors.

 

[Shawn Cargill]

Anyone replace the cargo lights in a 2016? How do you get the lights off with the tape around the housing?

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[Shawn Cargill]

Anyone replace the cargo lights in a 2016? How do you get the lights off with the tape around the housing?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Never mind. Haha.

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[Moescastle]

Just wanted to say thanks for putting this out . . made it simpler than I imagined! From my motorcycle days, the LEDS make a huge difference!

 

[monkeyracer]

I just wanted to add that you can tap both resistors in at the back of the first bulb, but the only caution being that you need to make sure that the top black and top grey are connected separate from the bottom black and bottom grey wires (don't cross the resistors).
I did it this way to be able to tuck the resistors back inside the body. The taps are a little tough to get all 4 next to each other though.

 

[16_MidnightRider]

And now one for front switchbacks?. Very nice to write-up! Sticky?!?

 

[Blue15ColoradoLT]

And now one for front switchbacks?. Very nice to write-up! Sticky?!?

That was done a while ago:
http://coloradofans.com/forums/2645874-post22.html

 

[CrashFix]

@Blue15ColoradoLT or anyone, if I don't want to add resistors can I simply change the following bulbs to LED's?


Bulb --------------------------------------------GM PN# X-Referance --PN# that may also fit
Tail (Stop) lights ------------------------------7443
Reverse lights ---------------------------------921 ---------------------194 2825L
Cargo & Center High Mounted Stop lamp ---921 -(Three needed)-----194 2825L
License plates ---------------------------------194 ---------------------921 2825L
Interior domes & reading lights -------------194 -----------------------921 2825L
Visor ------------------------------------------30mm festoon ------------?


How about total Qty for above, does this look right? (No turn signal lights wanted)
7443 x2
921 x5 (Or just 921 x10 & no 194?)
194 x5
30mm festoon x2

 

[RatRacer]

@Blue15ColoradoLT or anyone, if I don't want to add resistors can I simply change the following bulbs to LED's?


Bulb --------------------------------------------GM PN# X-Referance --PN# that may also fit
Tail (Stop) lights ------------------------------7443
Reverse lights ---------------------------------921 ---------------------194 2825L
Cargo & Center High Mounted Stop lamp ---921 -(Three needed)-----194 2825L
License plates ---------------------------------194 ---------------------921 2825L
Interior domes & reading lights -------------194 -----------------------921 2825L
Visor ------------------------------------------30mm festoon ------------?


How about total Qty for above, does this look right? (No turn signal lights wanted)
7443 x2
921 x5 (Or just 921 x10 & no 194?)
194 x5
30mm festoon x2

The 7443 will need a resistor. Any stop or turn signal with dual element use will, except the high 3rd brake light.
The vanity is 4 X 6614 LED, but the cool whites are too white, and DD has warm whites at their typical pricing...

 

[CrashFix]

The 7443 will need a resistor. Any stop or turn signal with dual element use will, except the high 3rd brake light.
The vanity is 4 X 6614 LED, but the cool whites are too white, and DD has warm whites at their typical pricing...

I assume there aren't any single element bulbs in the tail light assembly? Seeing as I don't want to mess around with resistors I'll probably just do the interior, cargo, 3rd brake light, back-up lights..

I have to order some crap from GearBest so I was thinking of trying some of the LED's they have. I know it's a gamble with the China stuff & probably not the same quality as DD, but they're cheap, maybe I can find "some" that will work. Just a matter of sorting through the multitude of LED's offered (there's a wack of them to sort through & vanity ones seem hard to find on that site). If DD had more friendly shipping terms to Canada I would give them a try for all....

LED Bi-pin Lights - Best LED Bi-pin Lights Online Shopping | GearBest.com

7443 LEDs | GearBest.com

Do the vanity the lights under the visor look similar to the LED in the pic below?
"29-30mm long festoon" or -> 4 X 6614 LED

 

[RatRacer]

I assume there aren't any single element bulbs in the tail light assembly? Seeing as I don't want to mess around with resistors I'll probably just do the interior, cargo, 3rd brake light, back-up lights..

I have to order some crap from GearBest so I was thinking of trying some of the LED's they have. I know it's a gamble with the China stuff & probably not the same quality as DD, but they're cheap, maybe I can find "some" that will work. Just a matter of sorting through the multitude of LED's offered (there's a wack of them to sort through & vanity ones seem hard to find on that site). If DD had more friendly shipping terms to Canada I would give them a try for all....

LED Bi-pin Lights - Best LED Bi-pin Lights Online Shopping | GearBest.com

7443 LEDs | GearBest.com

Do the vanity the lights under the visor look similar to the LED in the pic below?
"29-30mm long festoon" or -> 4 X 6614 LED

Yes, all the taillights blink.
Yes, the exact type lamp. They are bright, and they are white! A warm white would be better on these actually. I didn't think to check GearBest, as I have a couple flashlights coming from them.

 

[wjmorris26]

@Blue15ColoradoLT I used your diagram to install the resistors for the tail lights/ turn signals yesterday on my 2016 and it worked exactly as it should, thank you for the diagram.

And it is true for the 2016s as well the one resistor before the first bulb will not correct the hyperflash, you need both resistors (I trusted the input but thought I would see if only one would correct the problem)

 

[trp1986]

I know this is not about LEDs in the headlights but I want to hijack the thread for a second. DO you need to add a resistor if you put LEDs in the headlights?

 

[RatRacer]

I know this is not about LEDs in the headlights but I want to hijack the thread for a second. DO you need to add a resistor if you put LEDs in the headlights?

No.
You need resistors on lights that do flashing duties to prevent hyper-flashing, because the LED's don't pull enough juice.
The Low beam of the headlight will need a capacitor though, because it does double duty as the DRL via Pulse Width Modulation (PWM), which can cause flickering and/or premature death. Some LED brands have it built in. DRL cannot be disabled by a fuse pull, as it's operated by the BCM.

 

[Joedude]

Hey guys,

I was able to use a single 3 Ohm, 100-watt resistor in the wiring harness for the rear lights. I tapped in just prior to the first light (the bottom one), using the common black and grey wires, as Blue15ColoradoLT drew in his diagram. It works like a charm.

On the left tail light assembly, you'll see two 10mmx1.50mm threaded studs used to mount the tailgate. I made a small aluminum L-bracket, drilled with 10mm holes at 78mm, center-to-center, for mounting the resistor. The resistor was sized to a 4mm hole (not sure what the stock size was, maybe 3.5mm - it was very close to 4mm already). The L-bracket was drilled with matching 4mm holes on one side, and 10mm holes on the other.

I wasn't sure how hot the resistor might get during city traffic (lots of brake light and turn signal use), so I put a small piece of sticky aluminized fiberglass heatshielding on the inside wall near the resistor. That way, the exterior painted surface will have some interior protection from the heat source (i.e. the resistor).

On the right-hand side, I'll need some 10mmx1.50mm couplers to extend the same 10mm studs out a bit. The right-hand side houses the mechanism that lowers the tailgate slowly. I'm not sure what it's called, but appears to be a small drum with viscous fluid and vanes allowing for the slow, controlled fall of the tailgate.

So far, the Diode Dynamics brake lights are crazy bright on the left side. Awesome! I love it. Well, except I'm presently running a mismatched set .. the left is bright LEDs, and the right is, for the moment, stock incandescents.

 

[MV10]

I just wanted to add that you can tap both resistors in at the back of the first bulb, but the only caution being that you need to make sure that the top black and top grey are connected separate from the bottom black and bottom grey wires (don't cross the resistors).
I did it this way to be able to tuck the resistors back inside the body. The taps are a little tough to get all 4 next to each other though.

I did the same, although I re-taped the sleeve to expose another half inch of wire or so. T-taps are enough of a hassle without trying to cram four of them into that kind of close proximity!

It's unfortunate that GM does the hyperflash thing, they could have just gone with the DIC warning (unlike the old days where the fast blink really was an electrical side-effect). If you hit the emergency flashers on an LED setup with no resistors, they'll blink at the normal rate all day long. (Or try the LED turn signals without resistors, you'll notice they blink normally about three or four times before the fake hyperflash sets in.)

Anyway, thanks blue for posting up which wires to tap.

 

[Fidget]

Pics no longer work. Also did you just use one resistor for each side or one per bulb. What rating of resistor did you use

Thanx!

A lot of people have asked me about how to add resistors in for anyone who wants to swap out their tail light bulbs to LEDs and prevent the hyper flashing. So I've created this thread for people to reference.

To start, the full set of rear lights are all wired in parallel. So if you open up the wire loom before all of the bulbs, you'll see 4 colored wires:

Black - common negative
Gray - turn signal positive
Orange - tail light positive
Yellow - reverse positive

Using this MS-Paint diagram, you can see that the common ground wire comes out from the truck (big blue block on the left) to the first bulb, comes out of that bulb to the middle bulb, out of the middle to the last.

***NOTE*** The left bulb in the diagram is actually your bottom bulb in the tail light housing



So as you can see here, this is before all of the bulbs, you T-Tap/Splice the resistor to the black wire and the gray wire:


You do the same for the last bulb:


Here is a full picture showing everything.

Any questions???