[rotaryenginepete]

Yes .. many of us know that. But that has nothing to do with this topic.
Go ahead. . . have the last word if you must.

Back to some good Sunday afternoon football.

Yes, the computer that controls the generator, using PWM, that raises voltage high enough to cause a hot 50W load resistor to fail, has nothing to do with this topic...ok. You win.

 

[Manny]

Just wanted to share my custom resistor harness install for my front and rear turn lights.
Used a lot of the great info here, unfortunately I didn't see the Gen5DIY harness before I started the process, but I'm happier I got to do this myself.
When I did lookup Gen5 products it doesn't appear that they offer a harness for the Front anyway, didn't want to cut any of the factory wires so I pushed ahead with the custom build.

Mounted the Resistors using 3mm Socket Cap Screws.
It being a one off, buying the special tools to build the harness put the total cost at ~$250, not a bargain, but a fun project.

The only issue I had was with the Diode Dynamics XP80 Bulbs, for the Front Turn Signals. They would either work as Parking Only ( Solid On, No Flash) or Turn Signal Only ( Flashes but lights goes dark) if I flipped the bulb around. I forget which failure mode it was, but the LED accent in the Canyon's Headlight would go out as well. Diode Dynamics was cool exchanged them for their HP11 Bulb, slightly less brighter, after that Everything has been solid.

Thanks for the great info.

More Pictures of Install

 

[unome]

Just wanted to share my custom resistor harness install...

I now have all the parts to make this myself and plan to do it, right after I split up a few trees, install new struts, brakes, rotors and links in the front of our Ody.
Has the resistor held up?
I almost bought screw on ends but figured I just might use a connector so if the resistor goes bad I can easily replace it.

 

[Manny]

I now have all the parts to make this myself and plan to do it, right after I split up a few trees, install new struts, brakes, rotors and links in the front of our Ody.
Has the resistor held up?
I almost bought screw on ends but figured I just might use a connector so if the resistor goes bad I can easily replace it.

Sorry I only check the board here every once in a while. The rear resistors failed about 8 Months after installation, about a week apart from each other. It looked like heat was a factor if I remember right they failed to an open circuit. I replaced them with the same ones in July 2020, I don't think it will make a difference but I did add thermal paste to the back side of the resistor for extra measure, but perhaps I need to explore higher rated resistors.

 

[wrankin]

I gave up on my resistors and reinstalled the halogen bulbs. I don’t know how many time I replaced the resistors. At least four times per side. I kept the LED reverse lights

Bill

 

[GraniteBlue05]

Directional light conversion from halogen to LED is best left alone. Leave the factory halogen bulbs in.

Other drivers only need to see the directional indicates you are going to make a turn. Not sure why LEDs would be needed to do that when converting from factory bulbs requires modification which has proven to be so problematic for many owners. . . both in reliability and potential warranty or other consequences.

 

[wrankin]

Directional light conversion from halogen to LED is best left alone. Leave the factory halogen bulbs in.

Other drivers only need to see the directional indicates you are going to make a turn. Not sure why LEDs would be needed to do that when converting from factory bulbs requires modification which has proven to be so problematic for many owners. . . both in reliability an potential warranty or other consequences.

Haha! Now you tell me. I purchased the GEN5DIY taillight harness and that was a big waste of money. On the other hand, I have the GEN5DIY HID Harness with LED resistors up front and have not had any issues. Go figure

Bill

 

[GraniteBlue05]

Haha! Now you tell me. I purchased the GEN5DIY taillight harness and that was a big waste of money. On the other hand, I have the GEN5DIY HID Harness with LED resistors up front and have not had any issues. Go figure

Bill

Headlights are a bit different matter. Myself . .. I've had LED aftermarket replacement bulbs in my 2017 for 4 years now with no issues. Just plug and play. Also have them in our other two GM vehicles. . .. also PNP with no wiring mods, relays resistors, etc.

A lot of good newer LED conversion bulbs out there now that are PNP . There are also some very cheap ones that do not work well.

 

[wrankin]

Headlights are a bit different matter. Myself . .. I've had LED aftermarket replacement bulbs in my 2017 for 4 years now with no issues. Just plug and play. Also have them in our other two GM vehicles. . .. also PNP with no wiring mods, relays resistors, etc.

A lot of good newer LED conversion bulbs out there now that are PNP . There are also some very cheap ones that do not work well.

Just to clarify, I have HID headlights (and they are awesome) and LED turn signals that are controlled via the GEN5DIY HID harness. The harness has resistors for the turn signals. This has been flawless, as opposed to the taillights and rear turn signals

Bill

 

[rotaryenginepete]

Derp...just remembered this thread is for tail lights only. It is definitely doable, just don't follow the OP's instructions.

 

[cscopa]

mine just hang, but should you choose to mount them, mount them onto something metal because they will get hot

Have you had problems with yours hanging? For instance, I removed my light the other day to troubleshoot why my bulbs weren't working correctly and I saw that since mine were hanging, that one of the wire ends rusted off of the resistor. Due to the winter and the elements I assume shooting up in to the area where the resistors are.

Is there any way to protect the resistors for the tail lights so they don't get ruined completely?

 

[FL Hokie]

It seems I replace tail lights in my 2017 Colorado Z71 several times a year. I decided to switch to LED lights for reliability and improved brightness. This thread was very helpful, but the electrical engineer in me took over when it came to load resistors. I want to share my load resistor calculations and installation.

Below is the parts list for the tail lights:

• QTY 2: Chanzon Resistor 4ohm 100W
• QTY 4: SYLVANIA - 7443 T20 ZEVO LED Red Bulb

I used one 4 ohm 100W resistor on each side. I get no brake light warnings, hyper flashing or error codes. The 4 ohm resistor, with two 2.5W LEDs in parallel, creates an effective resistance of 3.6 ohms. This matches the resistive load from two 25W OEM bulbs.

I updated a diagram posted by Blue15ColoradoLT to show the single 4 Ohm resistor location. It can be spliced anywhere between the black and gray wires. I chose to splice it before the first bulb socket for ease of wire routing. I cut, spliced, soldered and sealed the connections.

The math below shows that a single 4 Ohm resistor with LED lights matches the resistance of two 25W OEM lights.

Here is the math for the OEM tail lights:

• OEM bulb is 25W at 13.5V. Using R = V*V / P = 7.3 ohm
• Two OEM bulbs in parallel is half the resistance, R = 3.6 ohm

Here is the math for the load resistor and LED tail lights

• LED is 2.5W at 13.5V. Using R = V*V / P = 72.9 ohm
• A 4 ohm resistor and two LEDs in parallel is 1/R = 1/4 + 2/72.9 => R = 3.6 ohm

It appears most people use two 6 ohm resistors in parallel, which is equivalent to a single 3 ohm resistor. I prefer to use a single resistor to minimize the number of wire splices. Also, a 4 ohm resistor draws less power than a 3 ohm resistor which means it dissipates less heat.

For the power rating, use a 100W resistor. A vehicle can supply up to 14.5V and a 4 ohm resistor will dissipate 53W (P = V*V / R). A 3 ohm resistor will dissipate 70W. Hence, a 4 ohm resistor generates less heat and runs cooler. A 100W resister has more thermal headroom and is less likely to fail from thermal stress.

Mount the resistor directly to a metal surface to act as a “heat sink”. This will keep the resistor cooler. I saw some threads where people used velcro or double sides tape for mounting and as an insulator. This makes the resistor run hotter. Metal can handle the heat load and a cooler resistor is less likely to fail or melt plastic/wires that touch it.

I used copper wires to tie the resistor to a metal support to avoid tapping screws. I noticed some people mount the resistor with zip ties but nylon can melt or get brittle over time.

Here is a picture of the install.

 

[Whisky Peddler]

Does it hurt anything just to live with the hyperflash?

 

[Iceman62]

Does it hurt anything just to live with the hyperflash?

Yes, annoying quick-clicking for driver & seizure flashing to all vehicles in eye-shot.

 

[Spearius]

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???

Is this the same for a 2017?