LED 3rd brake light
 

Hi guys,
I'm in the process of replacing all bulbs with LEDs.

Disclaimer for haters: I like LEDs and it's my car. Thank you!

Quite a few people mentioned that LED bulbs in the 3rd brake light will break the cruise control as it pulls the signal from that light. I replaced all 4 bulbs with LEDs and the CC works just fine. Did somebody actually experience problems with it after installing LEDs without ballast or all posts I read were only hypotheticals meaning the cruise control SHOULD have problems but nobody actually tested it.
Thanks!

I believe most of the people who tried LED’s were in the dark ages, these bulbs have evolved and many of the newer generations of LED technologies work just fine!

Built-in resistors work. If you were to read the complete threads on the subject; usually "improperly installed" is in the conversation.

The BCM checks for a certain resistance on the third brake light circuit to enable the CC. The third brake light is on a different circuit from the regular brake lights. LEDS, by their nature have basically no resistance when lit.

I had a burnt out 3rd brake light 921 incandescent bulb, the cruise did not work, replaced all 4 with CANBUS 921 error cancelling LED bulbs , they work fine.
Great for waking up those drivers behind me, concentrating on their phones and not their driving!

I know how they work but I don't think mine has built in resistors. It's too wimpy for that but I could test.

Just tested them real quick.
Filament bulb: 1400 mA @12V
LED bulb: 320 mA @12V

So no, it does not have a built in resistor.

Mine are these
KaTur 4pcs High Power 800 Lumens Super Bright T15 W16W 921 915 LED Canbus Error Free 15SMD 2835 Backup Reverse Tail Brake Lights Parking LED Bulbs DC 12V Red

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...433d56cd3d.png

I ordered red LED’s

Ha! Mines are virtually identical to yours. The components are a bit beefier and does not have any writing on it but other than that it looks the same. It certainly wasn't advertised to be canbus error free.

I briefly had LEDs in mine back in 2010, I didnt have a problem with cruise control, but they were just not bright enough and only projected straight out, not into the reflector built into the light housing.
The technology has improved greatly, I would do LEDs again but nothing else has burned out in years.

The ones Oldblue posted are great! You can't tell that they are LEDs. They illuminate the light just like a filament bulb does.

Guys,
​​​​​​Don't buy these bulbs! They are for the tails but have a 135ms delay. It might not sound much but they are actually slower to respond than regular filaments.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...d22b4715fa.jpg

Yeah, those are old school, from the dark ages! Smaller LEDs slow to respond

Actually it's not the LEDs themselves. There is a custom IC inside that drives the MOSFET in the DC-DC converter. It's very slow to start.

So does that mean they arent any brighter than the filament ones in there already?

Oh they’re much brighter , they just radiate the light instead of directing it.

How much did you pay for them when you got them Oldblue, they are 15 bucks for four right now. I want to get em to match the response time and brightness of my IPCW's, but the cost isnt justifiable to me just yet. Maybe if they were around 10, but not 15 for four.

$15.00 cdn

I paid $8 and some change for my set of 4. Ordered them from China.

What bulbs are you advising not to buy? Do you have manufacturer/model number?

With the USD to the CDN exchange, and taxes, that’s about right &8.00 USD

Amazon has Oldblues LED's at 15 USD for a set of 4 right now.

Oh no, Amazon! They scare me, they always send cheap Chinese stuff and they force you to use credit cards to pay. They probably have some sort of spy technology embedded in the products. Maybe even contaminated with H2N1!!!!

I bought mine from Amazon.ca. The extra money must be for the new head quarters they’re not building here in Hamilton, Ontario.

The manufacturer is claimed to be KaTur. They list the socket type as model number: T25 3157 3156

Those didn’t last long, I noticed last night when I picked up the Dodge, I was following Sweetie home and spotted the two centre high brake light LED bulbs weren’t lighting up.
When we got home, I moved those bulbs around, nope their not working, so, I put the stock 921 bulbs back in.
We’ll live and learn , some mods are a waste of money.

Yeah, I ended up not buying them because I didnt trust them. Still have good old regular bulbs in mine. I did have to replace a couple bulbs a year or so ago, but two being out didnt effect my 2006's cruise control. I have IPCW tails out back, anyway.

I’ve ordered a set of 4 1200 lumen LED bulbs , see how long those last.

thinking about switching out my markers and high mount for LEDs (starting small)... searched the forum and found this and now I'm wondering if it's worth it...
has anybody had issues with LEDs like these? was hoping for a plug-and-play replacement... also don't want them burning out right away like OldBlue mentioned

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...420027dead.jpg https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...45162b3604.jpg https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...238445a2c4.jpg

A year has past by almost and the new LED 921 high brake light bulbs are flashing in a weird way, it got noticed by a really nice officer, he followed me home and watched me change back to OEM 921 filament bulbs .
I’m going to leave it that way.

Flashing in a weird way? Like, picking up power when they shouldn't be?

No , when you press down on the brake pedal, the lights come on but in parts of the bulb , one side then the end then the other side .
here’s the Amazon information, yes I read it and see use for backup lights , but how are the high brake lights different? Same 12 volts, same bulb number 921.

4-Pack 921 912 T10 T15 White 1200 lumens 12V-24V Extremely Bright Non-Polarity Canbus Error Free AK-4014 45pcs Chipsets LED Bulbs For Backup Reverse Parking Lights Xenon White 6000K

Sounds like the solder contacts are melting on the diodes. These are the ones I purchased: We'll see... of course they're "currently unavailable" :-)

They seem better suited for the job , no 4 packs , hmmm.
keep us posted on how they work