LED tail light bulb problem! HELP!!!!
 

Hey so I have a 1994 Toyota pickup 2wd and I wentto go put in new tail light bulbs and decided to go with LEDs. So when I go to stick in the led bulbs they don't work... Like at all.. They don't light up or anything but when I stick the normal bulb back in the tail light and running light works just fine. Really frustrating. Any suggestions????

welcome to yotatech.

we all like to encourage newcomers to search around a bit.

but to help ya out, did you try flipping the led bulb around? led's have polarity, so if you put it in backwards, or it's wired up backwards (manufacture defect), it won't light. also, if it's just a bad bulb (it happens), it won't light

just curious, where did you get the led bulb from?

ive seen them at pepboys

i know where to get nice sets, but if the bulbs came from an auto-parts store, they're pretty cheap.

The bulbs are made by streetfx and I ordered them online. I also checked the bile and it's a 1157 so the two posts are not the same height. In other words the bulb cannot be installed backwards :( how would I know if my wiring is messed up?

if it works with your stock bulbs and not the led, its not your wiring, its the bulb.

justfor fun try installing the bulb the other direction. or get the bulbs replaced if ur sure

well, I have heard before about the led's not pulling enough to trip the relay so they had to be bypassed or something? Just an idea being thrown out there. Hope you figure this out :)

Check the led bulbs with 12v leads...but make sure you don't reverse polarity. Some leds are protected against reversed polarity, but some aren't.

I did all the mods from 4crawler 'Cheap Tricks' and everything was plug-and-play. Nice upgrade, especially for the reverse lights. Got my LED's from superbrightleds.com

My guess is that something is wrong with the bulbs if the stock ones still work. An 1157 is pretty common. You (or a friend) have another vehicle that uses these bulbs so you can check that vehicle?

Thanks for all the replies. What I'm thinking i will do is take the bulbs and try them out on my buddies 91 yota pickup and see if they work there. If not then I'm assuming the bulbs suck and I'll try my luck with the superbrightleds. I will also try flipping the bulbs and sticking them in opposite and see if that helps.... Hopefully

I bought some LED taillight "bulbs" at O'Reilly Autoparts and had the same symptoms. I'm into electronics so I did some checking and found that the bulb's polarity was incorrect for my 94 pickup. I could see no way to "flip it around" as was suggested. I pulled out a soldering iron and changed the polarity at the bulb, but I'd recommend that you just return them to the store.

Okay so here is where I'm at thus far. Tried the bulbs out on my buddies 91 yota pickup 2wd and they worked amazingly (was really jealous that they were working on his but not mine haha). Havnt tried flipping them around "just to see" yet but plan on doing that tonight and will get back to you all

Ratometer how were you able to flip the polarity? Got any pics? Cuz I have a sodering gun and if all else fails I'll try your way out before I go and order from superbrightleds.

No, I don't have any pics, but I could take some. Mine may be different from yours, but it's basically a tiny circuit board with a bunch of LEDs soldered in and two single strand, uninsulated wires going from the board to the bayonet connector. One wire goes to a solder blob that makes the center contact. The other wire goes to the barrel part. I'll check for more info and maybe pics and get back with you.

It'd be easier to switch the terminals at the light socket, or to cut and splice the wires going to the socket to get the correct polarity. An incandescent bulb won't care about the polarity if you ever need to go back to a standard bulb.

my led trouble
 

I guess this doesn't help. I have a 2012 and bought a pair for $15 from walmart. A few days later they stopped working. When pushing the bulb in it would push out a bit. So I trashed them (no receipt or packaging to return them) and thought to buy a better pair. So I bought the 3157 Phillips led stop light from pep boys for $20. Installed them and now my brake lights go on with the headlights only and go off when you hit the brakes. They also don't work when the lights are off WTF. I think it is time to cut my loses and get a regular light bulb that just works so I don't get a ticket or worst.

It's not the bulb; you have an open ground in the combination taillight. When you turn on the headlights, the taillights ground THROUGH the new LED (and another bulb, maybe the high-mount stop light). When you step on the brakes, it pulls the "other" side high, and there is no longer a usable ground path.

First, you can't solve an electrical problem by "trashing" components. You need to use your multimeter. Don't have one? No excuse for that: http://www.harborfreight.com/7-funct...ter-90899.html

Second, the most likely source of the problem is right around the plug to the combo-light. Figure out which are 12v when on, and which are ground. Remember that the truck bed is probably NOT at ground; you may need to run a scrap wire all the way to the battery to be sure you're ohm-ing to ground.

led bulb
 

Does it matter which way the bulb is put in? I can try to flip them around. It is not a wire problem as the normal bulbs work. It could be a connection issue but the Phillips bulbs fit snug.

This commenter says that it does (he says it matters for the brake light, but not the tail light. Sheesh!)

Let us know what you find.

I'll try
 

I like the bulbs and really like never having to change them again. I will flip them around tonight and hope that works. Just my luck, if I have them both in wrong with 50/50 odds. I know they light but don't light as brake lights right now. The brake actually turns them off. The snug fit is nice compared to the walmart versions. So I know their not creeping out the socket like the non-Phillips did.

slightly off topic tail light LED problem
 

HI!

i am having a problem similar to this.

i have an 89 4runner sr5 v6 manual trans and i started switching out my tail lights with LED's. some interesting stuff happened... i am thinking that there is extra circuitry in the bus cans of these bulbs. it goes as follows: my first swap was the signal flashers. when activated they would flash a lot faster than the normal 1Hz rate. (maybe thats because i did not put LED's in the Front signal houses. ) Then a few weeks later i got the brake lights swapped with LED's as well. but every time i stepped on the brakes my front parking lights would come on. then my dash would light up and clock would dim as if i turned on my head lights.

soooooo i gave up on doing the LED light upgrade and swapped everything back to good ol light bulbs.

but now there is a new problem.

when i turn my head lights on nothing else comes on with it. no dash lights up. no parking lightS on. clock display doesn't dim. no licensee plate lights and no tail lights.

i checked all my bulbs and all my fuses. noticed the brake light fuse was bad and replaced it. it did not fix the problem. upon referencing the "Chilton" DIY book the poor wiring prints showed a brake light relay but it doesn't say where it is. i am thinking this is the problem since there wasn't else much in the line. except for a fusible link, i can't find that either.

does any one have the slightest clue? i am scratching my head here.

thank you for taking the time to read this.[/SIZE]

the chilton manual is a pOS, find the downloadable FSM.

you more than likely have a wire disconnected some where.
I converted both my 81 and 94 to LED's and used a LED compatible flasher unit both times, no issue on either truck

Good to know on the LED- Appreciate the knowledge.

Like they said earlier, polarity matters with LED bulbs. What you were experiencing was a short to voltage... You hit the brakes and it also feeds power to the tail light bulbs, which it shouldn't. It sometimes happens due to a grounding issue, but I have replicated it by installing the wrong bulb which shorts the two voltage terminals in the socket. Both filaments in an 1157 share the same ground terminal, so I would bet that the LEDs are wired to share the voltage terminal with separate grounds. Reversing the polarity as a previous poster did would fix that problem.

As for the lack of tail lights now, that has absolutely nothing to do with the brake circuit. There should be a 15A tail light fuse under the dash.

Since the brake light fuse was blown your tail light fuse probably is too.