erkelbot

So I pulled the RBs a while back, and decided to repurpose the wiring already there to power some LEDs for courtesy lights (basically giving good light to the step in area of the truck, but completely concealed). It's a pretty nice setup, really and it hasn't really given me issues. It lights up at full brightness when the car unlocks and dims out when the truck is locked or started. The problem I've run into is this... If I unlock the truck and open the door but never start it or lock it, the lights dim down to a very low level and stay on. If I exit the truck but don't lock it, the lights stay on... That's a huge problem since the LEDs, even at low battery draw, keeping draining the battery throughout the night. I figured this out the other day after seeing the truck start harder and harder the two previous days...when my wife used the truck. I started to realize that she never locked her car in our garage, and she has the same habit with my truck when she uses it. The next morning, the battery was next to dead but got me to NAPA to get a new battery (the battery was old anyway).

Has anyone else experienced this? I don't know if the LEDs are such low draw that they trick the system (the OEM, as you know, are small filament bulbs). Any ideas how to eliminate this and make the truck turn these lights off -- even if the truck remains unlocked? I know the electrical system isn't designed to do this, so I'm trying to understand why these lights would be behaving this way... Thanks in advance!

Rz500

Do you have similar issues with your dome lights? Sounds like your sensor for the drivers door is not working properly?

erkelbot

Thanks for the reply. Actually, everything else is behaving correctly and the dome lights are turning off as they should. But for some reason the running board lights stay very dimly illuminated.

madd

@Urkelbot Were you ever able to find a solution? I am having the same problem where I replaced my OEM running board lights with KC Cyclone LEDs (8x) and if remote unlock, open a door, and do not start the truck the running board lights will just stay on until locked again.

I am not entirely sure this is new to the LED install was have left unlocked camping and had a hard start in the AM, but now I'm drawing 3A across the lights and don't want to kill the battery dead. Thanks!

erkelbot

i actually abandoned ship and disconnected them. I didn’t get to the point of a hard start like you, but I couldn’t justify the work needed to make a kill switch or figure out a solution. I suspected it was simply an LED low draw thing that leeched small amounts of power from the battery, but I gave up after finding the lights we’re dying quickly anyway from being in the MN elements.

now I’m without area lights and without worries.