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Help! Just installed Sonars BUT...

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Old Jul 18, 2008 | 09:16 PM
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Question Help! Just installed Sonars BUT...

Hey guys, I finally installed the LED Sonar Taillights from eGay. It took me awhile but I eventually figured it out. Apparently the inner tails need some resistor of sorts that heats up and needs to be tucked away.

Anyways, I completed the installation and was quite happy. However, I tried to test out the turn signal but there was no light in the lower clear section! No amber light was flashing indicating if I was going either left or right. Now get this! The front turn signal in the headlight was flashing super fast! The turn signal on my dash was also going crazy, flashing real fast.

WTF is going on here? I can't drive this car without a turn signal in the rear! It would be too dangerous...

Ugh, please guys help out a newwwb!
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Old Jul 18, 2008 | 09:26 PM
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It's flashing fast because of a resistance issue. You must have missed some wiring or something on the rear turn signals. You sure you didn't forget to connect some wires or had a loose connection in the rear?
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Old Jul 18, 2008 | 09:47 PM
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Originally Posted by macd7919
It's flashing fast because of a resistance issue. You must have missed some wiring or something on the rear turn signals. You sure you didn't forget to connect some wires or had a loose connection in the rear?
I'm pretty sure I didn't. I followed JeffTsai's DIY pictures and there was only one cable I had to hook up to the car's wiring plastic bracket socket thing.

Was there something else I had to hook up?
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Old Jul 18, 2008 | 10:04 PM
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Shouldn't be, take a test light and test the wires going to the turn signal in the rear. If you are getting power to the tails and they still aren't flashing then maybe you have a defective light but that would be odd that BOTH aren't flashing meaning two defective lights.

have a link to his DIY? I;ll look it over and see if anything jumps out at me, you have the exact same lights as him?
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Old Jul 19, 2008 | 12:25 AM
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https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...nstalled+tails


Thanks so much for taking the time out macd. MUCH appreciated.
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Old Jul 19, 2008 | 11:27 AM
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Well I checked it out and I can't see much of the wiring from that thread.

Do you have a test light? If so, turn the ignition to the on position and switch on the blinkers (or you could use the hazard light switch). Go to the two wires that enter the housing where the turn signal is, ground one side of the test light (to a bolt or something back there, make sure it's a good ground) and then push the tip of the test light into the each of the wires going to the signal (TEST ONE AT A TIME). One wire should make the test light flash and the other shouldn't do anything. That will tell you if you have voltage going to your signal, right now it sounds like there is no power getting to your rear signals.

Honestly, I doubt you messed anything up with the car side of the wiring so it would either be a faulty taillight (which would be odd since both of them arent working) or there is a plug not plugged in/making a bad connection etc.... There aren't any members on your side of town that can help you out in person? Where's the love NJ!?!
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Old Jul 19, 2008 | 04:43 PM
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I'm not going to lie macd, you lost me! I'm going to talk to my BIL to see if he could test it for me. But one thing that I don't get is, why does changing out my rear tails, affect how fast the turn signal is to the front headlights? Is it all interconnected or something? Weird...
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Old Jul 19, 2008 | 04:46 PM
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Yes, they are all connected, the reason it flashes faster is because there has been a change in resistance.
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Old Jul 19, 2008 | 04:54 PM
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The car uses a thermal flasher. If a bulb is working, then the heat is being dissapated in the bulb. Both bulbs working then the heat is being released at the two bulbs. If one bulb goes out, the heat will be transferred to the blinker unit which causes it to blink faster. It's also an alert feature to tell you that the signal is out. Fast blink = one of your bulbs are out.

As for the tails not working, are you sure there's a bulb in the housing? Mine came in a separate little box hidden in the packing material. If there's no bulb in there, then theres your problem
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Old Jul 19, 2008 | 05:18 PM
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Wow Jeff, way to make me feel like an idiot. LOL. There is no bulb in the housing. WTF? They advertise this as a complete system. No need to buy anything else. Ugh...

It says I need W21W USA:7440 bulbs. However, when I look that up on eBay they show a bulb that looks like this http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/7440-...07181438r16772

But that looks exactly like the bulb in my old set of tails that I tried to take out and put in. It wouldn't fit. On the old taillight it also says you need W21W, but obviously the old one won't fit. The connection on the LED taillight is round and has like a spring attached to it that it looks like you take the bulb and push it in, and once it's pushed in, you turn it to the right to lock it in. Much different connector than the one on my old lamp taillight.

Thanks Jeff, the source of all my info speaks!! =)
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Old Jul 19, 2008 | 05:20 PM
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Sonars use 1156 bulbs. I figured you had no bulbs in there but I didn't want to say anything since it was so obvious.
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Old Jul 20, 2008 | 07:32 AM
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lol that wasn't that hard, sometimes we all have problems like these that are easy to fix.
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