Leds could potentially blow ECU or BSI on 86?

[dssence]

Hi guys does anyone know of there's a chance anything led based replacing normal bulbs could potentially destroy circuits of the ECU or BSI if our cars have one.
I'm asking this cause a couple days ago a friend of mine who's got a peugeot 206 wanted to install a led strip (whites) I helped him out take the 12 volts from the map dome light of the car. Everything went fine.
Afterwards he started driving the car, and functionality started going down, he had no turn light signals, the stereo stopped working till the next day the car didn't turn on anymore.
Well I came up to the conclusion after talking with ppl in the area peugeots 206 have a BSI controlled computer which controls the resistive load of all the circuits, and if you actually driving more amperage from this line like was the case although the led strip didn't consume more then a couple milliamps the parasitic current loop return blown the BSI of the car.
Now I wanted to add some led strips to the parking lights of my 86 , and this guy who fixes the BSI's says cars which come with leds by factory default, do come with their ECU's designed to tolerate these fluctiations in their circuits so everything works fine.
If you change a bulb with a led one , you're in the most common scenario where you could blow the ECU/BSI of your car cause of these parasitc currents not being absorbed by the leds ( usually the case where the leds flicker) .
So this guy told me it's possible to add leds to our cars but adding some sort of isolation of the leds from the cars circuit , with some optocouplers or drivers without getting within the circuit of the car itself.
Can anyone please lead me a hand in here. about this.
Thanks so much

[KGFRS86]

This is scary information...but no. I've had LEDs in my FR-S since almost day 1 (Dome Light, Trunk Lights, DRL Lights, and an LED Strip up front)

The most I've done is blow a fuse because I was installing one of the trunk lights wrong (in my defense, it had a broken metal clip that actually caused the fuse to blow)

But other than that, nothing unusual.

[6speed_Sam]

I've had my dome and trunk lights replaced with LEDs for at least 6mo with no problems.

[FRSHunter]

I put a led in my truck light and the insurance declared my car totaled.

[quigz]

it is more likely to be related to a bad wiring than to the led strip. LED dont break circuit even if they *Fluctuate*. 1 LED Pulls around 0.030 amps if I remember well. that is nothing on a regular light bulb circuit so no there aint any chance in hell leds are gonna blow your circuit.

[dssence]

Originally Posted by quigz

it is more likely to be related to a bad wiring than to the led strip. LED dont break circuit even if they *Fluctuate*. 1 LED Pulls around 0.030 amps if I remember well. that is nothing on a regular light bulb circuit so no there aint any chance in hell leds are gonna blow your circuit.

I know but I think it has more to do with the way the LED functions in a circuit rather than a resistive lamp with a filament where the voltage can pass through. A led is a diode so the current goes in one direction somehow affecting the ECU return.

[mashal]

Power goes one way through a coil or a diode, you just cant go reverse through a diode. This is operator error , LED's are not the problem here.
You may have a bad ground

[stugray]

As long as the LEDs are designed to run in a 12-14Volt DC system, they should work fine.
One high power LED usually drops ~3 volts, so for automotive systems they put multiple LEDs in series or they need to add a "Ballast resistor" to drop the extra volts.

They should pull less current than the bulb that they replace so they should not stress the driver circuit from power alone.
Even if you put them in backwards it wont hurt them, they just wont work.

So it sounds like someone is making stuff up about the ECU not being able to drive LEDs just like an incandescent bulb.

Now if the circuit is capable of dimming the incandescent bulb (dome lights) or controlling the current in the circuit then the driver circuit might be confused by the diode and could "flicker" or oscillate. If that happens, I suppose it could stress the circuit eventually....

[dssence]

Originally Posted by stugray

As long as the LEDs are designed to run in a 12-14Volt DC system, they should work fine.
One high power LED usually drops ~3 volts, so for automotive systems they put multiple LEDs in series or they need to add a "Ballast resistor" to drop the extra volts.

They should pull less current than the bulb that they replace so they should not stress the driver circuit from power alone.
Even if you put them in backwards it wont hurt them, they just wont work.

So it sounds like someone is making stuff up about the ECU not being able to drive LEDs just like an incandescent bulb.

Now if the circuit is capable of dimming the incandescent bulb (dome lights) or controlling the current in the circuit then the driver circuit might be confused by the diode and could "flicker" or oscillate. If that happens, I suppose it could stress the circuit eventually....

Thanks for your answer, well that's what somehow I was talking about. The person I installed the led strip on her 206 peugeot I took the voltage form the map light with a normal stereo jack cable , which I supposed wasn't going to add any resistive load, aside from that the led strip wouldn't be driving more than a couple milliamps. But then strange things started happening she lost functionality on turn lights, stereo stopped working. And now well she took the car to an electrician and he said it's mostly the BSI (body system integration something lke that).
He checked the pulse exciting the cars alternator coming from the BSI and it's not there. When I connected the cables on the light bulb from the map light accidentall there was a short but I changed the fuse and that was it, nothing else. But eventually something might have happened on the BSI cause that's happening.
Now going back to our 86. I was thinking on adding some led strips on the parking lights, these lights turn on whenever I turn on the lights from the instrument panel which you can dim. So I asked most of the ppl and they said nothing should happen about blowing the fuse cause the led strips would drive a couple milliamps. But ... But.. I'm starting to think it twice after what happened to this other car. Like what if .. these leds start to flicker or anything else. These are the ones I bought

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/White-Vehicle-Strip-Flexible-Waterproof/dp/B00ARYTBFY/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top#productDetails"]2 pcs 30cm 15 3828 SMD White PVC Car Vehicle LED Strip Flexible Light Strip Light 12V Waterproof - Ideal to use for car, motorcycle, boat, DIY lighting decoration of home, hotel, club, shopping mall;Extensively applied in backlighting, concealed lighting, channel letter lighting : Amazon.com : Automotive[/ame]

What do you recommend me ?
This is the light bulb I'm talking about ..

[993Fan]

I don't get the LED craze. I see a lot of cars, stop lights, etc, with partially burned out LED clusters. Instead of spending $1.50 to replace a bulb, the owner gets to spend $500 to replace the entire LED cluster. Brilliant.

[dssence]

Originally Posted by 993Fan

I don't get the LED craze. I see a lot of cars, stop lights, etc, with partially burned out LED clusters. Instead of spending $1.50 to replace a bulb, the owner gets to spend $500 to replace the entire LED cluster. Brilliant.

Great , but that's not the point of discussion here. Thanks anyways for the comment.

[Simon99]

Originally Posted by Caharin

Well it is official. LEDs fried my BIULEDs require put a lower resistive load on the circuit, which means a higher current than intended reaches the BIU, (Computer that controls many electronic functions that are on switches/timers etc) and consequently fried it.My dealer has been kind and said he'd give me a good faith warranty replacement on the dealer's dime since I purchased my BRZ there, but Subaru as a company does not acknowledge the issue. (this fault was caused by non-OEM parts which voids their coverage)If you put LEDs in your courtesy door lights on a limited BRZ, you run an almost guaranteed chance to fry your BIU!Dealer quoted $500 for BIU plus labor just FYI.Q: So, you might ask "why have I seen others with working LEDs in their doors?"A: I believe some are using a bulb with a ton of LEDs (read:6 or more) which is not allowing as much current to pass through. I cannot garuntee this nor will I ruin my new BIU to try this, so I will stick to the advice that nobody should put LEDs in their doors period.DO NOT PUT LEDs IN YOUR DOOR LIGHTS!

Found at http://www.subar/brzforum.com/9-suba...s-doors-2.html

(Left out the u in subaru if you want to see the link, I don't see why we couldnt cooperate to solve a problem together)



Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

[993Fan]

Originally Posted by dssence

Great , but that's not the point of discussion here. Thanks anyways for the comment.

No worries.

LEDs require driver circuits which provide a combination of pulsing and/or pulse width modulation (the latter is only needed if the LEDs are intended to have different intensities at different times -- like brake lights). The driver has an analog or digital control input and a DC supply input. The driver presents a minimal load to the original lamp circuit.

Or, you could just use a light bulb.

[dssence]

Originally Posted by 993Fan

No worries.

LEDs require driver circuits which provide a combination of pulsing and/or pulse width modulation (the latter is only needed if the LEDs are intended to have different intensities at different times -- like brake lights). The driver has an analog or digital control input and a DC supply input. The driver presents a minimal load to the original lamp circuit.

Or, you could just use a light bulb.

So what about what about this

Thanks for your answer, well that's what somehow I was talking about. The person I installed the led strip on her 206 peugeot I took the voltage form the map light with a normal stereo jack cable , which I supposed wasn't going to add any resistive load, aside from that the led strip wouldn't be driving more than a couple milliamps. But then strange things started happening she lost functionality on turn lights, stereo stopped working. And now well she took the car to an electrician and he said it's mostly the BSI (body system integration something lke that).
He checked the pulse exciting the cars alternator coming from the BSI and it's not there. When I connected the cables on the light bulb from the map light accidentall there was a short but I changed the fuse and that was it, nothing else. But eventually something might have happened on the BSI cause that's happening.
Now going back to our 86. I was thinking on adding some led strips on the parking lights, these lights turn on whenever I turn on the lights from the instrument panel which you can dim. So I asked most of the ppl and they said nothing should happen about blowing the fuse cause the led strips would drive a couple milliamps. But ... But.. I'm starting to think it twice after what happened to this other car. Like what if .. these leds start to flicker or anything else. These are the ones I bought

2 pcs 30cm 15 3828 SMD White PVC Car Vehicle LED Strip Flexible Light Strip Light 12V Waterproof - Ideal to use for car, motorcycle, boat, DIY lighting decoration of home, hotel, club, shopping mall;Extensively applied in backlighting, concealed lighting, channel letter lighting : Amazon.com : Automotive

What do you recommend me ?
This is the light bulb I'm talking about ..