Good morning, yinz!

Thank you for maintaining this excellent forum. I've been browsing this space and finding tons of helpful people sharing their experiences... all this knowledge is power.

I've a 2015 North American GK. I've done the LED headlight upgrade with great results and no issues. I've tried replacing the rest with LEDs and am experiencing the hyper-flash on my turn signals. I've some questions for the community here...

1. Is hyper-flash simply annoying /or/ actually damaging to the systems?

2. I'm reading that the only fixes are CPU adjustments /or/ resistor inserts. Is this true? Any other ideas?

3. Will hyper-flash be a make-or-break with warranties? Does anyone have any experiences to share w.r.t. this?

4. Are there LED bulb makers who have integrated the necessary fixes into their indicator bulbs? Has anyone tried them?

5. Has hyper-blink lead to difficulties with law enforcement? Any 1st-hand experiences are definitely appreciated.

Thanks, yinz, for your time and attention. All of your input is greatly appreciated!

Cheers n'at.

 

LED’s draw much less power than incandescent bulbs, hence the hyper flash. I replaced every bulb on my GK EXCEPT the front signal bulbs for this very reason. Plus I’ve yet to find a 2 way for those bulbs so they’re either off or will illuminate only when the signals are used and I like them illuminated when the headlights are on. You can wire in resistors but it may be more trouble than it’s worth..and resistors get hot. I’ve never read where anyone hacked into the ECU to correct this and can’t see how that would work as the flashing works off of a relay. Maybe others here can suggest something but I just stuck with the incandescent in front

 

I've been using VLEDS V6 Triton Amber 7443 with VLR_6 resistor for my front turn signals for almost 4 years now without issues. The marker light mode (reduced brightness) works just fine, including when mixed with turn signals (switching between max and reduced brightness). I see they have even brighter option now, as well as a cheaper option. They also have color switching (white marker + amber turn), but I hate white LEDs. I much prefer warm colors.

I'm also using their resistors for the rear, with Philips 7440 Red LEDs.

Back in the days, I hacked up Toyota/Subaru blinker module by swapping resistor in it to properly match up to LED's current draw, but nowadays, the function is part of the main BCM (body control module) or something, so I've not heard of any way to do this without the dumb resistors.

Some bulbs claim to have built-in "fix," but that just means more power consumption right in the bulb, which would be worse than having the heat source separated away from the LEDs. As far as I can tell, VLEDS always use external resistors. I've used lots of cheap LED bulbs before, but eventually got sick of inconsistent qualities and settled on name brands only, like VLEDS and Philips.

 

Thanks, to both of you, for responding.

Leaving the incandescent bulbs up front does sound like a fair idea... especially with how tight the clearance is on the driver's side with the battery there... not much room to work with that bulb.
So with the mix of led in the rear and incandescent up front, do you have the hyper-blink then?

I definitely agree that brand-names with established cred are a better bet for all these replacements. I did a fair bit of research and found that the autoone brand fit my needs well, as well as their having an elegant aluminum 1:1 headlight bulb for our cars.
I'm going to avoid adding resistors (for now) as I don't want to run a risk of melting anything... my Fit's still in warranty.

Definitely appreciate the feedback. The hyper-blink is only a minor annoyance, and honestly I think it grabs attention... which is the whole point of safety lighting anyway.

​​​​​​​Anyone hear about people being harassed by law enforcement for hyper-blink, though?

 

The circuit is measuring the current when the bulbs are ON, and the measurement isn't precise.
7440 bulbs are "rated" for 21 watts each, so about 1.5 to 1.7 amps with around 14 volts to 12.4 volts.
Some of the efficient LED bulbs (red) draw less than 2 watts.

I believe the resistors are mimicking about 20 watt load. That's why good ones (VLEDS, etc.) are pretty large heatsinks.
Note incandescent bulbs are also pumping out 21 watts of heat, inside the bulb housing. So I don't consider "melting" as a real risk factor.

Anyway, if you have incandescent + LED, there's no guarantee it won't hyperflash. You're going to be at borderline, though.
When I did that, one side hyperflashed and the other side didn't. Borderline, as I said.
So I just put resistors at both ends (2 front and 2 back).

I didn't have to cut any of the OEM wiring because VLEDS at the front have built-in plugs for the resistors.
For the rear, I have Curt trailer lighting kit, so I cut into that wire, instead.

As for legal issues, I'm sure that depends (where you live, how much of a bad day someone is having, etc.).
In my opinion, the less you have to deal with government (employees) in your life, the better.