Having a few very very odd issues after LED conversion

[Astroman]

I changed it most of my bulbs to LED and now each month since new gremlins pop up each month.

Bulbs changed:
Front marker lighs, amber LED
Side blinker lights located on the fenders, amber LED
Small 194 lights located in the headlights, white LED
TYC taillights, changed running lights and running/brake lights with red LED
Dome light and map lights white LED
License plate light, white LED light strip with 3 LEDS (done back in 2012)

First issue I noticed was with the headlights off my dash lights would dim super dark when i used the brakes unless i put the dimmer switch to max brightness. Operation of the dash lights are normal when the headlights are on.

The second problem started last month and happens 90%. My front left amber LED running light will turn off and on in 1 second intervals with the headlights on, the right one does not to this and only happens when the headlights are in the on position.

The third issue that just started is if I hit the brake pedal with the car off and lights off the open door chime goes off.

I know blinkers can have an issue with LED bulbs due to they don't have enough resistance, but am puzzled about about the 3 issues and fear more may pop up leading to a potential problem.

Any helpful insight is appreciated!

[IllusionX]

Sounds like you have a short somewhere.

[CTScott]

The brake pedal affecting the cluster with the headlights off, and particularly the dimmer rheostat having an effect at that time says that the cluster thinks that the headlights are on when they are off.

If would start with systematically swapping regular bulbs back in until you find the culprit.

[Astroman]

I'll start with the easiest bulbs first. I did save all the incandescent bulbs I replaced so all I need is a spare hour to start testing. I know others have gone LED but I've never heard of the problems I've been having, and a bought quality LED bulbs. Once I find out which bulbs are causing problems I'll post my findings. I know the license plate is fine as that's been on the car almost two years.

[IllusionX]

I'll start with the easiest bulbs first. I did save all the incandescent bulbs I replaced so all I need is a spare hour to start testing. I know others have gone LED but I've never heard of the problems I've been having, and a bought quality LED bulbs. Once I find out which bulbs are causing problems I'll post my findings. I know the license plate is fine as that's been on the car almost two years.


I've had issues with the brake ones when the parkings are ON where the 3rd brake light would always stay on all the time.

[Astroman]

That sounds like a gremlin issue I'd have! I'm thinking resistors may be in order but need to find out which bulbs are causing the issues.

[CrankyOldMan]

Perhaps our old friend Ohm is dropping in to say hello in a few different places? A common trick with automotive bulbs is to use the filament itself as an impedance in the circuit. For example, removing one blinker bulb makes the remaining bulb blink twice as fast. Perhaps there's no longer enough impedance in too many circuits to keep everything happy?

I don't know exactly how the different control modules are built, but if you have multiple voltages that are not in a range that it expects them to be, you can "accidentally" uncover glitches in their code, since they never expected those conditions to occur in the first place.

[268i]

I had led indicator rear bulbs installed a while ago. They just blinked like crazy (double the speed they blinked with regular bulb)....

[IllusionX]

I had led indicator rear bulbs installed a while ago. They just blinked like crazy (double the speed they blinked with regular bulb)....

you need a put extra load on the circuit so it doesn't think a bulb went out, or get the LED flasher relay.