2018 Ford Connect headlight upgrade problem
Discussion
After doing as much research as I thought I needed to, I bought, at considerable expense, sidelight, low beam, high beam and foglight LEDs to replace the halogens fitted as standard. They original bulbs produced very little light.
The new ones came with decoders for the low beam and foglights. There are also a pair of decoders which don't appear to fit anything. The new bulbs are all fitted, except the foglights which will require more time. They all work well, the cut off point is as original, and they're bright. The problem I have is that the sidelights are meant to act as DRLs, and light up when the van is started. With the LEDs fitted, they don't. However, the high beam does come on immediately the van is started and stays on, in effect they now think they are the DRL.
You can overcome this by turning the lights on and back off, at which point the lights all go off, including the DRLs, and work normally from the switch again, until the next time the van is started and the same routine plays out. The DRLs will not work properly under any circumstances as things stand.
I initially thought that the resistance in the new LED sidelights was so low that the canbus couldn't recognise them and that fitting resistors would solve the problem. However changing back to original sidelight bulbs ( and therefore reinstating the original resistance ) hasn't resolved it. There are no errors on the dash.
I don't want to ditch the LEDs, as they're better enough to be worth the aggro, and I can work around the problem, but obviously interested in a fix if possible, anyone had anything like this?
The new ones came with decoders for the low beam and foglights. There are also a pair of decoders which don't appear to fit anything. The new bulbs are all fitted, except the foglights which will require more time. They all work well, the cut off point is as original, and they're bright. The problem I have is that the sidelights are meant to act as DRLs, and light up when the van is started. With the LEDs fitted, they don't. However, the high beam does come on immediately the van is started and stays on, in effect they now think they are the DRL.
You can overcome this by turning the lights on and back off, at which point the lights all go off, including the DRLs, and work normally from the switch again, until the next time the van is started and the same routine plays out. The DRLs will not work properly under any circumstances as things stand.
I initially thought that the resistance in the new LED sidelights was so low that the canbus couldn't recognise them and that fitting resistors would solve the problem. However changing back to original sidelight bulbs ( and therefore reinstating the original resistance ) hasn't resolved it. There are no errors on the dash.
I don't want to ditch the LEDs, as they're better enough to be worth the aggro, and I can work around the problem, but obviously interested in a fix if possible, anyone had anything like this?
king spanner. It's sorted!Gassing Station | Home Mechanics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff