JonMac

G'day!

so I received from AznOptics the Licence Plate LEDs today and they both work fine in the right side licence plate bulb socket, but if either of them go into the left side (drivers side), then it flashes (from what i read it's the SAM interrogating the LED) on / off every 5 seconds or so.
I get the Error Code of course, declaring that my Licence Plate L, L etc but it will happily work fine without errors as soon as I put the stock oem bulb back in.
I've used a voltmeter to get the readings for both sides in case this might help pinpoint the problem...
Car is running during the readings...
LEFT - POS (about 13.3-13.4v) NEG (about 0.15-0.18v)
RIGHT - POS (about 13.5v) NEG (about 0.1v)

So remembering that the halogen bulb works fine without errors, but the LED is throwing errors (but the same bulb does not on the right side...) could it be the earthing (seems a bit higher on the left?). If this is the case, how do I go about resolving this? i have never taken the liner off the trunk before so any guides (or link to one) would be appreciated.

Thanks so much in advance !

JonMac

I had a bit of time today so...
i lifted the trunk liner, traced the wires, everything looks and measures fine... no broken or weak wires that i could find, the earth looks really solid (very super clean much to my surprise, after a lot of reading i was expecting corrosion etc but it looks brand new!).
So as a last result for now, I jerried up the halogen bulb on the INSIDE of the trunk space... using the ever versatile paper clip (albeit a stronger one), you'll see the results in the attached pic... i'm not proud of it, but it's working... The LED is happily working, the 'internal' bulb isn't going to go anywhere (i've put it in nice and tight, away from wires near the trunk wall itself but not contacting) and i've given it the boot slam test... (multiple times...)
Guessing that the halogen is working like a resistor and rear SAM is happy ...
I'll be keeping a close watch on it over the next few night drives thats for sure.
Still happy to get any ideas on what else i should be looking for...
Thanks!

samaritrey

Why not just use a resistor?