[PDC]

I completed the LED swap on my car and everything works correctly. The only issue I am having is that my front side marker lights are noticeably dimmer than the rear side markers - I have swapped the side marker bulbs from front to back and it is not the bulbs. The front fixtures are just dim.

I have scraped and cleaned the ground contacts for the front harness where they attach to the sides of the front radiator support. If I detach either ground, that side marker light will go out completely. If I drag that contact around various surfaces I get anywhere from really dim to medium dim light from that side marker light. So, it is acting like a weak ground.

Does anyone have any thoughts as to where else I could ground the front marker lights? Maybe grab some heavier gauge wire and try running the ground straight up to the negative terminal of the battery just to see what happens?

Thank you.

["QUICK-SILVER"]

This on the Firebird?

And what do you have for bulbs in front turn/park?

Factory ground didn't go straight to ground. It went through the front turn signal bulbs. That made the front side markers alternate blink/flash with the front turn signal.

Resistance to reverse flow through a LED park/turn would make for a dim side marker light.

Can't add ground without cutting the factory ground through the turn signal bulb. Ground added to existing would blow the turn signal fuse when you used them.

Clay

[PDC]

This adventure started when I found my driver’s side turn signal indicators and brake lights went out a couple of weeks ago. At that time, I noticed my Dome Light would stay on all the time even with the doors closed / dome buttons pushed in.

I tracked that problem down to a leaking driver’s side tail light housing and a wet socket. In repairing it, I decided the harness had seen better days, so I replaced the rear tail harness and got everything working correctly - even the Dome Light.

That’s when I decided to step up to all LEDs with grounded no load LED flashers. While working on the car, I pulled the dome light bulb since I was going to have to driver’s door open for a decent while swapping out and grounding the new flashers. And I hadn’t put the dome bulb back in.

That’s when i remembered that when all this started with the wet tail light socket, my dome light stayed on constantly - and after correcting that short from the wet socket, it functioned normally again. So I tuned on the lights and slid the dome bulb into place and I’ll be darned, the front side markers immediately brightened up. Pull the dome bulb, and they dim back down. So now everything is up and running correctly.

[PDC]

Originally Posted by "QUICK-SILVER"

This on the Firebird?

And what do you have for bulbs in front turn/park?

Factory ground didn't go straight to ground. It went through the front turn signal bulbs. That made the front side markers alternate blink/flash with the front turn signal.

Resistance to reverse flow through a LED park/turn would make for a dim side marker light.

Can't add ground without cutting the factory ground through the turn signal bulb. Ground added to existing would blow the turn signal fuse when you used them.

Clay

Clay - THANK YOU!! You NAILED this issue! I found extensive posting about this on the Jeep Wrangler Forum. The amber side marker shares ground with the front lower amber blinker to create the alternating ‘on/off’ blinking function. And the LEDS do not provide enough resistance for this shared ground function.

There are a few in-depth fixes that involve wiring in diodes and resistors to the 2-wire lead for the side marker socket to make the led bulb function with the shared ground in the front blinker socket.

The easiest ‘fix’ when switching to LED’s is to just stick with incandescent 194 bulbs in the front amber side marker positions only. You can use LEDs everywhere else - along with the correct grounded no-load electronic flasher modules under the dash.

The instant I put the incandescent 194 bulb in the side marker socket, it was noticeably brighter than the LED in the same position. But also, the front LED blinker bulb on that side also brightened up considerably. I was so focused on the side marker not being very bright that I didn’t really notice that the front blinker / running light wasn’t very bright either. Not any more! And since you only have a pair of 194 incandescent bulbs in the whole circuit, the no-load LED flashers work just fine.

Now my side markers are nice and bright as are my front turn signal indicators and they blink correctly with the turn signal stick and emergency flasher button.

Here is the link to this discussion and the diode / resistor fix from the Wrangler forum for those that want to make the LED 194 bulbs function and provide the proper ground to the LED front turn signal bulbs.

https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/...gler-tj.32114/