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Re: Flickering LED lamps

I had a similar problem on a Riley Lynx, but there the HT and LT wiring runs through trunking on the engine side of the bulkhead. Flickering was greatly reduced by running the HT wiring outside the trunking. I didn't get around to separating the LT wiring before I sold the car, but I am convinced it was an induction effect from running the wires close together. Other comments about relays to take load off very old switches are sensible, mbut possibly less relevant to the flickering problem.

Robert Leigh

Location: Cottenham, north of Cambridge

Re: Flickering LED lamps

I think you should first speak to Classic Dynamo Conversions to see what they recommend, the LEDs are not infallible, I had a problem with light boards in the rear lamps supplied by them, with the side lights off and when the brake pedal was pressed, not only did the brake lights illuminate, so did the front side lights! This fault did not get resolved per se, but replacing the LED front side light bulbs with incandescent has meant that the problem has been overcome, but the problem is with the light board in that when the brake lights are powered, power "leaks" into the side light circuit (obviously the light board provides the common connection). My "fix" has overcome the problem, but clearly, it is not right.

I also had a problem with an electronic flasher from Moss Motors, they supplied 2, both had the same problem in that the LED warning light had a life of its own, they couldn't sort the problem out and gave me my money back.

So, it could be that your LEDs are defective!

In addition, I had a problem with interference affecting analogue radio in my garage (not sure if it affected digital broadcasts) and I would suggest fitting a suppressor to the coil to see if that reduces the interference, failing that, fit a suppressor to each of the spark plugs. You may need to fit a suppressor to the distributor as well.

Do one at a time to see if that improves matters, ignition components should be suppressed in any event to comply with wireless legislation, when most of our cars were new, nothing was suppressed, but this was introduced circa 1930's.

Good luck.

Location: Saltdean, Brighton

Re: Flickering LED lamps

"I had a problem with light boards in the rear lamps supplied by them, with the side lights off and when the brake pedal was pressed, not only did the brake lights illuminate, so did the front side lights!"

That usually indicates an earthing problem. I'd suggest that because the LEDs draw such a low current, some was 'leaking' to the sidelights. Because a higher current is required by the incandescents there wasn't enough to illuminate them.

Re: Flickering LED lamps

No, it was not an earthing problem, the wiring on my car was all new anyway, tested it on the bench to prove, the fault was on the circuits to the light board, it affected two different types of light board, they seemed to sort out one of them as the replacement was fine, but the other, still unresolved other than my "fix" with using a standard bulb in the side lights rather than an LED.

A problem with the circuitry on the light board.

Location: Saltdean, Brighton

Re: Flickering LED lamps

I had the same issue as Gary with the rear LED lightboard. My auto electrician solved it by adding a diode to the lightboard to stop the leakage from brakelight to parklight. Simple fix to a baffling problem which was complicated by my towbar and its attendant trailer lighting circuits. cheers Russell

Location: oz

Re: Flickering LED lamps

I have used the combined Tail and Stop LEDs from Dynamo and Regulator conversions. Those supplied to me used a simple series dropper resistor to allow a 3 volt (approximately) LED to be used on 6 volts. Clearly, if the supply voltage varies as the engine revs change, the current through the LED will also vary a bit and some change in brightness will be seen.

One other thing to be aware of is that these particular LED conversions actually had just a single LED, with two different values of dropper resistor joined together at the LED live end. Thus the LED current (and brightness) will be large or small depending on which pin and resistor is being energised. Most of the time this will work as intended, however there is the opportunity for unwanted back feeding, depending on what else is connected to the side and brake circuits.

In my case I had a third central brake light with an ordinary bulb. This was back fed from the LEDs and robbed the sidelight circuit when the brakes were off, leading to no sidelights. I had to solve this problem by adding series diodes to prevent the back feeding before things would work properly. This only came about after a great deal of investigative work and head scratching which I could have done without !

Location: New Forest