Est. delivery Wed, Oct 29 - Mon, Nov 10Estimated delivery Wed, Oct 29 - Mon, Nov 10
Returns:
30 days return. Buyer pays for return shipping. If you use an eBay shipping label, it will be deducted from your refund amount. Policy depends on shipping service.
I was looking for something to stop my '12 Focus' computer from reading the low wattage LEDs I installed into my headlights as an error; "Dipped Low Beam Fault". It would turn them off every time I turned on my lights -- thinking it was doing me a favor by not sending power to what it thought was a shorted or broken halogen bulb.
The first item I bought was an "anti-flicker / decoder" from a different seller, it claimed it would solve all computer errors related to the headlights, as well as stop the LED flicker which happens at each revolution of the alternator... Well it did stop the flicker (But I wasn't so concerned about that) for the moments that the LEDs were actually on -- But it didn't stop the computer from turning off the LEDs and displaying the warning.
So I did some researching and found out theres two types of wiring setups related to LED/HID headlights:
1. Anti-Flicker / Decoder
2. Load Resistor
An Anti-Flicker / Decoder is meant to solve flickering (headlights/taillights) or hyperblinking (blinkers) and minor computer errors that do not resolve in cutting off power to that particular light.
A Load Resistor, which is what this item that I am reviewing actually is ; is designed to receive the high wattage meant to be sent to the very low wattage LEDs (because halogens require much more juice than LEDs do; like 3-4X) and soak up a lot of the wattage before reaching the LEDs. Without it, the car is sending a large amount of wattage to an LED bulb which it is only going to use a fraction of -- thus the computer is assuming the bulb is broken or shorted. But with this item, all of the wattage is being used, as the resistors are soaking up the extra watts not needed by the LED bulb -- and so the entire wattage being sent to the LED is being used.
NOTE:
The resistors on this item get VERY hot (but it is seemingly good quality -- so it may run cooler than a cheaper pair). You MUST mount the resistors onto a metal piece, preferably, but if not; a very hard plastic that has been tested not to melt from the heat can be used as a mount base instead.
DO NOT let them dangle freely in the engine compartment, as this could easily result in a very rapid and unexpected fire at any moment during a drive.
DO NOT shove them inside your headlight housing, that will guarantee damage to your headlights -- and again pose a risk for fire (your headlights will already be well over 100deg with LEDs inside). If you have rubber/plastic covers that go over the openings of your headlight assembly, cut a slit or two to allow the wires of the load resistors to feed through and allow the cap to still cover the opening. DO NOT leave your headlight openings exposed, this will result in water spots inside the headlight lense and again pose another risk of fire or damage to the bulbs.
Hope this information helps -- took me a few hours of Googling to figure out what exactly I needed. This item will work for ya if you're trying to solve my same problem I described at the beginning.
And to the item distributer, feel free to take information from this review to include in your item description -- it would help a lot of future buyers.