How To: Fix cruise control after LED Tails

RisenequinoX · 03-24-2011, 07:29 PM

This is a fairly simple how-to. I finally decided to not be lazy and figure out why my cruise stopped working.

This is a fix if you lost your cruise control after putting LED bulbs in your tail lights.

You will need:
Load resistors (i used 25w at 10ohms) Quantity depends on how many LED Bulbs you have (1 for every bulb), Wire splice connectors (2 per resistor), Something to mount the resistors to your car (i used 3m doublesided tape)

Outside tails:
1.) Take one side of the load resistor and clamp it to the Ground (blk) wire on the bulb connector and the other side connects to the A wire (light blue on mine) The Bulb connectors are labeled A - B - G. You want the resistor to go between A and G.

Inside Tails:
2.) This one is easy, just do the same as above, but there are only 2 wires so its a no-brainer.

Third Brake Light:
3.) Same as the inside tails, just put the resistor in between the ground and power.

4.) get in your car and test it out!

Hope this helps as this is my first write-up!

cherrington17 · 03-24-2011, 09:34 PM

this doesn't even begin to answer why your cruise didn't work, or why that fixed it...

alero_bmxer · 03-24-2011, 09:48 PM

when you have led bulbs as your tail/stop lamps it for some reason disables your cruise and flips on the anti-lock light. happened on mine just haven't had time to fix it yet.

Shiwnath · 03-24-2011, 09:59 PM

Really? I have led bulbs in all 4 lights with no problems.

alero_bmxer · 03-24-2011, 10:00 PM

hmm i could be wrong then. the cruise and anti-lock work with regular bulbs in tho.

RisenequinoX · 03-24-2011, 11:04 PM

Well that is the reason why my cruise stopped working, LED's give a "bulb out" warning to the computer which disabled my cruise.

lonnie · 03-25-2011, 08:54 AM

I got led tails and I didn't have this issue. I even wired them so that all of my tails are used as break lights...Maybe it is for different year cars? I got a 2000

RisenequinoX · 03-25-2011, 10:14 AM

I guess, i have an '03 so maybe it's smarter lol..

zzyzzx · 03-25-2011, 10:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RisenequinoX

Well that is the reason why my cruise stopped working, LED's give a "bulb out" warning to the computer which disabled my cruise.

If that's the case, then you are treating the symptom instead of finding the cure. Also, but wasting electricity like that, you are partially defeating the purpose of using LED bulbs. I'm thinking that there has got to be a better way of having the LED bulbs not give the bulb out signal. Presumably it's measuring the current to the bulbs someplace and when it's detecting not enough current getting to the bulbs, it's assumes that they are out. There may be a better work around to this. If this is the case the solution isn't Alero specific either.

Lucalare · 03-25-2011, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RisenequinoX

I guess, i have an '03 so maybe it's smarter lol..

I had a tail light out and it didn't throw a code and cruise worked just fine, I found out because a friend of mine was following me somewhere.

Quote:

Originally Posted by zzyzzx

If that's the case, then you are treating the symptom instead of finding the cure. Also, but wasting electricity like that, you are partially defeating the purpose of using LED bulbs. I'm thinking that there has got to be a better way of having the LED bulbs not give the bulb out signal. Presumably it's measuring the current to the bulbs someplace and when it's detecting not enough current getting to the bulbs, it's assumes that they are out. There may be a better work around to this. If this is the case the solution isn't Alero specific either.

Actually the light will probably use less current with the resistor, but as that will increase the voltage, the lights could potentially even get brighter, despite how backwards that sounds.

zzyzzx · 03-25-2011, 10:44 AM

Now that I have done more reading, the real problem here is poor quality LED bulbs. The better ones have the resistor built in. It's needed for the blinker circuit (still poor overall design though, IMO). This problem is talked about all over the internet.

RisenequinoX · 03-25-2011, 11:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zzyzzx

If that's the case, then you are treating the symptom instead of finding the cure. Also, but wasting electricity like that, you are partially defeating the purpose of using LED bulbs. I'm thinking that there has got to be a better way of having the LED bulbs not give the bulb out signal. Presumably it's measuring the current to the bulbs someplace and when it's detecting not enough current getting to the bulbs, it's assumes that they are out. There may be a better work around to this. If this is the case the solution isn't Alero specific either.

Im not sure of anything else that will be the "cure" besides using the bulbs you said with resistors built in, but that is essentially the same thing that i posted, without the work. Im thinking that the BCM or whatever controls the turn signals/brake lights is programmed to verify a certain amperage draw from the lights and if its not detecting that then it sets off red flags. If that makes any sense? so another option could be to reprogram that module which im not about to do. It's an easy fix, and i had desirable results with it.

zzyzzx · 03-25-2011, 12:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RisenequinoX

Im not sure of anything else that will be the "cure" besides using the bulbs you said with resistors built in, but that is essentially the same thing that i posted, without the work. Im thinking that the BCM or whatever controls the turn signals/brake lights is programmed to verify a certain amperage draw from the lights and if its not detecting that then it sets off red flags. If that makes any sense? so another option could be to reprogram that module which im not about to do. It's an easy fix, and i had desirable results with it.

No easy fix except using bulbs with resistors built in. Personally I'd only buy ones with them built in and if I had ones without the resistors, I'd return them (seen that as the suggested fix elsewhere as well).

lonnie · 03-25-2011, 12:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RisenequinoX

I guess, i have an '03 so maybe it's smarter lol..

mine is older so it is wiser...lol

widbyj · 03-25-2011, 07:08 PM

FYI - Almost the same issue with 1999 Malibu...

Cruise control works during the day but not at night. Appears to be related to the bulb monitoring system, the BCM thinks the taillights aren't working because of the resistance being too low and has been programmed to make this an 'issue'. Verified by putting regular bulbs back in place and all works fine. Will have to add resistors to the car someday soon which I had been planning to do anyhow as the 'hyper blink' is somewhat annoying to me.

black · 04-01-2011, 05:16 PM

MOTHER EFFFFFFFER!!!!!

i just spent over $1500 to get my car fixed.

RisenequinoX · 04-02-2011, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by black

MOTHER EFFFFFFFER!!!!!

i just spent over $1500 to get my car fixed.

1500... SHIT!

that sucks what did you get fixed?

black · 04-02-2011, 12:58 PM

new hubs all the way around, new front calipers, 4 new rotors, pads, another abs servo, labor. unrelated, new front struts/springs - they fell apart/rusted from sitting for so long.

how did you figure out it was the leds?

RisenequinoX · 04-03-2011, 11:24 AM

as soon as i put em in i noticed i lost cruise so i popped the original bulbs back in to verify and it worked after... only took me so long to order the damn things haha

sleepyalero · 04-03-2011, 02:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by black

new hubs all the way around, new front calipers, 4 new rotors, pads, another abs servo, labor. unrelated, new front struts/springs - they fell apart/rusted from sitting for so long.

how did you figure out it was the leds?

You could have done all that work yourself and saved a lot of money.

If you had the tools that is..