LED Turn Signals Hyperflashing - Only one side, and intermittently...

Hey guys!

So I replaced my stock halogen bulbs in headlights of my 2020 TRD Off Road over the weekend, and now I'm running into a weird hyperflash issue...

I know, I know... LED's aren't the best option. I've read the threads on light output and on how HID's are superior, but for my application and budget, the LED's are awesome and I have not had any issues with light output, throw distance or aiming them properly. I promise I'm not the douche that puts LED's in and then spends his evenings handing out free X-Rays to everyone else on the road.

The issue that I'm running into resides in the turn signals. I figured that if my headlights are going to be bright, so should my turn signals to guarantee visibility at night when I'm turning so I don't get smacked.

However, now my left turn signal is hyperflashing. The left signal, and the left signal only. Even more curious, is that it's an intermittent issue... Sometimes it flashes normally like the right signal, and sometimes it hyperflahses. Sometimes, it starts off as normal and then switches to hyperflashing after a few flashes.

I've swapped the bulbs around between the two sides, and both bulbs work without any issues on my right side... it's only the left and only sometimes....

Any idea as to what could cause this and how to remedy it? I feel like resistance shouldn't be a factor, because it works fine sometimes and both bulbs work great on the right....

 

There are literally tons of threads and videos on this. But here you go, I noticed there was no mention of installing resistors on the taillights so that is more than likely the issue. Without the resistors installed then you are going to get hyper flashing. It will require that you splice into the wires, just make sure that you splice into these wires. For the driver side White/Black (ground) and the Yellow (turn signal) and then for the passenger side you should have tapped the White/Black (ground) and the Blue (turn signal)

 

Check bulb on driver's side rear. If it is working, then the current draw is borderline at the limit of being too low. Hyperflash is an engineered function to let you know that a bulb is not working, as determined by the amount of electrical current flowing through the flash circuit.
You could try a new bulb on the rear taillight.

its not clear in your description, if you changed the signal light bulbs at the front to LED. There is no reason that changing your headlight bulbs will cause hyperflash. The two circuits are not interconnected. (unless they did something funky in the 3rd gens) The only reason is associated to your signal light bulbs, ie if you disconnected a signal bulb by accident, or if the signal light bulb is not working and needs replacement.

 

If this is the case, why does the right turn signal work fine and the left signal only hyper flashes 3/10 times?

 

Sorry, I should’ve been more clear. The signal bulbs in the headlights were swapped to LEDs. I haven’t touched the tail lights. Both bulbs are in the headlights, and both work. My issue is that the right headlight signal cycles fine, and 7/10 times the left works fine too, but 3/10 times the left signal hyper flashes (with all bulbs still working) and sometimes it starts off as a normal cycle before hyper flashing

 

It is because the current draw is border line, just slightly more than half of what is expected. The flasher is designed to hyperflash when one incandescent bulb is blown, ie half the current. You have replaced a 27Watt Incadescent bulb with an LED bulb, likely about 5W.

Your options are:
- add load resistors that increase the current draw, (and generate heat) to bring the total load closer to what it was before with an incandescent bulb. These are typically wired in behind the taillights, ideally bolted to metal, and away from plastic.

- potentially modify your flasher module, by replacing the internal current sense measurement resistors with a correct value to eliminate the hyperflash. I am not sure if the 3rd gen uses the same type of flasher module as the later years of the 2nd gen Tacoma modules.

 

The bulbs didn't cost me much... they were pretty cheap. Maybe I should find some bulbs that will work better? Or should I just swap back to my stock bulbs? I don't wanna go buggering with the factory wiring. With my luck the damn truck will start on fire.

 

I had a similar issue, but different at the same time.

I replaced literally EVERY exterior bulb with LED. My driver’s side would do the same thing you described; intermittently hyper flash. Was actually very rare that it did happen. So, I swapped the front turn signal bulbs. After a while it hyperflashed again, so I figured it had to be the rear bulbs. I swapped those around; after a while it happened again, but now it only hyperflashed on the passenger side. So, I attributed it to the rear bulbs. I emailed the manufacturer of the bulbs and they sent out new ones for the front and rear just to be safe. However, it never hyperflashed again after I emailed the mfg (never even put the new bulbs in).

This lasted for about 4 weeks...but then I traded the truck in and removed all of the LED bulbs.

I got my new Tacoma about 2 weeks ago and immediately put the LEDs in the new one (only the rear bc I have the LED headlights now) and haven’t had any occurrences of hyperflashing.

I know this doesn’t necessarily help, but maybe something in my scenario will pop out at you and help you in yours.

Now that I mentioned this I’m sure mine will start hyper flashing again. Lol

 

check these - https://www.vleds.com/shop-application/turn-signals-front/7443-50-hv-amber.html (Make sure the bulb type is accurate for your 2020 Tacoma)

There's a review from a Tundra user, stating he had no hyperflash.
You are looking for something that puts out considerable light, typical 1.0 - 1.25W per 100Lumen output is a rough estimate, and i'd estimate you are going to want to be up at around 5W to avoid hyperflash.
If you change the rear signals to LED, then you will have hyperflash for sure.

The color of these is going to be quite orange side of amber, so your marker lamps in the front corners are going to look silly if these are not changed as well to LED.
example : https://www.vleds.com/shop-bulb-numbers/194-168-158-led/194-14-hva.html

 

So, after reading this thread, I'm curious, I want to convert both the front and rear blinkers to LED. Do I need to install resistors on just the rear? Or on all four bulbs?

 

just one set of resistors, for each left & right side. Most folks pick the rear tailights because of the available space behind the taillight and access to metal mounting.

 

Awesome, thank you!

 

If they aren't CANBUS bulbs, you'll need resistors is basically what it comes down to.

 

Get a set of CANBUS bulbs and forgo the resistors all together

 

I know the 2nd gen Tacomas do not use the Canbus sytem to the extent that other manufacturers do where there is communications used for monitoring of each bulb.

i doubt the 3rd gen does either.

 

An update, got led bulbs in the front and the back, the back having built-in resistors, still has hyper flash. I’m going to wire in resistors into the front and see if that fixes the problem. If not, well, I guess they’ll hyper flash lol

 

So, I’m having a hyper flash issue.
I’ve first put in leds front and back, had the hyper flash, put in resistors in the rear and still had hyper flash. Put resistors in the front and still having the hyper flash. I’ve located the right wires but you guessed it, Hyper flash.
The only change is if I signal the first time it hyper flashes, reset the turn stalk and no more hyper flash. So, could it be a bad resistor?
I’ve located the correct wires for the resistors

Just hoping someone on here has a fix for this.

 

Could be the bulbs too. I didn't want to mess with wiring in resistors and wanted something that was strictly plug and play. So I got some GTR Lighting Carbide CANBUS 2.0 bulbs. I've only once had hyper flash and that was after sitting on the side of the road for 20 minutes with my flashers on. Once the bulbs cooled down they were back to normal. I've used them for several months without any other issues.

 

I just went with some relatively cheap Amazon ones with CANBUS and didn’t have a single problem out of them. Much easier than worry about resistors and hacking up factory harnesses.

LASFIT was the brand, in case you wanted to look them up.

 

Which bulb number has the optional amber turn signal / clear backup in the same bulb, as the harness accommodates? Thanks