Hey guys, I have been upgrading to LED's in and out of my '01 and am already annoyed with having to buy a resistor for every single damn bulb! There's gotta be an easier way than a resistor per bulb! .. has anyone successfully opened up the fuse relays and replaced the shunt resistor within??

 

Ok so I had to google what a shunt resistor is, but from what I've found, replacing it with a different value will do nothing for what you are trying to accomplish.

The reason for having resistors for every led is to drop the voltage to the led, as 12v will destroy most leds on the market. And while you may save time wiring them all together in parallel and using a single resistor for them all, this is a bad idea because heat fluctuations for each individual led means that they will not share the voltage evenly, and therefore burn out one by one.

The best (feasible) way to convert leds in your dash is to use individual resistors or wire them in series where possible.

The best way for areas with more space, is to use a constant current device set at the Vf of the leds you are using.

 

.. havent done any in my dash. Was refering to exterior. Anyways i got my resistors in the mail today finally for my headlights that are LED but super dim and the reisitors did nothing. The LED bulbs say 12V on them so im failing to see why my bulbs are so dim. I also have this issue for my back up bulbs and dome light bulbs, all LED but no where near as bright as they should be.

 

Ahh for the turn signals. If you use a very large resistor that can handle about 90W of power then you can use one per side. But that's it.

As for the headlights and backup lights, I have made a post in your other thread about why those are 'dim.'

 

Plug and play LED bulbs for exterior are usually never good. and will always be dim, no matter what you do to them.