[Rigdotcom]

I have the Nolden 112050L LED tail lights and getting them to work has been a bit of a chore.

The first order of business was the blinker, which was easily fixed with a no load flasher relay from painless.

Depending on the light module you buy, the combination of features in the module vary. I have parking lights with brake lights.

When you press the brake it lights up nice and bright. Once you turn the stalk the lights stay illuminated. Pressing the brake gives no change. I separated the wires and only ran the brake light wire to the taillight.

They work just fine. When you turn the stalk the light flickers, pressing the brake pedal makes the light brighter and steady.

I checked the voltage on the parking light wire and the brake wire. The parking light is registering 12V and the brake wire is registering 8.6V, when the pedal is depressed the voltage is 12V.

I know my issue is in the relay and unfortunately there is no diagram on the relay provided from FFR. I just need to get rid of the 8.6V...as I already have the tail lights and have no intention of changing to a dimmable LED.

A search for the number on the relay returned 0 viable results. I'll probably just have to check the power on the pins and go from there.

I will just deal with only having 2 rear driving lights, as I plan to install a 3rd brake light before I take the car out of the dungeon shop that is my basement.

 

[Shane]

I'm guessing that the 8.6V is voltage that is back-feeding thru the tail light? The easy way to check this is if you have access to the relay, unplug the wire that has the 8.6V on it and see if the 8.6V at the tail light is still there or goes away. If it's still there, then the voltage is coming thru the tail light onto that wire from the park light circuit. I'm a bit confused about what the relay does that you're talking about or how it's wired or what it's wired to control.....but I'm wondering if the 8.6V is just voltage that's backfeeding thru the LED's in the tail light, your solution might be to get a resistor (maybe 100 ohm or so?) and connect that from the wire that has the 8.6V on it and run the other end of the resistor to ground?

 

[Rigdotcom]

That's possible. I've seen DRL's take a lower voltage. I have disconnected every wire at the light end and only connected the brake wire and the common ground. I get 8.6V on the brake circuit even with no load on the parking light circuit.

I attached a picture of the relays in question from the assembly manual. The power source for the relay should be 12V from the stalk. I should have power on my brake lights at all times, waiting for a trigger from the brake switch. When I turn the stalk a nominal voltage is supplied to the brake circuit.

That nominal voltage is a pain in my ass and Nolden has a department of idiotic asshats. That don't like to answer direct questions.

The brake light has a separate 2 pin connector for an external anode/cathode but nolden won't answer any questions.

I could chop the circuit up and make it work. I would simply have to supply a fused 12V power source, a ground, a trigger from the brake switch, and a switch leg out to the brake lights. I would rather not do that.

I also have to try and get my reverse lights functioning.

 

[Shoeless]

I'm no expert on the Nolan lights, but your last statement of possibly chopping up the circuit actually sounds like that's the way it should be done. If the lights require a constant 12V and then use triggers to activate it, then you should do that. Its sounds like a similar principle to the way a relay is supposed to work. A constant 12V is fed to the relay and it uses ground signals to trigger it.

 

[Shane]

"I have disconnected every wire at the light end and only connected the brake wire and the common ground. I get 8.6V on the brake circuit even with no load on the parking light circuit."

It sounds to me like you are feeding power thru the relay coil to the brake lights? Maybe I'm not reading something right....but if you have all of the wires disconnected from the lights except for the brake circuit....and you are getting 8.6V at the lights.....it sounds to me like you are feeding power to the brake lights thru the relay COIL and not the relay CONTACTS?

"I should have power on my brake lights at all times, waiting for a trigger from the brake switch. When I turn the stalk a nominal voltage is supplied to the brake circuit."

No....you should not have power on the brake lights at all times. The only time you should have power to the brake lights is when you step on the brakes and the brake switch closes and supplies power to the brake lights....thru the brake switch.....no relay required. The brake lights should not be connected to the stalk in any way at all.....brake light wire comes from the fuse block, to the brake switch and then thru the brake switch directly to the brake lights.

 

[Rigdotcom]

I meant that the circuit should have 12V available at all times. Little typo.

I cut the wire running from the brake lights to the brake switch, cut the power wire feeding the switch, ran a new THWN line to the brake lights and added a new 3A fuse to the fuse box with constant 12V to feed the switch and everything works perfectly now.

The reverse lights weren't working so I had to make a plug from an old XT60 RC connector to get it going.

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