Blinking tail lights with Land Rover

[Der Sand]

Hello,
I am a new member of this forum and I have a problem here in Colorado. We have a new trailer which we bought this past year and it has LED tail lights. Our new car, Land Rover (2007) seems to give the tail lights some sort of pulse and the lights always blink. I have contacted Airstream in reagards to this and they were helpful, but the fix didn't help. Any one else have any trouble like this? Any ideas? While it is probably a good thing to have them blink, safety and all they still blink when the car is off!

Thank you,

Dave
Colorado

[overlander63]

What kind of brake controller do you have?
I have seen some that pulse a small amount of voltage to make sure everything is still connected. Yours may be doing the same, and since the LEDs use much less current, they may blink.

[lewster]

Originally Posted by Der Sand

Hello,
I am a new member of this forum and I have a problem here in Colorado. We have a new trailer which we bought this past year and it has LED tail lights. Our new car, Land Rover (2007) seems to give the tail lights some sort of pulse and the lights always blink. I have contacted Airstream in reagards to this and they were helpful, but the fix didn't help. Any one else have any trouble like this? Any ideas? While it is probably a good thing to have them blink, safety and all they still blink when the car is off!

Thank you,

Dave
Colorado

Dave,

You're getting a feedback pulse loop that is energizing your LEDs in the trailer. They are VERY sensitive to voltage fluctuations, and this is what you're seeing. You need a powered isolating tail light converter attached to the tail lights of the TV, then fed into the trailer. I've used them several times in similar situations. I don't recall the brand, but let me know and I'll look it up for you.

[Jim Clark]

Use the search function, this has been addressed before.

Good Luck Jim

[Devoman]

I have a VW Touareg and it does the same thing though it does nothing to the vehicle.I think it has something to do with the setup in the vehicle itself with the light sensors and DLR Lighting setup as well.Is it very faint but just strong enough to see it.When you turn off the vehicle does it still pulse until your vehicle turns the power off.What I mean is when your headlights and interior lights and stuff turn off or does it keep pulsing.It really does not hurt the vehicle at all.

[TCHURCH]

Dave,

I have a 2011 sport 22 and a 2005 Land Rover LR3...same blinking lights as you. Have you gotten a fix or just decided to live with it?

Tony
Bonita Springs, FL

[Der Sand]

Tony,

I did find a guy here that fixed it for me and it was actually a simple fix. If you like I can get you his contact here in Colorado and you could have the same thing done.

Dave

[mojo]

Had same problem with my Touareg, the LED trailer lights don't provide enough resistance for the car to recognize that they are there. Get one of these connectors from etrailer.com 7-Way to 7-Way Trailer Adapter for VW, Audi and Porsche Towing Trailers with LED Lights Valley Wiring V39010

[racoco]

mojo - that link doesn't work and when I called to ask for the part number, Valley said they were getting out of the electrics business and had none in stock. Know of any other source for this adapter?
Thanks and Merry Christmas.

[murreywalker]

Originally Posted by racoco

mojo - that link doesn't work and when I called to ask for the part number, Valley said they were getting out of the electrics business and had none in stock. Know of any other source for this adapter?
Thanks and Merry Christmas.

VW has an adaptor with the built in resistance to solve the LED problem.

Don't know if it will work for you, but it did with my GL450.

It is a short cable that plugs into your TV and trailer. It's about two feet long and costs $40. Wish I had a number for you, but I couldn't find one.

Give your VW parts a call with this information.

Good luck!

[mojo]

Yes as Murrey said, order one from a VW dealer. They used to only be about $25 from etrailer.

[racoco]

Thanks guys. I actually found the VW part number searching around on the topic in one of your previous posts mojo. Got on the phone (no VW dealer around here), found one, and it will be here tomorrow.

Sure hope it works. I've experimented with different combinations and never found the right resistor(s). I could either dim the tail lights (but still flashing) or kill them all together.

Thanks again for the assist and Merry Christmas.