How To: Fix cruise control after LED Tails
 

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!

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

:huh:

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.


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.

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.

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).

mine is older so it is wiser...lol

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.

MOTHER EFFFFFFFER!!!!!

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

1500... SHIT!

that sucks what did you get fixed?

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?

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

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

If you had the tools that is..

sa: i did replace most if not all of those myself already.

look at all i did before.

http://www.aleromod.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20845

i have been dealing with this issue for years now.

RisenequinoX did you have any heat issues with the 3m tape?

i also have this problem i did the led tails. also added resistors to fix hyper blink which it fixed hyper blink but still no cruise that sucks im going back to factory bulbs now.

You just have to do both sets... The blue pair get resistors to fix the blink problem, which you did. Now you need to install another set for the brake lights (brown). The computer thinks your brake lights are burnt out and shuts off cruise as a safety feature...

you're awesome can i use the same resistors

Yes, the same style will work. So, two resistors on each side. Luckily there is quite a bit of open area below where the light housings mount to the body which makes a good place to mount the resistors. Secure them with double-stick mounting tape if they have heat sinks built in (aluminum bodies) otherwise use metal straps (plumbers tape) and screws to hold them in place. They can get hot enough to melt plastic and being ceramic could break if they dangle and bounce.

FYI - You may need another set if you change out the front turn signals also, I haven't gotten that far yet myself...

you only need to put them on the outside brake lights to fix the problem. I have on 03 as well. the lights on the trunk are just running and you can even pull the bulb and be fine but the outer ones are running/brake lights and they are the ones the trigger a "bulb out" and screw stuff up.

i really appretiate your help cant wait to finish

little late finally did the second side the brown and black wires and it didnt fix cruise problem? i double checked wiring i dont understand what went wrong?

way to late for me to answer that one. I can still tell you what size of socket for about any bolt but not wires :(

I put resistors on mine, but I feel like I did blue to black, not brown. Cruise used to be out for the longest time until I put the resistors in, now it works great! Although my wiring is all sorts of crazy bc of the sequentials, so idk

is it because i have to also put one in for my third brake light since they are also led?

No, I really doubt that bc I have LED's in my TBL and I haven't resisted that. Do you have LED's in the front for turn sigs? Maybe it's time you just broke down and bought some of this.

hahahahah! this reminds me one day i had a buddy get a 350z for his new car, and hes kind of an idiot. but i asked him did he check his zenon fluid.... he then said whats that, i said these cars require it for the lights. hes like hmmm okay ill check it later tonight. told him if its a certain color, he needs to go to napa to get new fluid.

he then came back the next day and i go "hey man you check that zenon fluid yet?" he says.... "yeah me and my dad checked it last night and its good."

thought to myself, wtf did he check?? :emotlol: