Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffrey1990
are they the Orange ones with the heat sink fins on em?
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Yes they are. And I meant that I put electrical tape around the wiring only. The resistor itself is just zip tied so it won't just dangle.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RalphP
If they have the fins, then the thermal rating presumes free air around those fins, not taped into a harness. Taping into a harness has two drawbacks that may not show up immediately (read: We're fighting crap like that NOW on these just-barely-teenaged cars). 1) It can degrade the insulation of the wiring it's taped to, 2) It can overheat because there's not enough air around to keep the resistor cool enough.
The Alero has intelligent tail lights. Ask a Malibu or Cutlass owner about the circuit boards and how the lamps melt the taillamp assemblies to where you can't get the bulbs in and out (!!!) Or check some of the older center high mount tail lights - for instance, in my Cougar, in the yard, about 75% will have melted housings due to the heat from the lamps. And then consider the reason you use the resistor is to waste the extra current that the LED's don't use ... so you're producing about the same heat as the original bulb did! (Might as well go incandescent IMO for that, for a DD. Again, for show cars, different story.)
But anyway - just things to keep in mind. There's a LOT of things you CAN do, but the recommended way would be to mount the resistors to the chassis.
(Actually, the RECOMMENDED way would be to replace the turn signal flasher with one that's LED compatible ... but that's quite a pain in the gluteus maximus due to how the flasher and hazard switch are integrated in these cars. Le sigh.)
RwP
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Mine is a DD. I've had these resistors in and driving for around 20,000 miles now without issue. Not that what you are saying doesn't make sense or is inaccurate, but my experience has been different. Also, lights are cheap if they start to melt or warp I will just buy new ones again... That's my two cents.