No rear lights, but brake lights work?!

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underworld1001
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Joined: Sun Nov 27, 2016 9:05 pm
Location: Austin, TX

No rear lights, but brake lights work?!

Postby underworld1001 » Tue Mar 14, 2017 7:36 pm

Hey all,

Hopefully someone can respond fairly quickly.

Replaced the license plate bulbs with leds to have a more whiter look last night. When I turned on the lights for a bit with out the vehicle on, they lit up and then all rear lights went out. I turned on the vehicle and still nothing. Replaced the leds with the stock ones and they're still out. Oddly enough, the brake lights work fine. The crappy thing is that I can't drive at night for the time being.

I found this on superbrightleds.com that stated some vehicles use what's called a CAN BUS bulb. As per their site;
CAN Bus LED bulbs are simple plug-and- play LED bulbs which are made specifically for CAN Bus-equipped vehicles. These bulbs work with your vehicle's advanced computer system, so when your vehicle's computer reads them, they respond back correctly. To see if your vehicle operates with a CAN Bus system, simply remove the bulb you're looking to replace, start your vehicle, and if you have a "Bulb Out" message on your dash you have a CAN Bus system
I also ran across multiple people having this issue on the Xterra/Frontier forums. For example this page -- http://www.clubfrontier.org/forums/f8/n ... ndex3.html -- mentions that we use certain bulbs in our vehicles with the bulb model # with a CK indicator following afterward.

I haven't had time to check the fuses which I'm going to do as soon as I get a chance tomorrow. With that said, what kind of bulbs do these use that would work or are compatible with our vehicles?


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smj999smj
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Postby smj999smj » Tue Mar 14, 2017 8:39 pm

I can't tell you what LED bulbs you need, but, I have heard of people with issues using them on these vehicles and it does sound like you burnt out a fuse. Brake lights use a different fuse than the markers.

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underworld1001
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Joined: Sun Nov 27, 2016 9:05 pm
Location: Austin, TX

Postby underworld1001 » Tue Mar 21, 2017 5:38 pm

Figured I'd update this post. Apparently the LED's that I put in there blew the fuse. If I remember correctly it was fuse F7 and it was a 10amp located in the square fuse box closest to the passenger firewall.

Apparently looking this up, there's a few manufacturers that use a special kind of LED. I received these from my brother who used them without issue in his Hyundai Genesis (2013) and Mazda 3 (2015). Supposedly, GM owners have the same issue I had with the cheap eBay LED's.

If you're all curious as to what bulbs you need -- http://www.philipsautolighting.com/ajax_select.php


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