[Konnerfallos1]

I'm in need of some help. I recently bought some smoked GM factory taillights from a friend. We installed them and the white brske light on them is staying on for 10 minutes after the car is shut off and locked (i timed it). I dont think they are supposed to stay on for that long, I believe the timer is like 1 or 2 minutes usually. Anybody know what the issue is?

[kropscamaro16]

oem or led lights?

[Konnerfallos1]

My stock light still has the stock bulb, the new ones I got i believe are LED because they were changed.

[Konnerfallos1]

So the black ones I believe have LEDs and they are the ones that are having the issue.

[kropscamaro16]

sounds like you need this


https://www.gen5diy.com/products/16-...mp-led-harness

[donaldp]

You either need to add a harness or replace the faulty harness you have.

[Warrior102]

Originally Posted by kropscamaro16

sounds like you need this


https://www.gen5diy.com/products/16-...mp-led-harness

This, well known problem with LED reverse lights.

[Konnerfallos1]

So the lights staying on past when you shut the car off is because of the LED light? I still have the factory incandescent lights, if I swapped back to them would it be fixed? If so would the taillight color still be the same or would the colors of the lights change?

[arpad_m]

Originally Posted by Konnerfallos1

So the lights staying on past when you shut the car off is because of the LED light? I still have the factory incandescent lights, if I swapped back to them would it be fixed? If so would the taillight color still be the same or would the colors of the lights change?

Those white LED reverse light bulbs you installed have very low resistance, which causes the standby voltage that is on for 10 minutes after shutdown to drive them enough to illuminate. They are not on at full brightness, though, only maybe at half or one third; if you see something else, then your problem is different.

The harness others recommended installs a resistor inline, which will have a voltage drop sufficient to make the voltage received by the LEDs fall below their activation threshold (hope I'm not mistaken, high school physics classes were waaaay too long ago), and thus they will no longer illuminate unless the car is on and in reverse, when the BCM applies the full voltage. You probably don't want to reinstall those sucky, yellowish, cheap looking halogen bulbs.

TL;DR: if the reverse lights stay on, but dimmer than normal, get the harness and your problem will be solved.