Unhappy with the EP35 LED Flasher Relay

[ToyotaBrah]

I recently installed the EP35 flasher relay on my '01 with LED bulbs on all four sides. The flasher relay definitely helped with the hyperblinking, but it still blinks too fast for me.

Is there any way that I can slow down the blink rate of this flasher? Or can I modify the factory flasher relay to work with the LEDs?

I know some will think this is completely trivial, and I agree, but I want the relay to blink like factory. It will annoy me otherwise.

Thanks

 

[dtc81]

That's interesting because I just installed the same one and mine flashes at the factory speed. I have regular tail lights installed, but led front directionals.

 

[ToyotaBrah]

That's interesting because I just installed the same one and mine flashes at the factory speed. I have regular tail lights installed, but led front directionals.

I'll get a video of mine blinking tomorrow. They definitely blink faster.

#OCDproblems

 

[MasonT4R]

I think the EP35 is mostly suggested for people using a mixture of regular bulbs and LEDs.

An all LED circuit will have less resistance and therefore blink faster. You could solder in some resistors to bring the overall resistance up.

 

[MStudt]

I recently installed the EP35 flasher relay on my '01 with LED bulbs on all four sides. The flasher relay definitely helped with the hyperblinking, but it still blinks too fast for me.

Is there any way that I can slow down the blink rate of this flasher? Or can I modify the factory flasher relay to work with the LEDs?

I know some will think this is completely trivial, and I agree, but I want the relay to blink like factory. It will annoy me otherwise.

Thanks

What exactly do you mean installed on all four sides? The flasher relay is meant to help you front blinkers and flashers. It's not meant to help LED's all around your 4runner. You need to add resisters if you're running that many LED's.

 

[ToyotaBrah]

I think the EP35 is mostly suggested for people using a mixture of regular bulbs and LEDs.

An all LED circuit will have less resistance and therefore blink faster. You could solder in some resistors to bring the overall resistance up.

Ah, that makes sense. I'll give that a try.

What exactly do you mean installed on all four sides? The flasher relay is meant to help you front blinkers and flashers. It's not meant to help LED's all around your 4runner. You need to add resisters if you're running that many LED's.

I have LED bulbs on both front bumper lights and on both rear tail lights turn signals. I have no other LEDs. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

 

[MStudt]

I have LED bulbs on both front bumper lights and on both rear tail lights turn signals. I have no other LEDs. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

You need to add resisters! People have to add resisters when running LED tail lights and an LED 3rd brake light. You're over that already and the flasher isn't going to be able to compensate enough.

 

[TheDurk]

I think the EP35 is mostly suggested for people using a mixture of regular bulbs and LEDs.

An all LED circuit will have less resistance and therefore blink faster. You could solder in some resistors to bring the overall resistance up.

Review your Ohm's Law. An all-LED circuit has more resistance and draws LESS amps. What is happening is that the relay senses the REDUCED current drawn by the LED's and sees that as if there was a blown bulb in the circuit, triggering the fast-blink outage alert circuit. Thus you would solder the resistors in parallel to bring the total resistance DOWN to the level of the original incandescent bulbs.

That said, I'm not sure you can reliably change the EP35 flash rate doing that. There appears to be a variety of types of EP35 flasher relays and approaches for doing it.

Here is one way:

Automotive electronic flasher rate modification.

I'll shut up now since I haven't actually done it.

 

[csp]

Try a different brand of EP35 flasher. They're not all the same other than physical size and blade positions.

 

[MStudt]

Try a different brand of EP35 flasher. They're not all the same other than physical size and blade positions.

Doesn't matter at this point. With the amount of LEDs he's running some resisters need to be added.

 

[slowpoke99]

Doesn't matter at this point. With the amount of LEDs he's running some resisters need to be added.

Agreed! I used led's for my front turn signal lights after building my tube bumper. I ordered a simple pair of resistors for like $10 from Diode Dynamics and wired them in. No hyper flash issues what so ever and still running stock bulbs in the rear.

 

[Jason B]

Ah, that makes sense. I'll give that a try.



I have LED bulbs on both front bumper lights and on both rear tail lights turn signals. I have no other LEDs. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

Then it should work. The relay says for up to 4 leds, right?

 

[csp]

Doesn't matter at this point. With the amount of LEDs he's running some resisters need to be added.

Mine works with LEDs at all four corners (flashes at close to the same rate as stock flasher with incandescent bulbs). That's the part about not all of them being the same that makes a difference. They all have resistors, but not all of them have the same ohms ratings.

 

[ToyotaBrah]

Doesn't matter at this point. With the amount of LEDs he's running some resisters need to be added.

I'm just running front and rear turn signal LEDs. No other LEDs are being used on this truck. I read on this forum in several threads that the EP35 flasher relay is only needed to slow the blink rate, and it did, but I want it slower. If I need resistors to slow the blink rate, then I may mothball the LEDS and revert back to OEM. I just don't want to wire in resistors, it looks cheap to me. /flamesuit on

Here's the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdp__asIy68

Then it should work. The relay says for up to 4 leds, right?

Correct. Hence the reason I went with the relay.