Hey guys! I'm new to the forum and this is my first post. I'm pretty far into the build on my '01 XJ. My dad and I have been able to figure everything out on our own, but when it comes to electrical issues we have no idea what to do. I bought an LED flasher relay as well as 3157 amber/white switchback led bulbs and 194 white led bulbs for the front turn signals and side markers. I also bought red, amber, and white 3157s for the rear end. Everything was working awesome as I was testing it out. The lights alternated and functioned properly when the car was off, but as soon as I turn the ignition and start the car, the turn signals no longer work. They will flicker, no switch colors, and not blink. I checked to see where the problem is and no matter what light setting I have the lights on while the car is off they will work fine. When the engine is running and the **** is pushed all the way in (during the day) the turn signals work, but when the lights are halfway in, or the headlights are turned on, they no longer work. I'm just confused as to why they stop working when the engine is on? I don't feel like that should affect anything haha. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

The 194 bulbs for the marker lights they can't be Polarity Sensitive maybe thats your problem , try putting back in the oem bulbs .

 

So, I plugged in the oem bulbs, didn't fix anything. The bulbs I got are the Super Bright LEDs and the ones I got are non-polarity sensitive. I've started noticing other problems. My turn signal indicators on the instrument panel are always lightly dim. When I turn the signal on, they bright up to normal and then go dim again when I turn them off. Maybe my flasher is bad? Idk what the problem is. If I have the engine off and when the night-time lights are off, my blinkers alternate correctly. When I have the night-lights off they blink at the same time. Again, none of this works when the engine is on.

 

You can try the old flasher I think they will blink fast or not at all .

 

When I tried that they didn't work at all. Just stayed on while the flasher buzzed.

 

I use LED lights in front and regular lights in back with LED maker lights in front also with a LED flasher and it works fine .

 

Since you are having the same problem with the OEM lamps your problem, unless you haver several issues is not being caused by LED polarity issues. Sounds like you have a ground issue. Disconnect your battery and try reading continuity with an ohm meter between the body and the negative battery clamp. Check the negative pin on the lamp socket to ground also, All readings should be less than a couple ohms.

Do the flashers work?

 

What do I do if it isn't around 2 ohms? I'm not in an area to check right now. I'll have to do that tomorrow morning.

 

Take apart the connection and clean off the corrosion.

 

Well, just got to trying all the suggestions. I checked the ohms on the battery clamps and turn signals, everything checked out fine. We took the 194s out of the side markers and suddenly the lights started working fine. After messing around with it a little bit I think we blew the flasher relay. After that, no turn signals or hazards would work on the outside or even blink on the instrument panel. Just confused as to why everything behaves normal until I turn the engine on. Going to buy a new led flasher relay and test around some more.

 

I might try to just wire the side marker lights to behave like normal lights instead of blinking. Maybe that'll fix the problem. I'm just not sure where to go from here.

 

Just pull the light bulbs out of the markers and put in the old bulbs and see if they work , if they do maybe you got some bad bulbs

 

Yeah I pulled the 194s out of the side markers and everything behaves like normal.

 

Okay guys, I finally figured it out. I pulled some of the one color LEDs from the rear lights and placed them into the turn signals. Everything now works fine. I'm not sure as to why the switchbacks were causing the all this hassle, but one color LEDs work fine.

 

If you can see this thread, I posted the fix for this. Unfortunately it's not that simple to do:

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f24/fr...ersion-256581/