well. I was hoping to spend more time on this and give a lot of detail. but to be honest at the end of this, well almost end, one more flasher is on its way from the UK, but at this point I dont have much hope for anything positive to say about that one either, judging by what I have found.
My goal was to find a 3 prong flasher that would let me put LED bulbs in all four corners and work like normal. And by work I mean flash correctly and seem reliable. I wasnt even opposed to the flasher with a ground lead. but I wanted to find a flasher relay that didnt require load resistors or re-wiring anything in the car. so for this test its only flashers and bulbs, no add ons to make it work.
For the test, I have a mid 69 Series 2 car that has original wiring and bulbs throughout the dash and signals. I bought the 28 LED red lamps for the rear 1156 and 1157 bulb replacements. I then bought the smaller 18 LED ambers for the front 1156 positions. I bought them from Superbrightleds.com. I understand different LEDs may give different results so take what I am about to say for what its worth, just my experience with what I bought. your results/experience my differ.
I tried to buy a few of the flashers recommended or brought up here on the forum.
here are the four FLASHERS I tried out
on the left is the flasher from Superbrightleds.com. It is NOT pin compatible and will not work as delivered. (if you want to know why or how to make it work, email me)
Second from the left is the NAPA EL-13. It will only work with LEDs in the back. but you must have incandescents up front and in the dash display light. The next issue I have with this design is it uses a transistor to switch the dash light bulb, too much current or a short circuit and you have no dash light. mine no longer works. I purposely hooked up two mini bulbs to see what would happen, and it promptly fried. I suppose this flasher would work with load resistors on the signals, but since mine crapped out so quick I will never know. not impressed.
Third from left is the XKS.com flasher. Again, it will only work reliably with and LED/incandescent combo, and again, incandescent on the dash bulb only. but, it uses the relay to power each bulb, in a wig-wag variation, dash on, signals off and vice versa. It IS a pin compatible three prong drop in relay. no ground wire and no funny business, as long as there is sufficient load. SO, if you want four corners of LEDs, this one is the best bet but you will need load resistors. If you just run LEDs in back and need a good flasher, this one wins.
on the right is the CEC EF-33RL. it is pin compatible, does need a ground and will run all LEDs.
but, it too uses a transistor to power the dash light. after about 3 flashes the dash light now remains onā¦ ALL THE TIME. I say this relay wins the prize for failing the fastest. makes no sense either, I didnt short it or purposly try to burn it up. was really hoping this one was the answer.
But it has an annoying way of continuing to flash about three times past turning off the signals. ( or in my case clicking the relay )that would have annoyed me anyway.
As for four way flashers. none of the three worked with ALL LEDās and even with incandescents up front the XKS buzzes like a chainsaw even when off. So its not the answer if you go all LED.
Having said all that. what does work is the superbright flasher AFTER I opened it up and re-wired it, tied the lamp and pilot ( dash) lights together and provided a ground pigtail. now it works no matter what. but as pointed out on the other topic, it flashes the same regardless of 1 or 4 bulbs. you would only know one is not working by looking.
The XKS flasher is about the best design right out of the box, they all use what I would consider small relays, so what the life expectancy of the contacts inside them is debatable. They claim up to 25 amps , but for how long. The XKS uses a simple two transistor circuit to time the flashes and the relay handles all the loads. definitely more robust than the Napa/CEC.
So for now, I am going to stick with LEDS in back, incandescents up front and incandescents in the dash. I can use my modified Superbright relay, or the XKS. the other two are soon to be in the landfill. And I can still use a Signal Stat 180 for the four ways as it works with the combo of lights.
Sorry this isnt as detailed as planned, I was really hoping for better results. personally, if I were to recommend a solution, add the load resistors and use the most robust old school flasher you can get to work. if you have to buy a reliable new style flasher, spring for the XKS.com unit.
again, these are just my miscellaneous findings and ramblings. maybe someone has better luck with some of these relays or can offer input on a different brand of LED. but again, my purpose was to compare some relays using drop in LEDS. not something I have to cut and re-wire or modify the car.
Bob F
But thank you for all the work you did. It has saved all of us a lot of frustration as we try to improve the visibility to others of our cars.