03 tahoe LED dome light

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chauncey0337

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Bill it's not difficult at all. I think it looks confusing because of all the existing wires. All you need to bring up to the lights is one constant 12v and then run that 12v parallel to the rest of the lights using diodes to prevent back feed. Not sure if you've seen Chris' video yet, but it really is a simple mod!
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BillBlatt18

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Update! Ordered some "canbus" LEDs from eBay. Canbus LEDs are basically LEDs with built in resistors so naturally I figured this would work since they give he bulb the 12volts they need. Well......THEY WORK!!! Full brightness when switch on! So if you want to put in LEDs without having to do any wiring and not have this problem you just need t make sure you order CANBUS LEDs

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Rivieraracing

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Update! Ordered some "canbus" LEDs from eBay. Canbus LEDs are basically LEDs with built in resistors so naturally I figured this would work since they give he bulb the 12volts they need. Well......THEY WORK!!! Full brightness when switch on! So if you want to put in LEDs without having to do any wiring and not have this problem you just need t make sure you order CANBUS LEDs

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Can't believe out of all the talk about adding resistors, nobody brought up that there even was such a thing as a canbus LED bulb that had a built in resistor?!?!?!? I'm all new to this LED bulb stuff and if I'd known that there even was such a thing, I would have tried that first to see if it worked!!
Glad through the messaging between Bill and I about how to do the mod, he mentioned about the bulbs and that he was gonna try a cheap one and see if that solved the problem!!

But oh well, at least someone tried one and confirmed that the resistor trick would work, now there are a couple options to fix the dimming problem!!

Thanks again everybody, nice to see many smart minds all working together to solve one problem and be able to find different ways to make it work!!
 

Rivieraracing

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Well, got my canbus 194 bulbs in today for my first and second row dome lights, hoping to install them and disable my mod to see if indeed the canbus is the ticket to all the fiasco within the next day or 2!! If it solves the problem, then I will uninstall my fix and roll with them!! Stay posted!!
 

Rivieraracing

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Well, after all that has gone on in this thread, when it's all said and done, the canbus bulb solved the dimming problem!! hahaha!! I have tested it by leaving a regular bulb in one of the lights and the other to the canbus bulb, the regular one comes on dim but as soon as you turn the canbus one on, then it will go bright!! I have tested this 3 times tonight and it has worked flawless everytime!!

So....... for whomever reads this thread and wants to get LED's for their truck and don't wanna have the dimming problem on the dome lights that can be turned on manually with their separate buttons on the light itself, get the canbus version of the bulb you need for that light!! So in my case in my denali, I needed to get (4) canbus style 194 bulbs (2 for the front dome lights and 2 for the second row) and if I wanted to fix my vanity mirror dimming problem I would need to get canbus style festoon bulbs for them!!

So, to sum it all up, to get a dim free truck interior when switching to LED's, be sure to order the Canbus style bulbs for any lights that you can manually switch on separate from the rest and get the regular ones for everything else!!
 
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Rivieraracing

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Glad it worked for you Chris. None the less, it was a fun journey, lol.

It was a journey alright, still trying to figure out how much fun it was!! hahaha

Glad the bulbs work, gonna take out my fix in the next day or so, don't need it anymore!
 

Tahoewhat

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I knew if i just waited on you chris, you would have a good easy solution to this, w/ no wires and all that having to be ran.

is there a way to tell if a LED is a canbus style? I have a bunch laying around.
 

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