Issue with LED Tail Light (In-Built Indicators)!!

I am very new to this, and motorbikes in general so I am hoping someone can give me a hand. :thumbup:

I recently got a friend to fit a new brake light with built in indicators to my FZ6, he did a good job, and they worked fine. When riding yesterday I noticed that when I applied the brake while indicating, it blew the fuse and my indicators and tail running light were not wiorking, but brake light was fine when braking.

I changed the fuse, and it works fine, I have tried it since and it does the same thing, just blows the fuse if I brake and indicate at the same time, but braking on its own and indicating on its own is fine.

Any suggestions, I really dont want to go back to my old ones!!!!

Cheers,
Chris

Put in a bigger fuse? Kidding.

Check for a short to ground when braking and indicating. Shorts are the most common reason fuses blow. Or, check that he didn't install the lines for the turn signals backwards. One line should be ground, the other should be power. If he made all the grounds common, but accidently wired "hot" side of the brake light to the turn signal ground (or vice versa), the lights would proabably work individually, but blow a fuse when both were on.

Basically, 99% chance you're chasing a short somewhere. Those suck. Just sayin.

Could you ask you friend how he wired them up and where he is getting power from? It sounds like you indicators are staying on all the time, and when you hit your brakes it's also trying to power the indicators which would instantly pop the fuse.

It sounds like a logic problem to me. That may happen if wired incorrectly and could be defective tail lamp unit electronics. Since it's all LED I think the current draw would be much lower than the original lamps so overload on the fuse is not suspect.
It's repeatable only when the turn signal and brake are on. If any one is (signal or brake) operated by itself the fuse does not blow.

Do not put a higher rated fuse in. LOL! Check wiring and if wiring is good you probably have a bad unit.\

Oh yeah! :welcome: to our great forum!

^^ True - I suspect bad logic/components as and/or miss-wire as some of the newer LEDs are not polarity sensitive. As such, in the wrong direction (even tho it lights) it effectively makes a direct short to ground (its what diodes do, they clamp). Are the same LEDs used for brake and RUN? If so the brake is just a low voltage input but likely creates a path to ground and when the blink comes on it blows the fuse.

I think the current levels are so low the LEDs shouldn't draw more than the incandescent bulbs they replaced. Something else is up!

Can your buddy supply you the colors used and basic schematic of what he did?

Hi All,

Thanks for all your responses, although I have put a new fuse in (not a bigger one), and it is working fine and has been since I posted the first one.

One the day that the fuse did blow, the bike wouldn't start either, which it has never done, it took quite a few attempts to get it going, so I have no idea if that might have had some effect on it!

Anyways, I think it is all okay now, so thanks for you help, if it copmes back I will be straight back on here.

Thanks
CK