LED BUlbs

I thought about that at first, but the thing is, I dont' think it's possible to place the resistors in the back end of the trunk with the Mazda5. Access to the bulbs is restricted to outside of the actual trunk compartment, I think (i.e. to replace bulbs, you have to remove the taillight assembly.

Anyone with a Mazda5 have any insight to this...?
 
I thought about that at first, but the thing is, I dont' think it's possible to place the resistors in the back end of the trunk with the Mazda5. Access to the bulbs is restricted to outside of the actual trunk compartment, I think (i.e. to replace bulbs, you have to remove the taillight assembly.

Anyone with a Mazda5 have any insight to this...?

the resistors go parallel to the brake light bulb on the wiring. all you need access to are the brake light wire and a ground wire. it has nothing (well, almost nothing) to do with the bulbs.
 
I installed the new tail/brake-light LEDs yesterday on my 2006 Mazda5, as well as license plate LEDs, and the cruise control is still working fine. I wonder if this is either because my LEDs are of the "error-free" type or if the cruise control's functionality is not dependent upon the amount of current drawn by the taillights at all. I'm glad I don't need to worry about adding resistors for the taillights.

It'd be nice if I can get away with the same thing for front and rear signal lights if I were to convert those to LEDs too, since I'm still unsure of where to safely secure a pair resistors to eliminate hyper-blinking. The brake light wiring on the Mazda5 doesn't seem to route through the trunk cabin as in most sedans, and there doesn't seem to be much room in the taillight housing, either, which by the way, is highly composed of ABS plastic and won't be ideal for fastening something that's expected to become really hot during normal usage.

If anyone with a Mazda5 knows where might be a good place to add resistors, please let me know. Thanks!
 
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looks great, but just wanted to let you know that you probably could've gotten them for cheaper at autolumination.com ive gone to them for all my lighting needs, great company and customer service
 
on my protege, i stuck the resistors on a blank panel in the trunk and ran wires to the signal wires. on the 5, you could probably find a bare spot under one of the panels in the back. it might take some digging, but i think you could find a place.

one other thing for those that are replacing their tail lights: on my protege, i needed in also install a resistor on the tail light circuit in order fro the cruise control to work properly. i would double check your cruise operation after installing the led tail light bulbs to make sure it still works correctly. if the only thing you change is the tail light bulbs to led, and the cruise STOPS working, thats probably why.



Hey, Thanks for the heads up on the brake light resistors for the tail light leds. A few questions though... How many resistors did you splice in to get the cruise control working again? One for each 7443 tail light led bulb, or just one resistor on either side 7443 bulb? And also, how many ohm resistor did you use? 3ohm or 6ohm? Thanks for your time and input... Considering going with tail light leds, but don't want to mess up my cruise control in the process.
 
That's odd. I be had LED bulbs in my tail lamps and my cruise has always worked without any resistors. Maybe the Protege is different but as far as I knew cruise cancellation occurs through the brake switch not the actual bulbs.
 
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