Side marker/signal lights

[Cecil Cunningham]

At camp the other night I noticed both of my rear side marker/signal lights were glowing very slightly. I removed the cover and found only 1 of 9 LED bulbs was illuminated. I don't think either was fully illuminated just a glow. I tried my signal lights and all signal lights front rear and sides worked perfectly. I checked voltage on the 2 offenders and didn't see any voltage.
Has anyone seen anything like this before?

[pauleburgess]

Is your retarder switched on? (Actually that illluminates the brake lights...) Probably a ground... Always a ground.

[Cecil Cunningham]

Oh my, i dont know. Ill check when i get back to the coach tomorrow.

[pauleburgess]

My 6 year old son has some shoes that have LEDs in them, and even when turned off, they have a faint glow. I don't know if it is from capacitance in the switching circuit or if there is inductance from a nearby circuit, but I think I know the effect. Any idea if there are capacitors in the LED module, possibly to filter power to the module? If so, they will keep charge and slowly discharge through the LED circuit.

[rshrimp]

Here is what I learned about 12v auto circuits and LEDs.
First: There are phantom currents all over the place. Usually only a few millivolts/milliamps
Second:These phantom currents will cause LEDs to glow but incandescent bulbs will just run these currents to ground.
Most automotive LED's have a load resister built in but some do not.
If the glow bothers you, you can add a resister to ground. If you do this use the highest value that will work. (stop the glow) Normally somewhere between 100 and 1000 Ohms.
Normally, if you just install the resister in one of them it will solve the issue on the entire circuit. On a 12v circuit, 2 watt resisters are safe down to 100 ohms.

[Cecil Cunningham]

Paul retarder awitch is in off position. Ill keep looking.

[Cecil Cunningham]

Randy ill try adding a resistor. Thank u for your help