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Jeep Wrangler JK: How to Install LED Turn Signal

LED turn signals are a great little modification. This article will show you the simple steps to install LED turn signal lights.

By Jared Hammond - November 25, 2015

This article applies to the Jeep Wrangler JK (2007-Present).

LED lights look great as headlights, but what about as turn signal lights? It's important for other driver's to easily tell which direction you're going in, so installing LEDs makes your turn signals look crisper and cleaner. Installing LED turn signal lights is fairly easy, but it does require an extra step.

Materials Needed

  • 3157 LED bulbs
  • 50W 6ohm load resistors (one for each bulb)
  • Splice tap connectors
  • Small self-tapping screws or zip ties

You can purchase LED load resistor kits that come with everything you need except for the bulb.

Step 1 – Remove old turn signal bulb

The turn signal bulbs are easy to access. Just go underneath the grille and front bumper; you will see the wires and socket for the turn signal bulbs. Twist the socket to remove the bulb from the light housing. Go ahead and pull out the old bulb for now.

Figure 1. Turn signal light socket.

Step 2 – Connect load resistor

If you were to just install the LED bulb outright it would flash rapidly whenever you turned on the turn signal. This is because the LED uses a much lower load than a standard bulb, which makes the computer think that the bulb is out. In order to get it to flash like normal, you'll need to trick the computer by increasing the load.

Figure 2. Load resistor kit.

There should be three wires connected to the light socket. The white wire with the green stripe is your parking light wire, the white wire with a black stripe is the turn signal wire, and the black wire is the ground wire. Take your resistor and use the splice tap connectors to connect the resistor to the turn signal wire and the ground wire. To splice the wires, you slide both wires into the connector and press down on the metal part to crimp the wires together.

Caution

Do not connect the resistor to the green and white parking light wire. If it's connected to the parking light wire, it will quickly heat up and potentially damage the surrounding wires.

Step 3 – Mount the load resistor

You'll want to keep the load resistor separate from your other wires because it heats up whenever the turning signals come on. There should be a couple holes on it that you can use to screw it to the chassis of your Jeep, or you can leave it suspended. You can use zip ties on the wires to keep it from hanging too low.

Figure 3. Load resistor mounted and connected.

Step 4 – Insert the LED bulb

To finish things off, just insert your LED bulb to the socket like you would a standard bulb. Insert the bulb and socket to the light housing, then test the lights. Sometimes the LED won't come on because it was inserted incorrectly. Just take the bulb out and turn it around if this happens.

Figure 4. Enjoy your new turn signal lights.

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