Its just simple voltage bleed over from the coutesy lighting.. You don't see it with the stock as a bulb requires much move voltage to light up.

There is no issue with the APC unit. Its just like any LED on a circuit. If you unplug a device with an LED lit, most devices will still have the LED lit for a small amount of time and it will slowly dim out. The stored up charge is enough to keep an LED lit as it requires vey little power. If you want to stop it you can play around with a resistor and it will absorb the leaked current.


Anyone that even could think its an issue with the APC is an idiot and knows nothing about electronics...

Also depending on how the ground leads work for the bulbs on the courtesy lighting it could bleed some current to the LEDS that you would not see with a bulb and is a non issue.

 

How nice of you to chime in with this NEEDLESS comment 40 posts into the thread of which you posted ZERO information in previously. It's called diagnosing a problem. As you can read in previous posts, it took a little while just for someone to figure out that only the 07's were having the issue, and then possibly relate that to the courtesy lights as being the reason for the problem.

I bet if you were on this thread from the get-go, you would have originally thought it was a bad LED unit as well.

If it's an issue with the car being an 07, I would think that any LED third brake light would have the issue. After all, all's you're doing is plugging in to the factory harness.

 

That would be a NO!!! I am not a tool like you that could not buy a CLUE!!

How anyone think a defective LED could ever be the reason why its staying lit is beyond me.. Anything staying lit is obviously because of voltage still coming over a line.. And anyone that had a clue would have just pulled out a meter and used that to diagnose the issue..

Then again expecting someone like you to use brain power is the real issue.. I must have been out of my mind thinking that you could use common sense..

 

Well then where was this response last week when Blitz was looking for it. Instead, you let a question remain open for a week, and then give a smart-*** response and OFFEND everyone that was actually TRYING to help a fellow forum member out... and you have the gall to call me a tool

 

Well there is the fact that the forums has been down the last 15 out of 20 times I have tried to access it. So I have not spent much time looking thru the threads as its been down most nights

 

Touche'

 

Wow... talk about an insulting post from someone who knows NOTHING about diagnosing a problem, and hasn't seen the gist of the PMs and exchange of information even prior to the inception of this thread.

How do YOU know that a resistor isn't ALREADY in the APC unit and is shorted out, allowing "bleed" to occur and light the unit? (and therefore is a defect?) You DON'T.

So why don't you run along now and leave the diagnosis to those who at least want to DIAGNOSE and UNDERSTAND the problem instead of throwing out useless and banal insults.

What a putz.

 

Like I said not a Fing clue....

The APC unit can not generate current.. So when the brakes are supposed to be off the the APC can not malfunction and cause the LEDS to light up. The 3rd brake light has no switch in it to turn the lights on, it has no always on current running to it..

The reason its lit is that current is being supplied to it from the cars wiring..

As I already pointed out if you have half a brain the first thing anyone would have done is pulled out a multimeter and put ot to the 3rd brake light leads and measured any voltage on them.

 

Hmmm... not my intention to take part in a flame war here and get this thread locked.

Just to inform the uninitiated, one of our first thoughts was "bad ground" causing the courtesy lights to spill over into the third brake light and making it light up. The 30 minutes of being the brake light being lit is an important clue.

I offered to put a VOM on my 2005 and also meet up with Bill to put my VOM on his wiring and swap out my APC for his as a test. He's busy and can't do it right now - fair enough. Running a VOM would tell us if there was voltage in the line that is supposed to be dead except when the brakes are being depressed.

What we DON'T know at this time is if there is voltage present ALL of the time and that the APC unit is designed to filter this "stray" voltage out normally, since we have not yet done the VOM check.

Light bulbs WILL light up even in an undervolt situation, so it is possible that Bill would have seen his brake light illuminated (albeit dimly) with the stock setup prior to the installation of the LED unit.

Since he didn't notice this before, the jury is still out as to what exactly the problem is.

Bottom line is WE DON'T KNOW YET. More information is needed!

NO ONE has suggested that the LEDs are spontaneously lighting up for no reason and THAT is the defect, except for VSOP. So I'm going to take the high road here and ignore the juvenile insults.

Peace out.

 

Joe....just wanted to say thanks......

Thanks for figuring out that I could reuse the all-red OEM lens with the APC unit.

Thanks for figuring out that the LED's will finally go out when the safety shutoff kicks in after 30 minutes.

Thanks for figuring out that the reason the LED's continue to glow is not necessarily because the light was energized, but rather because you've activated an other electrical source within the car.

Thanks for trying out the APC unit in another '07.

Thanks for talking to the distributors in finding out what the problem is and making them aware that the APC's will only work correctly with 05-06 Mustangs.

I don't know what I would have done without your help!!!

And the fact there isn't a problem with the APC light??......there is a problem when I have to be the one to add a resistor to make the light work correctly. That's their job, not mine. How about if when you bought your Xcal2, all the LCD segments on the display were energized and you couldn't read the display??....hey, but playing around with some different resistors would solve the problem.

Let me know when you figure out why our LED instrument panel doesn't continue to glow for 30 minutes after we turn the car off. Thanks.

 

Spent 20 minutes last night writing a full-on report, tried to post and got a message saying repairs on the site being done...very frustrating!!

Limited time this morning so here is the bottom line:

-Nano Sport very helpful...called and told me they learned APC did not "test" the LED light on "07's

-tried the LED @ dealer on a '06....no glow!

-talked to electrical tech...he did not know specifically what changed for '07's, but suggested the SJB was "reading" that the ""bulb was not grounding properly and the circuit was not complete....dunno how all this works but clearly something changed for '07!!

-Not clear that a resistor will solve the problem, although the tech thought it might.......assuming one wants a "hot" , as in temperature, resistor in the trunk!

-APC is clearly out of business...and no wonder!

-Would,'t be nice if FORD equips the '08's with an LED...something they should have already done!

 

Sorry about the double post.....apparently TMS having lots of technical problems!!

Spent 20 minutes last night writing a full-on report, tried to post and got a message saying repairs on the site being done...very frustrating!!

Limited time this morning so here is the bottom line:

-Nano Sport very helpful...called and told me they learned APC did not "test" the LED light on "07's

-tried the LED @ dealer on a '06....no glow!

-talked to electrical tech...he did not know specifically what changed for '07's, but suggested the SJB was "reading" that the ""bulb was not grounding properly and the circuit was not complete....dunno how all this works but clearly something changed for '07!!

-Not clear that a resistor will solve the problem, although the tech thought it might.......assuming one wants a "hot" , as in temperature, resistor in the trunk!

-APC is clearly out of business...and no wonder!

-Would,'t be nice if FORD equips the '08's with an LED...something they should have already done!

 

One last item....thanks to all who have been so generous with their time and thoughts....and especially to Art who offered to meet to swap mand test the light with his '05.

 

Suggestion: see if you can find the website for "EAGLE EYES", as they seem to have been the manufacturer for the LED

sorry I didn't think of this before. But, doing a quick google search only yielded the sunglass company So, you might have to spend a little time doing some more research on it

 

OK, talked and actually met with IPCW today, including their CEO. As I and others have previously stated, the IPCW LED's just don't seem to look right on the Stangs, and I told them that (in a polite way) Extremely receptive to the idea of a red lens.

FYI, their LED's are manufactured and assembled very differently than APC's, or Eagle Eyes (Mike...I too could not track them down) Much better quality plastic, much heavier as well. The whole light assembly sort of fits into a plastic casing.....the lens appears to be part of the assembly, rather than a piece attached with tabs. Also, the IPCW piece "plugs" into the actual light socket, thereby completing the ground circuit and fooling the computer to think that a standard bulb is there.

It is possible Eagle Eyes, which mass produces a lot of LED's will find another distribution path now that APC has apparently gone under.

Last point.......it is not a good idea to run the APC version on the '07's, even if the lingering light doesn't bother you....it will eventually impact the computer (SJB) and possibly other functions like the cruise control.

I will update as I learn things....they said about a month for a prototype.

 

That's how my APC LED attached as well. Huh

BTW, thanks for the update

 

Mike..was it a male/female socket (connector) or actually into the bulb socket itself?? The APC I've been "working with" had a connector...???

 

Just wanted to toss in my 2 cents. I have a pretty strong electronics background and I came to pretty much the same conclusion as vsop did but the difference is that I felt NO need to call ANYONE an idiot. vsop - just because someone doesn't have knowledge of electronics does NOT make them an idiot. Chances are the people who you reffered to as idiots are very knowledgable about some things that you know nothing about. So does that give them the right to call YOU an idiot?
This forum is here for people to help each other. Please keep an open mind and keep your emotions in check.
Thank you.

 

I see what you are saying with plugging it into the bulb socket itself.

I'm pretty sure my APC was like yours: a connector that plugged into the the factory HARNESS. Just disconnect the old unit, and reconnect the new one (like removing a headlight with the bulb in the assembly still)

 

Well if anyone has the apc for there 07 and cant use it, pm me, I have an 06 and it sounds like it will work with that. Thanks