Technostalgia taillights flashing randomly when car is off and locked. What the hell.

[Camaro Dude]

Well ol and behold, I did an experiment and allowed my car to sit for 3 weeks no battery tender.

Battery now is at 1%. This is preposterous!

I guess going on a 2-3 week vacation and leaving the car at say,,,an airport, with these Technostalgia lights installed on the vehicle is completely out of the question. Unless of course you plug into the cigarette lighter, one of them nifty solar powered trickle chargers that I do happen to have laying around somewhere this junk here...

Oh yes btw, the tail lights went berserk as I began to recharge the battery from the magic posts up front in the engine bay. Even the 3rd brake light began to flicker on its own, whilst the charger whirred on.

It all stabilized and settled down once it hit 40% charge...following this closely.

[christianmotox]

Originally Posted by Camaro Dude

Well ol and behold, I did an experiment and allowed my car to sit for 3 weeks no battery tender.

Battery now is at 1%. This is preposterous!

I guess going on a 2-3 week vacation and leaving the car at say,,,an airport, with these Technostalgia lights installed on the vehicle is completely out of the question. Unless of course you plug into the cigarette lighter, one of them nifty solar powered trickle chargers that I do happen to have laying around somewhere this junk here...

Oh yes btw, the tail lights went berserk as I began to recharge the battery from the magic posts up front in the engine bay. Even the 3rd brake light began to flicker on its own, whilst the charger whirred on.



It all stabilized and settled down once it hit 40% charge...following this closely.

You can try and connect the positive cable to a fuse that is only ON when you open the ignition instead of having it connected directly to the battery.
That will solve everyones issues for sure

[Normagene]

Or if you don't want to try and find a fuse you can get a toggle switch for a couple bucks and connect it to the power wire. Then you simply flick the switch and NO Power to the lights. Only problem with this simple solution, if you forget to turn them back on you'll be driving down the road with NO LIGHTS. It's an inexpensive and simple fix, and it would allow you to let the car sit with no worries.


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[Deke736]

Originally Posted by christianmotox

You can try and connect the positive cable to a fuse that is only ON when you open the ignition instead of having it connected directly to the battery.
That will solve everyones issues for sure

Yeah, that is exactly what I recommended! I've had no problems at all after switching the pink wire to a switched power source.

[AKA-22]

every battery tender ive bought comes with two separate ways to connect to the battery direct...there r two plugged drain holes near the rear of car that i used to connect the cords direct to the battery and then plugged into the battery tender from that point under the car,,it works great no problem at all with lights blinking.....now you do understand that key has to be turned OFF before charging ,,,nothing is to be on while charging!!! no open doors nothing!!! solved battery drain !! connect wire using t-tap to positive wire in console next to cigarette lighter run all the way to trunk and connect to positive wire on tachnostagia lights,,light work fine with no drain on battery because technically not on in tell you turn key to on....

[Deke736]

For anyone wanting to tap into a switched power source such as the power outlets in the center console, you can just use an "Add-a-fuse" like the one shown below with the red fuse, to either of the yellow 20 amp fuses shown in the pic below (one of them has a small green wire running to it). This is a picture of the drivers side fuse panel. These are the fuses for the power outlets in the console. This way you won't have to use a t-tap and run the wire through the console or under the carpet.



To get the wire to the trunk, just remove the door trim panel and pop the interior panel loose in the backseat. Once you move the carpet out of the way in the trunk you'll be able to fish it straight through. These panels all pop off very easily and this entire process should only take about 10 minutes from start to finish.

Connect your new wire to the PINK wire that came attached to your Technostalgia taillights and you will have the functionality described in the past few posts and you will get to miss out on all of the fun of a dead battery after your car has sat for a few weeks.

Based on my testing, the taillights (including the hazard lights) will still function normally as long as you turn the headlight switch on manually.

[christianmotox]

Originally Posted by Deke736

Yeah, that is exactly what I recommended! I've had no problems at all after switching the pink wire to a switched power source.

I know right?, and the best part is you don't have to worry about forgetting to switch them off and on.

[camguynj]

Originally Posted by Deke736

For anyone wanting to tap into a switched power source such as the power outlets in the center console, you can just use an "Add-a-fuse" like the one shown below with the red fuse, to either of the yellow 20 amp fuses shown in the pic below (one of them has a small green wire running to it). This is a picture of the drivers side fuse panel. These are the fuses for the power outlets in the console. This way you won't have to use a t-tap and run the wire through the console or under the carpet.



To get the wire to the trunk, just remove the door trim panel and pop the interior panel loose in the backseat. Once you move the carpet out of the way in the trunk you'll be able to fish it straight through. These panels all pop off very easily and this entire process should only take about 10 minutes from start to finish.

Connect your new wire to the PINK wire that came attached to your Technostalgia taillights and you will have the functionality described in the past few posts and you will get to miss out on all of the fun of a dead battery after your car has sat for a few weeks.

Based on my testing, the taillights (including the hazard lights) will still function normally as long as you turn the headlight switch on manually.

Great write up & pics, thanks ! Just courious why you chose a 20amp fuse ?

[Deke736]

Originally Posted by camguynj

Great write up & pics, thanks ! Just courious why you chose a 20amp fuse ?

The 20 amp fuse is for the console outlet and it what was there from the factory. I used a 5 amp for the wire running to the trunk.

If you're not familiar with an "add-a-circuit" it has 2 fuses in it- one fuse is for the original circuit and the other is for your new circuit. I'm not assuming you aren't familiar with these, but I thought it might be helpful to explain how they work. Here is a pic:

[camguynj]

Ah ha! Thanks for explaining & pic. You can assume. BTW ...what do you think of the following PUTCO Hyper Flash LEDs as a way of achieving the "rapid fire" look ? I've searched the forum & Inet and didn't find any 5th gen comments of folks who had them installed.

http://www.pfyc.com/pc/GN1038/G6SRCH...ightBulbs.html

[Deke736]

Originally Posted by camguynj

Ah ha! Thanks for explaining & pic. You can assume. BTW ...what do you think of the following PUTCO Hyper Flash LEDs as a way of achieving the "rapid fire" look ? I've searched the forum & Inet and didn't find any 5th gen comments of folks who had them installed.

http://www.pfyc.com/pc/GN1038/G6SRCH...ightBulbs.html

I'm not familiar with those lights, but for $170 it's not a cheap option. You'll also want to make sure you get the load resistors with them, otherwise your turn signals will blink fast. If you just want the rapid flash for braking these are definitely less expensive than the Technostalgia lights, but the sequential turn signals are one of my favorite features of the Technostalgia.

[Camaro Dude]

I've decided that I want my hazards to function with ignition in off position and key out.
What is the point of hazard lights if you need to keep it in the on position?

My solution is to always keep a solar powered trickle charger in the trunk, in case the car needs to sit somewhere over a week. Just plug in cigarette lighter, use suction cups to stick the solar panel on the windshield, and all is hunky dory again.

Loving my Technostalgia tails once again.

[Normagene]

Originally Posted by Camaro Dude

I've decided that I want my hazards to function with ignition in off position and key out.
What is the point of hazard lights if you need to keep it in the on position?

My solution is to always keep a solar powered trickle charger in the trunk, in case the car needs to sit somewhere over a week. Just plug in cigarette lighter, use suction cups to stick the solar panel on the windshield, and all is hunky dory again.

Loving my Technostalgia tails once again.

Canada ah, and Solar Power??? Does ya keep it next to the Solar Power Snow shovel???

Connected my Battery a Tender Jr three days ago, still has a steady Red Light, how long before it goes green to full charge??? Snow all weekend so who knows how long before I get to go for a spin.


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[Camaro Dude]

Originally Posted by Normagene

Canada ah, and Solar Power??? Does ya keep it next to the Solar Power Snow shovel???

Connected my Battery a Tender Jr three days ago, still has a steady Red Light, how long before it goes green to full charge??? Snow all weekend so who knows how long before I get to go for a spin.


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No.














A solar power snow shovel or blower would need too much current draw……hell even the electric plug in's are too weak

I've used my solar powered trickle charger on my other cars with great success when I go to my summer house in Greece for at least 2 months or so…It is, just a battery after all.