Cruise control disabled with hi center brake light LED bulbs

[98SF19]

I stumbled upon this a while back and may have made a mention of it here, but what's the deal with this? I got some red 168 leds and popped them into the hi center brake light pod last night, and CC is disabled this morning. Something similar happened about a year ago, but IIRC, it was an issue with tail lights. At this point, it doesn't seem to matter if tail lights are LED or incandescent (which I currently have, along with turn signal and reverse lights). I do have the adjustable rate flasher installed, which I believe is intended for LED turn signals, but I don't know that this matters since the braking and turn signals are different circuits. I have a few load resistors sitting around, but was intending on putting those in the minivan (which has integrated on-board flasher so no option for LED flasher upgrade). I suppose smaller load resistors might work for the hi center brake lights.

Any thoughts?

 

[rpettey]

Greetings,
I had the same issue; use of leds in high center brake light causes cc to malfunction.
After multiple chats with a ford mechanic and extensive electrical diagnosis, this is what we found.
The cc brake interrupt circuit has a low voltage drain, about .8v.
The leds make the circuit look open and cause the cc contol module to throw error codes. CC would sometimes work, but quickly disengage. Sometimes, it would never engage.
Fix:
I left the rear brake and turn signal leds in, but had to put original non-leds in center brake light.
I use solid state flasher, no resisters on leds.
This is a common design issue; f150 owners have reported same issue.

 

[98SF19]

Thanks for the info!

I use solid state flasher, no resisters on leds.

Sadly, an option no longer available on late models of various makes, as most offer premium packages which include LED lighting and don't want to make it easy for the customer to upgrade for a fraction of what they charge.

My solution for no CC with rear LEDs (work in progress) is to tie in multiple red led circuits to the hi-center lamp wiring with the hopes that it will bring current up to range to fool brake interrupt circuit into thinking everything's aok. This includes an array of red strips under trunk (done, but with lower current strips than I coulda/shoulda used), red strips in rear wheel wells (mostly done), and if I still need more current, a row or two of side-firing red strips along top of rear windshield. Yes, this is the LOOONG way around the problem, but hey, ya gotta keep your ride looking somewhat modern, right?!