'01 PF -- Using the turn signals cancels cruise control.

I've got an '01 Pathfinder. When I use the turn signals or the four-way flasher, cruise control gets canceled.

Here's the scenario: about two weeks ago, I replaced the stop/tail bullbs and four of the nine bulbs in the third brake light with LEDs. No problem. Last Thursday, I replaced the last five bulbs in the third brake light (they'd been back ordered). Driving to work on Friday, the cruise control was canceling every time I used the turn signals. Saturday morning, when I checked the lights on my boat trailer (salt water and electricity don't mix, so they get tested every time I hitch up), I noticed that the four-way flasher was very dimly flashing the third brake light. And when I ran a test, the four-way flasher cancelled cruise control.

This was off the wall enough that I thought I'd pass along the bug and the fix: SOMEPLACE there's a very small leakage current from the turn signals to the brake lights. When the incandescents were installed, Ohm's law (incandescents are at least close) applied, and the very small leakage meant a very small voltage drop across the brake lights. But with all LEDs, the forward voltage of five or six LEDs in series (say, 8 or 9V) was enough to convince the cruise control that the brakes were on. The fix was to put one incandescent back in the third brake light.

Chuck Tribolet

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Chuck Tribolet
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