T53 Trunk flasher option

This section is for discussion of OEM police package options and police equipment for the Caprice (both OEM and after-market), as well as after-market upfitting perfomed on our cars.
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elc32955
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Re: T53 Trunk flasher option

Post by elc32955 »

I'm an idiot. I know the GM LED lights have internal flashers. Why? The replacement lights I used on my car are basically the same ones found on a lot of garbage trucks, service vehicles, etc... They have internal flashers and are programmable. All the GM T53 relay kit does is provides 12V power either "on" or "off" to the leads going to the lights. If I remember correctly it's switched using the same circuit as the trunk lighting.

It's a shame we don't have the pin-outs on the light boards themselves as I can see through the clear plastic that they are called "GM36BW r2.1" and "GM36RA r2.1". I'll bet dinner at Outback these suckers are programmable for light color and flash pattern, just that we don't know how to do it. The LED light units are listed on the backs as "GM Rebel LED Blue unit, GM 381-2, Kerr SJC19971-B" and "GM Rebel LED Red unit, GM 381-1, Kerr SJC19971-R". The lights themselves have five conductors coming out the rear, Purple, Gray, Green, Black, and White. Looks like based on what I left behind the green and black conductors are used to power the lights, white was cut off. Purple and Gray were shrink-wrapped by Kerr and not used. If anyone has contact(s) at Kerr maybe they'd be nice and send out the instruction sheet on the light heads.

One nice mod to do if you have these lights installed is to put a switch in to kill the flashing. I never did that with mine, if I wanted them off badly enough I pulled Fuse #16 in the left side trunk fuse block. But, I did get tired of the lights going off whenever I'd get groceries. In the parking lot of the store when I popped my trunk lid, the lights I used lit the area in proximity of my trunk up very well. :mrgreen: Kerr does list this as an option in the upfitting guide.

To go all amber, this is what I used in place of the GM stockers; https://www.eccowarninglights.com/produ ... tional-led Many outlets sell these now including Granger, I'm seeing prices of between $30-50 a unit just on a quick Google search. I reversed the GM brackets and mounted the lights directly to them, so in effect I reused all GM components except the OEM Kerr light heads themselves. Dimension-wise they weren't any larger than the older incandescent 9C1 light kit and nothing hit when I closed the trunk, so it was win for me and looked completely OEM. And had a lot more (brighter) LED's than the Kerr units - 52 LED's total per light! Here's how it looked when done (yes I left this pic a little large to show detail);
trunk lights.jpg
trunk lights.jpg (313.49 KiB) Viewed 19672 times
Just some food for thought.

Eric
System Manager and your tour guide for the day. 2015 Caprice w/LFX, former NC DPS staff car. Partial hybrid G8/SS/Camaro SS interior mods, SS MyLink radio upgrade, 2016 Camaro V6 rims, GMPP Malibu chrome exhaust tips, otherwise bone stock for now.
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No Moa
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Re: T53 Trunk flasher option

Post by No Moa »

I'm going to try a white set. Don't need them to flash though. I'll probably remove the flasher unit.
2014 Caprice PPV silver
2017 Ram 3500
2002 CETA trans am
1996 Impala ss (soon to be t56)
1995 9c1
1977 Trans am SE 4spd.
1978 trans am 400 4 spd.
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elc32955
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Re: T53 Trunk flasher option

Post by elc32955 »

It's not a flasher, it's a relay. Remove it, get no worky. Unless the flasher unit you're going to remove is built into your add-on lights.
System Manager and your tour guide for the day. 2015 Caprice w/LFX, former NC DPS staff car. Partial hybrid G8/SS/Camaro SS interior mods, SS MyLink radio upgrade, 2016 Camaro V6 rims, GMPP Malibu chrome exhaust tips, otherwise bone stock for now.
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No Moa
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Re: T53 Trunk flasher option

Post by No Moa »

Sorry relay.
2014 Caprice PPV silver
2017 Ram 3500
2002 CETA trans am
1996 Impala ss (soon to be t56)
1995 9c1
1977 Trans am SE 4spd.
1978 trans am 400 4 spd.
StevenJay
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Re: T53 Trunk flasher option

Post by StevenJay »

Usually with all warning lights you would momentarily apply one of the extra wires to ground or power for 1 second to change the flash patterns. One of the other extra unused wires is used to synchronize the lights to flash together or separately. Code 3 and Whelen LEDs have power, ground, pattern change and synchronization wires. After you scroll through all the patterns they're should be a steady on option where they don't flash and just stay lit.
Steven J.
-2014 Chevy Caprice PPV Pre-Production Pilot vehicle RPO code-Switchblade silver metallic purchased 11/2017
-2017 Chevy Caprice PPV- Switchblade silver metallic-GM Show Car RPO code. purchased 1/2018
CrashTestDummy
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Re: T53 Trunk flasher option

Post by CrashTestDummy »

StevenJay wrote:Usually with all warning lights you would momentarily apply one of the extra wires to ground or power for 1 second to change the flash patterns. One of the other extra unused wires is used to synchronize the lights to flash together or separately. Code 3 and Whelen LEDs have power, ground, pattern change and synchronization wires. After you scroll through all the patterns they're should be a steady on option where they don't flash and just stay lit.
You gotta read their install instructions, or pick the RIGHT unused wire, yep!
Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas
2012 Caprice 9C1
1992 B4C 1LE Camaro
2018 Tahoe PPV (her car)
1995 DGGM Impala SS
1985 Firebird - 310 LS1 C Prepared autocross car.
1980 Bluebird Wanderlodge
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CrashTestDummy
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Re: T53 Trunk flasher option

Post by CrashTestDummy »

CrashTestDummy wrote:
StevenJay wrote:Usually with all warning lights you would momentarily apply one of the extra wires to ground or power for 1 second to change the flash patterns. One of the other extra unused wires is used to synchronize the lights to flash together or separately. Code 3 and Whelen LEDs have power, ground, pattern change and synchronization wires. After you scroll through all the patterns they're should be a steady on option where they don't flash and just stay lit.
You gotta read their install instructions, or pick the RIGHT unused wire, yep!
But yeah, that's the way my 8EVP warning lights work. Turn them on, and they're using the last pattern that was on when they were turned off. Momentarily-ground the brown wire (going from memory here), and the pattern/light color changes. Wash, rinse, repeat until you get to the pattern/color you want. I will be using mine as a driving light 99% of the time.
Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas
2012 Caprice 9C1
1992 B4C 1LE Camaro
2018 Tahoe PPV (her car)
1995 DGGM Impala SS
1985 Firebird - 310 LS1 C Prepared autocross car.
1980 Bluebird Wanderlodge
And some others
Do YOU have my SPID?
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