Hey guys, sorry for not being active lately, work was picking up until all of this Coronavirus stuff (hope you all are doing well). I’m kind of stuck on this one.

When the headlights are off, radio is crisp and clear. Running lights on, same thing, crisp and clear. When I turn on the low beams, the radio becomes staticky. (This had me thinking it was a bad ground somewhere with the headlights). But when I turn on High beams, the radio becomes crisp again.

I don’t know if this would have anything to do with it, but the previous owner installed LED headlights into the truck. It’s a whole new fixture, not just bulbs.

any ideas what this could be?

thanks in advance

 

That’s the best picture I have of the aftermarket headlights. They are plug n play, so I don’t think that would be it since there isn’t any cut and spliced wires, but that still might be the problem, I don’t know

 

Do you have the old head lights you could install as a test and see if you still have the same issue?

 

If not at least unplug them one at a time...That could also isolate the lamps themselves as the culprit rather than any related wiring switches or relays......Ben

 

Is the static a random noise or a regular raspy buzz or something like it. It could be from the Pulse Width Modulation of the duty cycle of the lights to dim them on low beam. I have seen this on LED tail lights that use PWM to dim the bulbs when tail and not brake light is applied. It's evident if you film the light with a digital camera such as that in your phone. Try filming your low beams with your phone and see if they pulsate.

Edwin

 

Another good thing to check would be the ground strap on the radio.

 

no, unfortunately I don’t. Previous owner changed them and I’m guessing he got rid of them

 

checked that, seems fine

 

The static is more like when you get out of range of the station you are listening to.

I will have to try the video recording idea

 

LED lights frequently cause this static, when we first converted our tow trucks to LED emergency light bars insteada the old Hologen bubble gum machine lights not only did it interfere with the stereos but ya couldn't use the FM transiever on 3 of our 4 frequencies we are licensed for.. had to put Ferrite chokes on all the power leads, CB radio was really bad and if ya have an amplifier on your stereo it will really e effected...

these are the ones we used

ya gotta put em on the power leads for the stereo do a search on google for LED light interference ya'll get a couple million hits as its a common problem

 

I would also put them on the leads to each light as close to the light as possible. You can put all 3 wires through one choke since the choke is filtering high frequency switching noise.

Makes me like my Hella incandescent lights even more.

Edwin

 

I have noticed no radio noise from my high end Truck-Lites LEDs head lights that I installed on my '91.0 W-250.

 

I got no noise from the Truck-Lite LED's in my '90 either. Just plugged them in.

 

It might be a problem with the cheaper LED light options out there.

I know the Truck-lites where not cheap, but I really like them and would / will buy them again.

 

I just put a set in the 93 and love them. Fixing to by some for the Jeep. Pricey but work really well