Hyper flash is the bane to many driver’s existences.
You know you’re seeing hyper flashing vehicles when you see LED lights that are blazingly bright flash at record speeds that distract your attention from the road.
Many people hate hyper flash but some don’t mind it on their vehicles. Which brings the question: Is hyper flash illegal or harmful?
Let’s first dive into what hyper flashing is and how it impacts you or other drivers.
What is Hyper Flashing?
Hyper flashing is commonly associated with the problems of having LED lights for your blinkers.
These blinkers are incredibly bright and serve their purpose of catching the attention of other drivers well. But, after some time, they may fall victim to hyper flashing issues.
Typically, hyper flashing is regarded as when your blinkers are flashing around 105-115 times per minute.
This will cause a variety of issues for other drivers on the road and may even be illegal.
Is Hyper Flashing Illegal?
The Department of Transportation requires all vehicles’ turn signals to flash at a maximum of 120 times per minute. Depending on how much of an issue your hyper flashing is, you may be breaking the law. However, this usually only becomes a problem when your LED lights start to malfunction and create issues.
Sometimes manufacturers will produce headlights that are intended to hyper flash. These are legal and may be used as they’re not going to go past the 120 times/minute mark. However, you will annoy others on the road.
If you’re experiencing headlights that are hyper flashing, ensure that they’re not blinking more than 120 times a minute to be on the legal side. You can get more details on the ins and outs of vehicle light laws within the DOT.
Is Hyper Flashing Harmful?
The short answer is yes, hyper flashing is harmful. However, it’s not incredibly harmful to you. It may put a slight strain on your lights that will wear them down faster, but it won’t significantly affect you otherwise. The real issue with hyper flashing lights comes with their effect on other drivers.
Hyper flashing lights are known to be extremely distracting for other drivers and may cause a serious accident and/or injury by taking their eyes off the road.
It’s also a giant beacon for any law enforcement officers in the area. You’ll likely get picked on more using hyper flashing blinkers.
How to Fix Hyper Flashing
If your blinkers begin to show signs of hyper flashing, don’t fret. There are multiple easy fixes so that you can stay safe on the roads.
Load Resistors
This is, by far, the most common way to fix your hyper flashing lights.
Load resistors are meant to be a resistor that is put between the positive and negative wires of the LED turn signal wiring. This creates a bridge between the two wires and will ultimately raise the load for the entire circuit.
This will generally fix most issues with hyper flashing lights. However, some people tend to avoid this method because you’ll have to do some wiretapping.
The wires can become extremely hot when they’re operating because of the electrical resistance that they create. You’ll have to mount these to a metal surface.
Adjust Your Resistance and Draw Requirements
This solution is easy but may not be a method everyone can use.
In modern times, many European vehicles and some newer models of vehicles have the ECU to control flashing and blinking lights. European vehicles will also have a system that monitors the draw and resistance of bulbs. These systems are used to warn the driver when they’re not properly functioning.
If this happens, you’ll more than likely receive an error message.
A quick way to alleviate the error message, as well as the hyper flashing, is to change the resistance and draw of the turn signal. You can accomplish this by using aftermarket car computer software.
This will fix the error message and your hyper flashing at the same time.
It’s an incredibly easy and user-friendly fix, but it may not work in all vehicles.
Use a Plug and Play Load Resistor Harness
Using a plug and play load resistor harness will function more or less the same as the stereotypical load resistor.
They both work and are great solutions to the problem, but the plug and play resistor load harnesses are much easier to use for the average Joe.
These are pre-wired to specific socket size. Once you know the socket size that your vehicle requires, all you’ll have to do is “plug and play.” You won’t have to tap any wires with this method so it’s a great option for those wary of using a standard load resistor.
The only downside is that these harnesses are universal and may not fit all vehicles. They’re also designed using a 3-ohm resistor instead since they’ll be right next to the pre-wired wires and can’t overheat or melt.
You’ll also have to mount these to metal still.
Use a Thermal Flasher Relay
More often than not, your vehicle will come with a relay that coordinates the flashing speed of your turn signals. This is the direct root of how your hyper flashing issues arise.
These factory flasher relays are normally designed to operate with a regular, plain old incandescent filament bulb. This is going to be your biggest issue with this fix because your hyper flashing problem will arise from LED lights.
You’ll have to fix this using an aftermarket thermal flasher relay that is designed to operate with aftermarket LED replacement bulbs.
It’s similar to the plug and plays load resistor harness in that it is also plug and play. You won’t need to do any fancy adaptations to make this work. It also won’t get hot so you can save the tips of your fingers for another day.
However, if you’re using a newer model vehicle, this may not be the solution for you. This is because many of the newer vehicles don’t use a flasher relay to coordinate the LED corner lights.
Instead, these newer vehicles will use their Electronic Control Unit to communicate with your flashers.
If you find yourself in this scenario, refer back to the previous method of controlling the draw and resistance of your blinkers through your ECU using aftermarket software.
Replace Your Electronic Flasher
In the end, this may be the final solution to ensuring that your hyper flashing issues are gone.
To find out if your vehicle has a replaceable electronic flasher, you can easily check yourself.
Start by turning on the hazard switch. You should hear a clicking sound coming from your dashboard. If you don’t hear a clicking sound but a sound more akin to the sound of a fake blinker you’re probably out of luck. Your car most likely doesn’t have a replaceable flasher unit.
The sound should originate from a small speaker that is located in the instrument cluster. It’ll be controlled by the computer.
In some cases, it may be found in the hazard switch itself. If this is the case, you’ll be able to feel it clicking by resting your hand on top of your hazard switch.
If neither of these methods brings you any results, its time to reach under the dash with your hand and start feeling around. You should be able to feel a tapping that is in time with the clicking sound of your hazard switch. If this is where you find your electronic flasher unit, you may need to remove your lower dash to access it.
Once you know that you can access your flasher unit, you’ll need to figure out how many contacts your flasher has. Some flasher units will have two contacts, some will have five contacts. It all depends on the make and model of your vehicle.
Take the time to research and figure out what flasher unit is right for your vehicle before you order away.
Once you’ve got your replacement, installing is easy. Even those who aren’t car-friendly shouldn’t have any issues in replacing the flasher unit. A novice would take roughly 45 minutes to work it out after finding some basic instructions online.
