Replacement flasher for high current draw
Hi all. I have replaced my rear tail lights with a halogen replacement bulb
That's not as good an idea as it might seem. Most of the halogen replacements for 1157s are relatively slow to come up to full intensity, because of their much higher wattage than a standard bulb -- typically 50/15w (bright/dim) rather than the stock 27/8w. Not only does this louse up the bright/dim intensity ratio as has already been correctly pointed out, but you are throwing a ~100% overload on wires that were marginally adequate for the standard-wattage bulbs, so there's going to be a lot of voltage drop and a lazy rise time. You want your brake lights to come up to full intensity
fast, not slow; the faster they rise to full brightness, the more time the distracted cow on her celphone in her SUV taking the kids to soccer has to notice you, put down the Big Mac, tell the kids to shut up, and think about stepping on the brake. See
this post for discussion of smarter bulb upgrades.
If you are bound and determined to run the slow-rising halogen bulbs, use an Ideal EL-12 electronic flasher.