Is an incadescent test light really that unsafe?

[Josh G]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen scannerdanner use an LED test light, in fact, I remember him saying one time that he prefers the incandescent type. And I also feel there are advantages.

Danner seems confident that you can’t ruin a computer with less than 200-300mA that the test light draws

What about airbags. I’ve heard a test light can set those off, but what would you actually have to do with it to make that happen…jump the power and ground with your light????

Found a video where he talks about it

Topic

[Kevin Criswell]

I have to agree with him. I never switched over when everyone else was running to get LED lights. The current draw of a regular test light is well below the threshold of the under hood electronics. I personally feel if the underhood electronics was so fragile we would see scores of burned up ECMs. I very well may be wrong, but experience has showed me that ECM take a lot of abuse in the field heat/cold, vibrations, electrical surges (the alternators output is in what electrical engineers call “dirty” , heck the alternator sends surges of a/c current into the system naturally as as they get old and start to fail they can send lots of A/C current into the ECM.

[Josh G]

Well said! I think a lot of the hype has been created by the manufacturers of the LED test lights.

[Author]

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