• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

TR2/3/3A Turn signal light up but don't flash

Share this page

deuce

deuce

Senior Member
Country flag
Offline
The turn signal lights on my 1960 TR3a light up but don't flash. I have replaced the brake/running lights with led's. Not sure that's relevant. This is a replacement flasher..the second actually. I thought I got a bad one the first time..same issue. I replaced the old flasher that worked..sort of. When I put the signal on it would flash rapidly and the light on the dash was solid. Turn the signal off and on again and flash was normal speed and the light on the dash worked as it should. Left and right signal the same. It's a new replacement control head that worked fine. Strange..to me. Any ideas out there? Thanks
 
NutmegCT said:
It's common that the old fashioned "standard" flasher won't operate on LEDs; not enough resistance in the LEDs to put the flasher unit in use.

Easiest solution is to leave one or two of the old bulbs in the circuit; hide the bulbs, but they'll operate the flasher unit and the LEDs will flash.

Another solution is an LED friendly flasher unit.


Related: https://www.britishcarforum.com/community/threads/led-turn-signal-panel-flasher-not-working.121604/
Click to expand...
Thanks NutmegCT.. I don't have led turn signal lights installed. Regular old bulbs
 
Probably some bad grounds in the lighting system is your problem. The body grounds blubs, but the blubs sit on a rubber base, so they need a good ground with the mounting screw or a sperate ground to the body . Usually a bad bulb on the front bulb or the back bulb of a light system will cause the one bulb to blink faster.

Steve
 
If the lights are going on solid, no flashing but still bright you don't have a ground problem. I suspect that you have the flasher hooked up wrong--the markings these days are different from the ones in the circuit diagram. Usually they are L,+, and P. L to the lamps, + from the dc source, and P goes to the panel indicator.

Are you sure that you don't have the brake lights and turn signals reversed at the rear light fixtures? That is, the incandescent bulbs connected to the brake wiring and the turn sigs wiring to the LEDs? That would do what you describe.

Still, it's a good idea to make sure all connections--not just grounds--are clean and tight.
 
I thought the running lights and the blinker used the same bulb. I also remember someone saying that led lights needs something special to blink.

steve
 
Sarastro said:
If the lights are going on solid, no flashing but still bright you don't have a ground problem. I suspect that you have the flasher hooked up wrong--the markings these days are different from the ones in the circuit diagram. Usually they are L,+, and P. L to the lamps, + from the dc source, and P goes to the panel indicator.

Are you sure that you don't have the brake lights and turn signals reversed at the rear light fixtures? That is, the incandescent bulbs connected to the brake wiring and the turn sigs wiring to the LEDs? That would do what you describe.

Still, it's a good idea to make sure all connections--not just grounds--are clean and tight.
Click to expand...
I was wondering what the markings on the flasher meant. Thanks . I will double check hookup destinations 'so to speak' , against colors. You wrote " Usually they are **** ". Are these the newer markings or the older style?
And, Thanks to all you guys for reading and responding. Sincerely
 
If you are running all LED bulbs the turn signals require an electronic flasher. The LEDs don't draw enough current to trigger mechanical flashers. I am in the process of converting mine and a friend bought a kit to convert his to LED without any issues. His kit came with a Novita EL13 flasher. This flasher is available from Amazon or Auto Zone. I think I paid around $16 for mine. I hope this helps.
 
The tail lights and turn signals might use the same bulb; I don't remember. But they don't use the same filament. They are entirely separate in the TRs.

In some older cars, like my MGTD for example, the same single-filament bulb is used for brakes and turn signals. When you activate a turn signal, a relay switches off the brake light circuit on that one side and turns on the turn signal. Other cars, including older American cars did the same thing, I think, but not our TRs.
 
See post #2.
 
mikeecampbell58 said:
If you are running all LED bulbs the turn signals require an electronic flasher. The LEDs don't draw enough current to trigger mechanical flashers. I am in the process of converting mine and a friend bought a kit to convert his to LED without any issues. His kit came with a Novita EL13 flasher. This flasher is available from Amazon or Auto Zone. I think I paid around $16 for mine. I hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Thanks.. the only led bulbs are the brake/running lights. Separate from the turn signals. The turn signal lamps are regular old filament bulbs. I switched out the brake lights because a club member said he had trouble seeing the old brake lights in the sunlight.
 
I'm swapping them all for safety reasons and I put dual filament sockets in the turn signal positions so they can be a brake/turn signal combination giving me 4 brake lights. In a world of large SUVs I want as much visibility as possible.
 
Back
Top