Turn signal strangeness - what is the cause?

[TR4nut]

I am sorting out a few electrical issues in my TR4 that cropped up while I had the car in storage.

For my left side turn signals, they work, but they cycle very rapidly, at least 2 or 3 times as fast as the right side. Is rapid blinking a sign that I'm drawing more current than I should, or is it still just something like a poor ground?

Thanks,
Randy

 

[prb51]

My truck lights do this when I hook up my horse traler. The blinker switch is receiving more electrical drain/heat and heats up and 'breaks' quicker than normal.
Are you using new hotter bulbs?

 

[TR3driver]

I believe it depends on which flasher you have. Some of them flash quickly for a burned out bulb (too little load) while others flash slowly (or not at all) with too little load.

 

[DougF]

I would clean all of the connections left and right; front and rear, including tail light bodies and sockets. Once everything is clean, apply dialectric grease to all cleaned surfaces. Make certain too that the flasher body is making good contact to the holder, and the holder to the body.
I believe that fast blinking is caused by corrosion.

 

[Brosky]

Usually, and I repeat usually, when you add additional lighting such as a trailer, you have to compensate by adding a "heavy duty" flasher of sorts.

BUT, the faster blinking under this additional load is generally on all of the lights, not just one side, so the corrosion and connection checking that Doug refers to is probably the best advice to follow.

If that doesn't help, it certainly can't hurt and you will probably see all of the lights go brighter.

 

[TR4nut]

Thanks for the comments. The puzzler for me is that the blinker lights are bright on both sides. I may have a different bulb or something in one of the sockets and I am overdue for applying dielectric grease on the connections.

Randy

 

[Tomster]

Did you install any LED lamps? With their low current draw you may see erratic flasher behavior

 

[Adrio]

I just went through some thing like this on my TR3. If you have a stock mechanical flasher that heats up to open the circuit, then your fast side is drawing more current then your slow side. Take a digital multimeter and measure the resistance on one side then the other (hook the meter up at the flasher unit with the flasher removed and then turn the switch from left to right to measure the two). You will see the difference right away. Start removing bulbs to find the one that is giving you the lower resistance that is causing the higher current.

I spent a lot of time with this one mostly because I was curious. If I wanted to just 'fix' the propblem I would have just replaced all the bulbs first since they are cheap, then trouble shoot. That is my advice.

 

[TR4nut]

No to LED lights, as far as I know at this instant all the bulbs are the same.

Great information and potential diagnostic on the resistance at the flasher location, thanks!

Randy

 

[Dennis]

From what you said about the brightness of the bulbs. I would definitely see if they are the correct bulbs, corrosion usually adds resistance. They might be presenting more load then normal for the flasher and causing it flash faster. A Bulb with a short will cause it to be extremely bright and cause it to blink very fast, so if that is your symptom just replace the brightest bulb. Adrio explained how it works pretty well, it's a matter of resistance...
Dennis

edit: You could also have the opposite issue of the flasher itself being the problem if you have the correct bulbs.

 

[TR4nut]

Just an update - that was easy, pulled the front light cover and saw a pretty small bulb the previous owner had put in. Popped in a new one, and problem solved. Sorry, should have tore into it before I asked - but I was leaping to my main worry that I had a short somewhere causing the trouble.

Randy

 

[DNK]

No don't apologize. Think about the help you gave the rest of us!

 

[prb51]

Randy,
What Don said.
If I ever have the same issue I'll have a starting place. Always good to have a brain teaser and I suspect the electrical issues are the ones we have the most diff with.