Wierd Indicator Light

[st11x]

Hi,

I have just acquired a Holden Commodore VC. There's one problem bugging me from day one and I can't seem to get to the bottom of it.

When I step on the brakes with the left indicator on, the rate at which the indicator flashes becomes dead slow. Sometimes, it doesn't flash at all. If I had the headlight turned on as well, it will never flash. The right indicator works fine.

A friend of mine advised me to connect more wires from the -ve connector of the battery to various parts of the car (under the bonnet). He said this is to "help" the car return to ground as it is already old and the connectivity isn't good anymore.

After doing about 5 more wires, I once had it resolved - but only for like 5 mins.

My reverse lights doesn't work. I have changed the bulb but to no avail. Could this be the problem?

Thank for the help in advance
Matthew

 

[Garth]

this sounds like a good one, one word of advice and do take this from a electricain, never add any negatives or neutrals to any electrical cirtuit. all you are doing is creating the possibility of the future fault you only need one path for a return, not 2 or 3 it causes problems with relay's and fuses. what flow's out of the possitive must flow back down the designated negative inorder for stuff to work, eg. fused wont operate neither will relay's which rely on the designated neutral to work. e.g. headlight's. best bet is to find the neutral on the motor, take it off and make sure it's clean and free of crap, (but first thing's first, make sure you disconect atleast the possitive of the battery), abit of wd40 will do wonder's, or even a can of degreeser and a spanner, make sure you dont spray the dissy or any other electrical components with degreeser, (while some people will swear by it as being mother's milk, all it does is slowely destroy's electrical components) now, right let me think, do you have a socket at the back for a trailer? if so, look their first of all, make sure nothing is touching there, everything should be in it's little termal point with no copper showing. if not, simply fix it up. if that dont work, reply and ill give you another solution

cheers
garth

 

[st11x]

Hi Garth,

Thanks for your replies. I did like you suggested and checked out the trailer lights. It has been disconnected, so it is good.

There are 2 grounds initially before I started laying more wires. One (a very fat one) was connected from the -ve to the rocker via the battery holder. There's another small one that runs to the nearest chasis and is connected to the ground of the front left signal and head lights. I took out those connections and cleaned them. It still didn't cleared the problem.

However, I did notice that if I removed the grounding to the signal light, things go haywire. So that might be the clue.

After I rewired stuffs, my dashboard lights went out. I'm not sure if I had done something wrong, or did I rip out something while trying to dismantle the radio (it's broken).

When I first got the car, the ground wire of one of the rear reverse light was out. I clamped it down to the chasis with a screw. Would that have anything to do with it? I doubt it though, but it may explain why my reverse lights don't work.



Thank for the information about laying more grounds

Matthew

 

[Garth]

sweet, now the fun begines,

ok, step one, check all your fuses, make sure that they arnt blown, and the holder is in good working order. e.g. clean of crap and little connector's are actually clamping down on fuse

2. remove the turn signal relay

3. find a little peice of wire, size dont realy matter for this (yippie)

4. study your relay, there will be a litttle picture on the side or top of relay, what you want to find is the part of the relay that creates the circuit, (closes the switch) it will be a line, that is at a 45 degree angle to the other lines. on the relay base put the peice of wire in the spot's that the "switch" would be on with power heading to it. give that ago, if it workes, i sugest finding a mate or someone who know's stuff about auto electircal, it could be your relay base is actually had it. or try this

5. give the connections into the back of the turn signal a bit of a wiggle, if they flash intermitant than it's a faulty connection at the light end. how ever, this will fix the problem for sure,


6. remove the -ve (negative) from the tail light all together, run a completly seperate cable from the taillight's upto the battery (or somewhere where there is a good earth) and do it that way. try that. if that dont work, let me know. there is more to try yet

and if you remove a earth (ground, negative, call it what you will) there current dont have anywyere to go, so what if does it creates what's called a floating negative, it will find a negative of it's own. it might run down a slightly open connection beside it and cause that to operate and do all sort's of stuff. or go and buy a multi meter, dick smith's will sell one for about $20, and just bell out the neutral from there..

 

[st11x]

Hi Garth,

That was some very good detailed tips. On the note of fuses, I bought a 5 AMP fuse to replace the one that has blown. The fuse is for the instrument panel.

I noticed when I switch on the headlight, the fuse blows immediately. I read the manual that the fuse is supposed to be 5amp. I thought the ex owner had wired something "heavy" to it and switch to 8Amp, 16Amp, 25 Amp. They all blew.

Any insights on that? I feel I'm getting closer

Thanks
Matthew

 

[Garth]

the purpose of a fuse in a car is to protect cable's in the event of a short circuit fault, what id be doing is checking your wiring, making sure it's all intact. start at the fuse holder and literaly do a visual check of all the wiring from that point to the end. you will find that if you have got a blown light it will cause it to blow as the voltage goes straight from the positive straight down the negative, offering no resistance causing a huge amount of current to flow hence blowing the fuse, then you could actually check that the lamp holder isnt touching earth somewhere on the light holder or body, that could cause a huge problem, there isnt much in the headlight switch that could cause problems, so we wont look at that, even have a look at the fuse holder, make sure nothing is touching earth. personaly if this dont work and you cant find out what's going on with it i would be taking it to a auto spark, it's hard for me to sit here and tell you what to look for, it also depends on where you are as to how much i can help, for example, if you were on the gold coast somewhere, you could drive up and i could help you (free of charge)


cheers
garth

email is [email protected], email me if you wish further info about yr problem, ill make up a complete how to section for ya