Blinkers on Drugs

[OlGeezer]

What would cause blinkers to blink sporatically?

 

I went for a short ride today. The right one was particularly (if not solely) problematic, but not all the time.

 

After I got home, I felt the relays and the two including my light relay were very warm as were the pair including the motronic relay. I don't know if these relays being warm have anything to do with the turn signal relay. The turn signal relay is original equipment (nearly five years old, over 100k miles). The flashers still work, just on occasion, the right one goes spastic. For example, there could be three blinks at regular speed, then three at twice as fast, then back to original speed. Today, it did something I haven't seen it do. There was one blink at normal speed, one at quick speed, one at normal, one at quick, etc.

 

Any guesses?

 

TIA,

[Stan Walker]

Bad bulb, dirty electrical contact at bulb base, loose relay, bad relay.

 

That's four......

 

Stan

[11101110]

If these bikes have electronic flashers instead of thermal flashers (haven't needed to figure this out yet) then it will flash faster when a bulb burns out or is otherwise disconnected. Like loose or dirty contact. Thermal flashers go steady when a bulb disappears from the circuit.

[Eschelon1]

Loose, dirty or bad ground connections can do really strange things...

 

[Ken H.]

If these bikes have electronic flashers instead of thermal flashers (haven't needed to figure this out yet)

electronic flashers

[topdal46]

I like the bad bulb,dirty socket, or bad connection

[Scotty]

+1 on bulb.

[strat]

just dealt with this on my 96 RT loose bulb in cheesy socket on left rear blinker I put a thin piece of cardboard (Matches?)between the socket and bulb so it fit tight and voila slow blinkers. Hope this helps...

 

Cheers

strat

[OlGeezer]

Thanks for all the input. I'll go through and clean/check the connectors.

[exwingnut]

Bad grounds at the battery (check the cable connection at the metal connector to the battery and the frame.)

 

Also, check across the battery terminals and see how much votage you have while the bike is running...electronic controls require a minimum voltage to work properly, a few 10ths if a volt low and the electronic control had difficulty making up its mind what to do (this aslo applies to ignitions...low volts=no workie.)

 

You should likely see 13+ volts across the battery terminals when the bike is running, accessories can lower this when on.

 

Checking all grounds and connections cannot hurt.

[outpost22]

Your title should have been:

"Man who designed BMW Blinkers is on Drugs"

 

Could it have been much more complicated?

[OlGeezer]

Bad bulb, dirty electrical contact at bulb base, loose relay, bad relay.

 

That's four......

 

Stan

 

Thanks, Stan.

I went through and cleaned all the contacts for all four turn signals, brake light bulb and license plate bulb. While doing that, I (think I) found the culprit, burned out bulb. I would normally check this first as a cause to a fast blinker, but my rear turn signals have the dual filament for the Run'n Lights. The continuously lit filiment was burned through and the blinking filament was intact. Very deceptive these electrical gremlins are I tell you! I'll give it a full test on my way to have some clam chowder tomorrow.

 

Hijacking my own thread, while I was doing this, I discovered something really, really strange.

 

Ignition switch on. Lights are on, V1 is on (wired to my parking light circuit). When I hit my high beam light switch, the V1 repowers, like it was turned off and then on again. It only does it once. If I turn off the high beam and turn it on again (or push the flash high beam switch on the rocker), it doesn't happen. What I have to do to recreate the problem is that I have to turn off the ignition switch and turn it back on again. When I do that, I can make the V1 repower by turning on my high beam light. This happens with the fog lights on or off.

 

I wonder if the contacts inside my left hand grip need cleaning or if there is a broken wire in the wiring harness going to the left hand grip. Or, it could be something totally different. I sure have been learning a lot about electrical systems the last few months.

 

Sigh...

[Stan Walker]

You won't like my answer. But I think you would be better off to move your V1 connection to a different power source. Like the radio harness, or the aux power socket circuit. Anything but a source that shares voltage and / or grounds with the lighting.

 

Turning on the high beam draws a whole lot of start-up current which can drag down the voltage that the V1 sees. Once the bulb is hot, turning it off for a few seconds then back on again will not be as big a hit on power. Your V1 may be a contributing factor if it is more sensitive than it should be. Also a weak battery could contribute to the problem.

 

Other things like bad ground connections or the BMW fog lights being on could also contribute to your problem.

 

Stan

[Nevets]

Hope you guys figure this one out, since my bike suffers from "fast flashers". On my bike I'm 99.9 percent sure it's not bad/dirty connections, but rather the electronic flasher is seeing a lower voltage which causes the fast flash symptom. Someday I'll figure out where all of the major ground and positive connections are and check their robustness. I've posted about this somewhere, and have gotten good advice, but not yet found the problem. Just a matter of time before I figure it out. Hope you have better/faster success.

 

I just thought to add....if yours exhibits the symptom on ONLY one side, it's likely the bad/dirty socket or connection, not the problem I have .

[Tipover_Bob]

Hope you guys figure this one out, since my bike suffers from "fast flashers". On my bike I'm 99.9 percent sure it's not bad/dirty connections, but rather the electronic flasher is seeing a lower voltage which causes the fast flash symptom. Someday I'll figure out where all of the major ground and positive connections are and check their robustness. I've posted about this somewhere, and have gotten good advice, but not yet found the problem. Just a matter of time before I figure it out. Hope you have better/faster success.

 

I just thought to add....if yours exhibits the symptom on ONLY one side, it's likely the bad/dirty socket or connection, not the problem I have .

 

Steve: Mine is doing it too on both sides. I was thinking it's the blinker but I haven't worked on it yet.

Tipover Bob

[OlGeezer]

You won't like my answer. But I think you would be better off to move your V1 connection to a different power source. Like the radio harness, or the aux power socket circuit. Anything but a source that shares voltage and / or grounds with the lighting.

 

Turning on the high beam draws a whole lot of start-up current which can drag down the voltage that the V1 sees. Once the bulb is hot, turning it off for a few seconds then back on again will not be as big a hit on power. Your V1 may be a contributing factor if it is more sensitive than it should be. Also a weak battery could contribute to the problem.

 

Other things like bad ground connections or the BMW fog lights being on could also contribute to your problem.

 

Stan

 

I'm O.K. with your answer, especially now that I know why. I was originally thinking of moving the V1 when I got distracted by the burned relay terminal.

 

Thanks for the info.