Indicators and Hazards not working.

[CaptainHair]

For the past 3 years or so, when the temperature dropped to freezing the left indicator would *sometimes* flash fast as if a bulb had gone, but upon checking the bulbs all worked fine.

Then recently the indicators would not flash when the stalk was moved up or down (failure in both directions). The Hazards would also not work during these moments of failure. Usually turning one or the other off and on was enough to get them all going again.

After about a week of this, the indicators have given up (almost) entirely. Occasionally they work perfectly fine as if nothing is wrong.

After a bit of reading it sounded like the Hazard switch, however the replacement arrived today and theres no change.

The Relay still does its initial "click" when the hazards or indicators are turned on, however after that there is no further clicking noise.

Bulbs all light up correctly when central locking fob is pressed to lock/unlock.



Sooo thats where I'm at so far. I'm going to bring the Relay indoors and see if theres any visible marks. And if I can figure out how to remove it, perhaps the indicator stalk also. However the fact that the Hazards are also not working suggests that the problem is not in the stalk from what I understand?

I'll also change the fuse if I can narrow down which one it is.

Cheers for any help, I'll keep this updated as I go. Luckily my manual indicators still work (though my arm is getting a bit cold)

EDIT: Checked the relay indoors and it looks in perfect shape internally. I also removed the indicator stalk, no visible signs of damage/wear gave it a squirt with contact cleaner but no success. I guess I'll try ordering a new stalk and see how that goes.

[vento85]

I have heard about this issue before, and if I remember correctly it might be the indicator stalk is faulty. Not 100% on this tho.

[CaptainHair]

I have heard about this issue before, and if I remember correctly it might be the indicator stalk is faulty. Not 100% on this tho.

Sorry for slow response, had a rough week. I purchased and fitted a new indicator stalk but unfortunatly hasnt solved the problem

Past few days though they've started working again intermittently. So I'm pretty certain its a loose connection somewhere, maybe a bad earth somewhere. Gonna have to remove all the trim/plastic and try wiggling some wires while hazards are turned on to see if it fixes anything.

[Mighty306]

I'd suggest you voltage drop test every part of the circuit that you can - e.g. from bulb to holder, from holder to any harness connectors, from connector to next accessible part of the harness. You need to have the circuit loaded for this. Basically measure the voltage between any 2 points & where the resistance is low (as it should be) the voltage drop will be almost too low to measure.  Test the +'ve and -'ve sides of the circuit.  A voltage drop > a few mV would suggest a poor connection & might lead you to find the 'green crusties' causing a poor connection. Either that or you may have a short to ground somewhere if a bit of harness has rubbed.  (Not totally sure that would cause the symptoms though).

You could jump the contacts on the repeater relay block to give a constant feed to the indicator bulb to make things easier. You'll need a multimeter (a cheap one for a tenner will do the job) and a length of wire with some alligator clips attached to extend your multimeter leads.

There is absolutely loads of info on the web about doing this sort of testing. Just Google 'voltage drop testing' & read as many pages / watch as many videos as you dare. Good luck!

[CaptainHair]

I'd suggest you voltage drop test every part of the circuit that you can - e.g. from bulb to holder, from holder to any harness connectors, from connector to next accessible part of the harness. You need to have the circuit loaded for this. Basically measure the voltage between any 2 points & where the resistance is low (as it should be) the voltage drop will be almost too low to measure.  Test the +'ve and -'ve sides of the circuit.  A voltage drop > a few mV would suggest a poor connection & might lead you to find the 'green crusties' causing a poor connection. Either that or you may have a short to ground somewhere if a bit of harness has rubbed.  (Not totally sure that would cause the symptoms though).

You could jump the contacts on the repeater relay block to give a constant feed to the indicator bulb to make things easier. You'll need a multimeter (a cheap one for a tenner will do the job) and a length of wire with some alligator clips attached to extend your multimeter leads.

There is absolutely loads of info on the web about doing this sort of testing. Just Google 'voltage drop testing' & read as many pages / watch as many videos as you dare. Good luck!

Thanks very much, this is what I was expecting to have to do given that the problem had only gotten worse I was expecting loose/corroded wire somewhere. I started having a poke around wiggling the connections of all the bulbs and such with hazard switch plugged in to see if they came on. I knew all the bulbs physically worked and (probably) had a good earth as they light up with central locking.

But then the other day my indicators came back on entirely for a journey home when I had the heater cranked to max. I remember at some point reading about a relay that worked but was sticking in the cold. Since then I've had indicators almost all the time by keeping the relay warm from the heater and giving it a tap when its not working.

New relay is in the post, I'm expecting it to fix the problems If it turns out to not be the relay then at least it'll be the wiring to the relay in the fusebox, which is great news.

Thanks very much for the drop testing suggestion though, definatly would have been next port of call though I'll admit I wasn't looking forward to doing it in this weather! I'll come back and leave another reply when the relay has arrived.

[CaptainHair]

Almost forgot to update this for completions sake incase others come searching for an answer. A new flasher unit DID fix all problems, have had fully working indicators for a while now

Cheers for the help everyone!