jayc67

Well maybe I'm not understanding the purpose of the meter. When I turn the turn signal on I see a movement up and down on the voltmeter which is what I would expect to see when the electrical load changes. I see a dip when I turn the headlights on too.

Is that not correct behavior?

Alan

The indicators should not be enough of a load to make any appreciable difference to the system voltage. Most likely they don't and its actually only an issue with the monitoring circuit.

Now the headlights may provide enough load to make a small difference (but only at idle ...).

If your system voltage changes much under these conditions (off-idle) then you must have an alternator or connection issue somewhere.

Alan

Tom in Austin

Hey Alan, since you're on here ... I pulled the turn signal bulbs and switched from side to side (first in front, then in back, then all four) .. right blinker's still going double-speed, left still normal speed. If there were any problem with the bulbs, wouldn't the condition have moved with the bulb? FWIW, the bulbs' appearance and markings looked identical from side to side.

Thinking must be a problem in the wiring on the right side if the bulbs and connectors look ok ...

Alan

OK odd - with the hazards on look at each corner and see if one looks dimmer than the rest OR is the left side dimmer than the right front and back.

If a single corner - then the issue is likely a connection quality issue (extra resistance) making that side seem like a lower power bulb. This will likely be in that cluster (or its ground). Corrosion most likely.

If the whole left side is dimmer - then its likely an issue upstream - closer to the flasher.

I don't think the flasher itself is suspect because the exact same mechanism is used for each side - the turn signal switch connects either one side or the other to the same active flash connection...

Alan