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Originally Posted by utopia
I couldn't tell you what voltage I see on the lead for the tell tale light cos my multimeter has gone intermittent after too many winters in a damp shed.
Flasher relay is three-wire.
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I'd swap the stock flasher relay back in temporarily and see how bright the tell-tale bulb was then. I suspect this may be the issue, but have no idea why. Diagnosing is key, though...
Are the grounds good? Difficult to see how that'd be an issue with LEDs but not regular bulbs. But always good to check...
I looked at a 1999 Monster current flow diagram; certainly looks to me like the repeater bulb is bridging the left/right indicator circuits (one terminal, F, is connected to the W/G (White/Green?) wire on the left direction indicator circuit, the other, E is connected to the W/BK (White/Black?) wire on the right direction indicator circuit.
Which kind of raises the interesting questions
- why don't you have the "all my flashers flash at once" issue, and
- WTF is it getting an ground path from - as the LEDs shouldn't allow one, and the bulb won't work at all without one, the way it's wired...
These question probably both have the same answer. Something is providing a path to ground... I suspect not a great path - hence the dim bulb. And you don't get both sides flashing at once. Although I'd have expected the LEDs to be more tolerant/work on lower voltage/current before the tell-tale bulb, so it's kind of a puzzle...
You would be able to measure voltage between the indicator feed and ground anywhere in the circuit and see what the voltage is when you blag a DMM... If you've got a happy 12.5-14V on the indicator circuit, you're laughing, just a bad connection; trace it back through the harness to the bulb base until you see what's there. I doubt it's that simple though.
It sounds like the flasher may be restricting the voltage and/or current available to the whole indicator circuit - and thus the tell-tale bulb - somehow. The LEDs are probably more tolerant of lower voltage and won't care, but a voltmeter would make it pretty obvious. If that's true, then a higher-wattage bulb likely won't make any difference. Perhaps the relay is in some way incorrect or faulty?
LED flasher relays with a dedicated "pilot" (tell-tale) bulb lead exist, but you'd still need to re-wire the bulb and provide a traditional power/ground arrangement for it. In which case, seems to me you might as well fit a couple of diodes and be done with it.
The "really easy" fix would be a T5 LED bulb that auto-sensed voltage polarity and Just Worked (TM) either way round. No wiring mods. Unfortunately, while these exist for things like the "festoon" bulbs I don't see any offered in a T5 package. Yet.
(fun fact: in some older cars with two-positions for the interior light switch, current flows a different direction through the festoon bulb depending on whether the door is open or you switch the light on manually; use a "dumb" LED festoon and you get to choose which function works, depending on which way round you fit it...)
I think I'd be leaning towards the dual-diode mod, providing a real ground and fitting a T5 LED. The LED should be much brighter than the bulb anyway. Win-win
Should be able to de-pin the connectors somewhere convenient, re-arrange what you need in a little extra mini-harness and re-connect back into the original connector, so no cutting factory wiring.
Quote:
Originally Posted by utopia
Bog standard Citroen C1 (so just half a car, really).
I was expecting out of phase but they flash in phase with the warning light.
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lol - Mate of mine had a Peugeot he never managed to get running. Kind of ironic, as he was earning a living as a mechanic at the time... He told me to never trust French electrics, and I believed him...