What makes indicators flash

Having a broken or malfunctioning indicator can make for a dangerous situation on the road. Also, most modern vehicles will now constantly monitor all exterior lighting on your car and give you a warning on your dashboard if one of them is not working.

The team here at Narva recommend checking all lighting on your car periodically. If you simply place your hazard lights on, turn all headlights and spotlights if fitted and get a friend to put their foot on the brake, you will be able to see if anything looks out of place.

One of the most common reasons for indicators to be flashing fast while you are indicating is a blown bulb. If your car uses standard globes or halogen lighting for indicators, it will be as simple as purchasing the relevant globe for your indicator and changing the bulb. Also, be sure you purchase the right colour globe some cars use amber globes, some use clear globes with an amber lens. Remember not to touch the glass of the globe when fitting them as it can shorten their lifespan. It is actually more common for LED lighting to malfunction due to bad wiring or no power draw, so be sure to check out all wiring, grounds and power draw before replacing LED indicators.

One of the best ways to modernise the look of your vehicle is upgrading your exterior lighting to crisp LED technology. LED bulbs are readily available to convert your standard halogen globes to LED, and if you are adding new indicators to your vehicle for example, when purchasing a new bull bar or strengthened rear bar for 4WDs then LED is the way to go. However, most cars will not be ready for the change in power draw or the addition of extra lights which in turn can cause some problems, where your car will usually show the same symptoms as if the indicator is not working at all.

Because your car relies on a certain amount of power load to detect a globe outage, this may result in your brand-new LED indicators to flash rapidly or show a globe warning on your dashboard. Current flowing through the strip causes the metal to heat and cool by bending and straightening to complete or break the circuit. So, the flasher is temperature controlled and designed specifically to bend at exact intervals based on electrical conditions.

The current is determined in part by load demand, aka, the bulbs. Altering any of these factors can cause a change in blinker speed. A bad bulb is by far the most common reason that a signal blinks faster. This is because a bad bulb alters the resistance in a circuit, sending a different current through the blinker. To figure out if this is the issue, test all signal lights to see if any bulbs are visibly out.

Otherwise, inspect each turn signal bulb for signs of failure such as broken filament or dark, clouded glass. Industry knowledge. Last updated Jan 22, Causes Explaining- The Turn Signal Blinking Fast The turn signal is the device that indicates the direction via blinking rear and front headlights.

Bad Shape of Ground Connection If the combination switches are dirty and need cleaning , this clearly indicates that the ground connections are in bad shape. So, check your device and look for the cause, accordingly! Faulty Bulb Even when you encounter a bulb failure in the headlamp then, also the turn signals start blinking fast. Solving turn signal blinking fast issues. Source: HotCars 3. Insufficient Voltage Lastly, during the improper supply of voltage to the car, the indicator blinks fast; which also points towards the bad combination switch.

If a turn signal relay is fitted, it could be a straight forward swap, as long as the pin configuration is the same. If the turn signals are controlled by electronics within one of the vehicles control modules, the only way of adding the LED turn signal relay is to bypass the control module.

Remove the turn signal inputs and outputs from the control module, and connect them directly to the LED turn signal relay. Replacing a filament light bulb with an LED light bulb, can sometimes cause a vehicles electronics the CanBus system to think there is a bulb failure. The modification can take place close to, or inside the light fitting.

Replacing a filament light bulb with an LED light bulb, can sometimes cause the vehicles electronics or turn signal relay to flash the turn signals faster than normal hyper flash.

The CAN bus system vehicles electronics can also think there is a bulb failure. Installing load resistors will mimic the filament light bulbs load on the system.