Blinker light problem

[Jalopy]

So when you turn the blinker on to go right it blinks slower than the other one and when you turn the headlights on it stops blinking a just stays lit up

 

[AuroraGirl]

sounds like a ground issue or your harness has a short to power. first, check your harness to the rear ground behind the driver tailight

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if its good, pull your rear bulbs and try the blinker, they should be fast but equal if its a rear problem

try the opposite by removing the front bulbs, the side markers are also powered by something something polarity reversing or whatever and when the bulb gets two power sources, from the turns or the park, it will turn off, but it may be the point of some cross feeding from a conductive path or something. just ideas.

 

[Raider L]

@Jalopy,

No, you've got a burned out bulb. That's what I have found from years is that the offending light will blink slower, and then when the lights are on the blinker light stays on, that means it's burned out. Check it.

 

[AuroraGirl]

@Jalopy,

No, you've got a burned out bulb. That's what I have found from years is that the offending light will blink slower, and then when the lights are on the blinker light stays on, that means it's burned out. Check it.

How would a burnt out bulb make it blink slowly? It would speed up on that side because of the reduced resistance

unless its maybe the bulb remaining isnt enough for it to heat up the can enough to do its thingy(Im not 100% on how they work but it involves getting hot, switching off, then repeat)

 

[Jalopy]

@Jalopy,

No, you've got a burned out bulb. That's what I have found from years is that the offending light will blink slower, and then when the lights are on the blinker light stays on, that means it's burned out. Check it.

Thanks it worked

 

[75gmck25]

Based on problems I fixed today with my front park lights, it may be a ground wire broken.
My truck has a ground bolt going into the radiator support right at the level of the top of the battery. IIRC, it has four ground wires attached there:
- wire running over to the battery negative terminal
- ground wire into the black wiring loom that runs across the top of radiator support
- ground wire for the headlight connector right below it
- ground to the frame (this is a larger 12 gauge wire)

In my case I had broken the ground wire running across the top of the radiator support when I was fixing my battery tray. This is what that single wire caused.
- My right turn signal indicator came on steady whenever I turned on the headlights .
- the high beam indicator blinked along with my turn signal lights
- park light and side marker blinked at the same time instead of alternating on and off when blinking

The lesson from this is that one broken wire or one corroded socket can cause a lot of weird problems.

 

[Raider L]

@75gmck25,

Yeah, that's the other headlight ground wire. One at the battery bolted to the radiator support, another one over on the driver side headlight at the radiator support, one going from the battery to the frame. I always check the ground wire at the battery on the radiator support to make sure it's tight and the terminal is in good shape. You know battery acid and all. I'm not ever doing anything on the drivers side so I check it a little less. And you are right, check those sockets. Have you ever used that socket lube that's supposed to keep it from corroding? Sometimes when you buy a new bulb or head light you get one of those little packets in the box with the bulb. I've got a couple of those little packets but I've not used it before, my sockets were all okay. But I was wondering if you or anyone has ever used that stuff before and how well does it work?

What freaked me out one time was both head lights burned out at the same time. It took me two or three days to finally arrive at that conclusion. But that was after I had checked out wires to nausium! Then I thought, "No way could both burned out at the same time!" So I went out to the shop where I had a new head light and just plugged it in, didn't install it or nothing, just plugged it in and I'll be dang, it came on. Then I took that same bulb and plugged it in on the drivers side and it came on. Man! I was miffed to no end. I went and bought two new bulbs and put them in. Now I'm thinking, reckon both will burn out again? Hopefully it'll be just one. I sure wouldn't want to be going down the road one night and all of a sudden it goes dark!

 

[Raider L]

@Jalopy,

I'm dense today, you mean the bulb was burned out?

@AuroraGirl,

You're right sometimes it will blink faster. But the physics don't always do what they are supposed to be and I've had them blink slow, or not blink at all and just come on and stay on. I understand how it should work, like you explained it but it seems it's pretty much always a burned out bulb that's making it not do what it's supposed to do. I don't know why but I've never had a wiring problem that was causing the light to malfunction.

 

[Jalopy]

@Jalopy,

I'm dense today, you mean the bulb was burned out?

@AuroraGirl,

You're right sometimes it will blink faster. But the physics don't always do what they are supposed to be and I've had them blink slow, or not blink at all and just come on and stay on. I understand how it should work, like you explained it but it seems it's pretty much always a burned out bulb that's making it not do what it's supposed to do. I don't know why but I've never had a wiring problem that was causing the light to malfunction.

Not burnt out but it was destroyed

 

[AuroraGirl]

Not burnt out but it was destroyed

Short then maybe since they would be dual function bulbs
Or, something

 

[Jalopy]

I fixed it, it was a broken bulb

 

[Turbo4whl]

I fixed it, it was a broken bulb

Glad you got it fixed.

How would a burnt out bulb make it blink slowly? It would speed up on that side because of the reduced resistance

The reason the lights blink slower is this; Sometimes when a bulb breaks, or air leaks in and it melts the positive contact of the turn filament, it bends or melts over and touches the positive contact of the parking light filament.

So when the blinkers are turned on and the parking lights are off, current from the blinker finds a ground through the shared parking light bulbs.

I did not comment sooner since @Raider L already answered with one of the most likely problems.
Taylor this answer is for you from your adopted grandfather, me.