Weird right turn signal light

esson

esson

Member
Emm, hi! Yesterday night I was driving my A2, and noticed that when i signaled turning right, the right turn signal icon in the dashboard was flickering much faster than usual..(emm, the usual would be: click...click...click, yesterday it was blinking more like click click click click). I got out of the car to see what was wrong, indeed, the front right turn signal wasn't working. The one on the side of the car, and the rear signal were working fine. I suspected that the bulb was burnt out. After another 10 minutes or so of driving, the turn signal started working again, the flickering went back to normal. Any ideas?
 
Check the right turn signal bulbs. One of them is burnt or is about to fail. Faster clicking usually means a smaller load on the signal relay, produced by fewer bulbs working in proper order.
 
Today I had a very strange behaviour of left turn signal, basically the same as yours. I was driving and when I have activated the left turn signal it starter blinking fast. Next time it was ok. After a few minutes of driving the same happened. At home I have checked all three turn signals and they all work. I will check also bulbs, but in a few days.
Any other possible reasons for this behaviour? Can this be a symptom of flasher unit going bad?
 
This happened on my project car when I picked it up. Right indicator normal speed, left indicator double. Got home and went round the car to identify the culprit - yet all were working. Couple of days later did it again, and then went back to normal.

Eventually identified the problem a week later when replacing the 5W incandescent bulbs (that were burning the running light tubes) with LEDs : the loom connector on that side was cracked and the release mechanism was missing completely - it was only crud and friction holding the connector in place. If you held it, the indicator worked normally. If you didn't, while driving it intermittently lost contact (headlight also stopped working on that side intermittently over road joints). A thick rubber band was used to hold it in place for a few weeks until @timmus replaced both of the connectors while he was on the drive adding colour DIS to my and @cheechy 's cars.

So - (TL/DR) - have a look at the headlight loom connectors in case these are damaged.
 
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Frequently on bayonet fitting bulbs the centre contacts wear away due to vibration in the holder. Cheap to replace after ensuring the wiring is indeed intact.
 
Looks like the problem was excatly that.
The left rear bulb the bayonet fitting was a little worn, so I have just sanded a little with a sanding paper and for now it works. I will replace it with a new one. Hopefully this will cure the problem.
 
Just to confirm the final solution (hopefully). The symptom came back with the old bulb, but after replacing with a new bulb with fresh bayonet fitting the symptom disappeared. Hopefully it will stay like that. I have done cca. 100km and it did not come back.
 
As said the soft solder in the end of the bayonet type bulbs has a high wear rate. Sanding down does not help although trying to build up a bit more solder on the bulb may. End of the day they are very cheap items to replace so why even bother trying to repair them although the holders are not so cheap.

In some makes of cars the moisture gets into the rear lights and this can make the bayonet fitting corrode, but in general it is vibration that is the issue.
 
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I agree. I have checked also on the right side and that one was also worn, so I just replaced both bulbs. No corosion signs, so that is a good news :).
 
Lamps often behave in this way when one end of the internal filament becomes electrically detached but is still 'touching' its support/connection, this results in it working intermittently.
To check for this, flick the bulb when power is present or if your eyesight is good the filament can be seen to vibrate ( when power ISN'T present 😉 )
Robert
 
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