Flashing Speed

[deezee]

Right, I've got all my lights connected up now on the loom. Everything works and apart from some tidying, its going great. However the flashing speed of the indicators is too fast.

The indicators are all bulbs (no LEDS) with the following ratings, 10W front, 5W Side, 12W rear and whatever the bulb in the dash is. Is it simply a case of not enough load on the flasher relay? When the hazards are put on, they flash at the correct speed.

I'm aware that some production cars have / had electronic flasher units and aren't prone to loading issues. Does anyone know what cars these come off? before I head down to a scrappy.

[Tilly819]

you are exactly right,

basicly you just need more load on the circuit, i have the same problem myself after changing my front indicators for IVA

fit a resistor in serise with a pair of your lamps

front pair,
side repeator pair
or rear pair to increase the load

1 ohm on ither side should do it if not
you can pit the resistors in seriese with each other and simpaly add the values together 1ohm + 1 ohm + 2 ohm simples

tilly

[flyerncle]

Normally 21watt bulbs are fitted front and rear and 5 watt side repeater this should give you the increased load.
60/120 is the flash rate per min for MOT/IVA.(I think)

[deezee]

Just been back out to garage and the rear bulbs are 21W units (the 12 was the voltage DURRR) I have a load of these resistors that I had for replacing, out of production, bulbs with LEDS on my tintop. Can anyone tell me what ohms they are? I'm not lazy, I'm colour blind. The packet simply says 12V resistors.

http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/images/resistors.jpg

[flyerncle]

Put 21 watts in the front and see what happens you should not need to put resistors in the system and they will add a small amount of heat to it and they look about 3 ohms by the colour but its not a good picture.
The hazard relay is meant to take 4x21watts plus 2x5 watts for the side repeaters.

[deezee]

I've gone back to the car, popped in some 21W bulbs on the front and it works fine :D Sadly the 21W bulb is far to big to fit inside the front indicator housing. Looking on the internet I can't seem to find a small 21W bulb. So its either resistors or a different flasher / hazard relay.

[twinturbo]

If your bulbs are not the correct wattage they may not be bright enough to pass the IVA.

TT

[flyerncle]

At least you have sussed out why and learned a little in the process.
Possibly try out some large LED's and resistors but I think you will need something to increase the load as before.
Audi/VW fit 12v 6 watt halogen bulbs to sidelight and they are very bright.



Good luck.

[deezee]

Can't see anything in the IVA manual about brightness so I'm not sure if 10w bulbs would pass. I got them from CBS online and at the time were called "IVA OK" However they seem to have removed a lot of their IVA claims recently for products.

It looks just as cheap to buy some different indicators than it does to fit ballast resistors. Its not super urgent at the moment, at least the wiring and controls are working.

[Enoch]

Those resistors would not be anywhere near big enough - they would be 1/2 watt at most and would burn up very quickly. You would not want to put a resistor in series, that would increase resistance and therefore decrease the load. Going the bigger bulb route is the way to go. If you can't get one big enough in the housing, install a second repeater on the side of your car or just have a second bulb in parallel hidden under the bonnet where it can't be seen. Another bulb in parallel with the existing bulb will add the extra load required.
Enoch

[deezee]

Hiding bulbs behind the dash doesn't seem like a very elegant solution. People on Ebay sell 25W and 50W ballast resistors to help with relay loads when fitting LED bulbs. I'll either buy new indicators or fit a fixed rate flasher relay off another vehicle.

[mark]

I have led indicators at the rear and got my resistors from svc, they are not like an ordinary resistor as in your pic they are also mounted on a small piece of aluminium to disipate the heat

I think they were about £8 each but i did buy all my lights in one go from them so i may have got them a little cheaper