TheSamba.com :: View topic - when using turn signal, the battery light comes on.

Sun Apr 08, 2012 11:46 am

This morning I put the turn signal on to turn L and the battery light came on...no familiar clicking of the turn signal. Just frozen. After 1 minute or so the battery light when out. I tried again on the way back home 2 times...once left..same thing, and then once right... same thing. Van seems to be running well. Any thing I need to check? What's going on here?

Lights work. 74 Westy

Sun Apr 08, 2012 12:12 pm

Got a volt meter?, what does your battery show sitting and running?

Sun Apr 08, 2012 12:25 pm

busdaddy wrote: Got a volt meter?, what does your battery show sitting and running?

No, I don't have a volt meter. I will see if my neighbor has one.

Mon Apr 09, 2012 4:15 am

davegowesty wrote: busdaddy wrote: Got a volt meter?, what does your battery show sitting and running?

No, I don't have a volt meter. I will see if my neighbor has one.

I borrowed one from my neighbor and we tested the battery at 13.4 with the engine off, 13.9 with the engine running. With the car running we tested the turn signals and the battery light came on again. So I left the blinker in the down position and after 2 minutes the blinker suddenly started to blink again.

We were only still trying to get a good reading on the volt meter. Thoughts?

Mon Apr 09, 2012 6:27 am

Sounds like bad lead/ground connections... time to clean + check some wires.

Mon Apr 09, 2012 6:50 am

I agree sounds like a bad connection probably behind the dash cluster. Could also be a bad blinker relay.

Before poking around behind the dash please DISCONNECT THE BATTERY. Many of the wires back there are hot all the time, and there's grounds every where, so it is ridiculously easy to get sparks and scare the bejeesus out of yourself not to mention damage the wiring.

One thing to think about... the alternator light works on the principle of opposing positives. When the key is on, it gets + voltage on one side of the light bulb. When the alternator is running, it gets + voltage on the other side. The light goes out because it's positive on both sides.

So the fact that your alternator light comes on indicates to me that you are losing that + voltage from the key on. Probably because you have a bad connection that can't pass that much current. The blinker relay tries to operate but can't, it just pulls the voltage way down.