Turn signal indicator problem

[RedD250]

Good evening all,

When I turn on the parking lights/headlights, the left turn indicator comes on solid green. When I turn the blinker on, it flashes as normal, but stays on when the signal is cancelled. Anyone got an idea what could cause this? Only stays on when the headlights are on, otherwise it's normal. Thanks.

 

[brucejohnson]

Good evening all,

When I turn on the parking lights/headlights, the left turn indicator comes on solid green. When I turn the blinker on, it flashes as normal, but stays on when the signal is cancelled. Anyone got an idea what could cause this? Only stays on when the headlights are on, otherwise it's normal. Thanks.

Bad bulb, socket or ground... Have you checked the parking/turn signals on the left side with and without operating the turn signal? See if there is any difference in brightness between sides and how each element in the bulb looks during both parking light and turn signal modes.

 

[RedD250]

I'll check tonight, thanks for the info. Hopefully it's something simple like that. I've been imagining ripping the entire truck apart and tracing every single wire to find some deeply hidden problem lol.

 

[Topzide]

@RedD250, If you don't have one, you may want to invest in a Power Probe. Allows you to check +/- from front to back of the truck. You can power relays, bulbs or any load to about 10 amps. HF carries the PP III. Not cheap, but very handy for chasing down power issues. Has battery clip or a lighter plug with extension that covers the length of my truck, bumper to bumper! Good luck with the issue.

 

[RWherley]

Power Probe is the greatest thing ever for electrical trouble shooting

 

[RedD250]

I've never even heard of a power probe before. I got a multi meter, but I have no clue how to use it lol. I never know what setting to use to test different things, and even if I did, I'd have no clue where to probe, and what reading is good or bad. I can use it to test for voltage, and that's the extent of my knowledge. I'll go check it out at harbor freight though.

I finally had a chance (wasn't too lazy to walk my fat ass outside) to look at the bulbs, and both the grille and fender light are not working, parking light or signal. Hard to believe they'd both die at the same time, so I'm guessing it's not the bulbs or the sockets. Probably the ground. But I'm getting new LED bulbs all around anyway. Been wanting to do that for a while anyway. Getting un-lazy enough to actually start taking things apart to see what's going on for sure is going to take some time, especially in this miserable heat lol. Thanks for all the info folks.

 

[RWherley]

I speak from experience, all LED's are going to make your issues even harder to figure out as they don't offer enough resistance for your flashers to work properly, you either need a led compatible flasher or a add in resister. Something else to consider your truck has 2 separate flashers, one runs the turn signals the other runs the foreways so if it's a turn signal only issue I could be a dash harness issue

 

[RedD250]

Well, I suddenly got un-lazy. Don't know where that came from lol. It was the turn signal/marker in the grille that had burned out. It was causing the marker light in the fender to be very very dim, I could barely tell it was on. Swapped in the tail light bulb and it works now. The green indicator on the dash stopped coming on with the parking/head lights and the fender light got bright again. Good ol Dodge... every other car the blinkers just flash faster to let you know you got a bulb out. But oh no, Dodge gotta be different lol. Now that arises the question... I had no bulb in the tail light assembly on the driver side, so why didn't the green arrow stay on for that? Makes no sense.

Yeah, I know about the LEDs not playing nice with old fashioner turn signal electrics. I have resistors on order for them. The fender lights have a built in chip to handle that.

On a side note, I tried using my multi meter to see if the light socket was getting power after discovering that the passenger side marker light wouldn't come out of the socket, so I couldn't swap it to the other side to see if that was the problem. Didn't have a torx handy to get the tail light assembly off. Promptly blew the fuse. Is there any way to tell if the wire you are probing is positive or negative to avoid doing that? Or am I just using the multi meter wrong? More often than not, when I try to diagnose something with that thing I blow a fuse. It's a hassle to get at the fuse block in these trucks, especially since I have to zip tie it up to the column so it doesn't hang down over the brake pedal. I have 3 add a circuits in it, so it won't fit in the orignial location any more.

 

[RWherley]

So if you blowing fuses with a multi meter you have it set wrong, could you upload a picture of your meter

 

[RedD250]

 

[RWherley]

It appears to be set right, are you putting the black lead on a known good ground and probing the pins with the red lead?

 

[RWherley]

It doesn't really make sense that your blowing fuses

 

[RedD250]

Ah, I didn't know you were supposed to put the black lead on a known ground, I thought you probed the thing you were testing. I've been using it wrong all along. Figured that was the only way to test the circuit to see if its ground was good. I just stuck it into the socket on one of the little bumps, and put the red one on the other. POP.

So if you do it that way, that means that the meter is grounding to a seaprate place from the circuit being tested. How do you know if the ground in the wiring harness is good? If it's getting juice, it'll show up as good since the meter would be grounded to a known good ground, but the ground wire on the harness may be bad, wherever it may ultimately ground to. You'd never know.

 

[RWherley]

Ahhh that's part of the issue, on those sockets the side wall is the ground, one bump is marker, the other is turn/brake so you were shorting it out and I guess the harbor freight meter doesn't have a safety to prevent feed though

 

[RedD250]

Yeah, probably doesn't. I think it was $20. I used to have a Fluke many years ago, but a 40" TV seemed like something I'd get a lot more enjoyment out of than my tools, so I sold everything and got that instead haha. I never thought that one wire would be for the signal and the other for the marker, good point.

 

[RWherley]

Well at least you have a better idea of how to chase down your issue

 

[RedD250]

Yeah, thanks for clarifying how to use it correctly. I'm still going to look into the power probe. I watched a few youtube videos of it, and it seems like something that could come in handy. So, if I had grounded the black lead to say, the battery or frame and probed both of those bumps in the socket with the red lead, I wouldn't have blown the fuse?

 

[RWherley]

That's correct, or at least that's how the 2 I have work, I'm going to call them mid grade ones (around $100 off the tool trucks) but I've never blown a fuse with them

 

[brucejohnson]

I had no bulb in the tail light assembly on the driver side, so why didn't the green arrow stay on for that? Makes no sense.

The rear lighting is separated from the front by the brake light and four-way flasher switches and ground points.
If your high (turn signal) element breaks at the ground side of the standoff and falls to the low (parking lights) element often it will "weld" to the low element creating a circuit rerouting the parking light voltage to ground through the instrument turn signal indicator bulb to the opposite side's ground circuit. Same with corroded bad bulb ground. The opposite side bulb element "may" illuminate very dimly, but the resistance of the other bulb elements reduce the current causing little, if any element illumination on the opposite side.

 

[Topzide]

@RedD250, You may want to look at this meter when at HF. Not trying to spend ll your money, but this meter, https://www.harborfreight.com/cm1000a-1000a-t-rms-acdc-clamp-meter-64017.html allows you to check the current draw of wires. You could check the current that your starter is pulling. PM me for info on using a digital meter with the little one you got and also the PP III if you pick it up. Here's a very simple item to check for power, https://www.harborfreight.com/computer-safe-automotive-logic-probe-63597.html. This will light up green or red for telling you that + or -. It's computer safe to help not fry anything. We're here to help with more than just our trucks! Good luck!