I have replaced all the turn signal lights with LEDs. Everything works except for the indicator light on the dash. Directionals work perfectly but the indicator light just barely glows with an incandescent bulb. When I put in an LED nothing lights. When I put an incandescent bulb in it just barely gets red. I put a load resistor on the indicator light wire to no avail. I will add some pictures below. If anybody can help, I sure would appreciate it! Thank you in advance…
The flasher relay is a El-13L-1 from Napa. I tried multiple flasher units from CES, Novita, and a multitude of others. None of them were functional. This flasher unit has all my lights working except for the indicator light as mentioned above.
I ordered a flasher unit from superbrightleds.com because They told me it would fix the issue as it had built-in resistors. I hooked it up and it didn’t work on the flashers at all and still no indicator light.
It is wired with power on the left, the pilot light on top, and a piggyback on the load.
I’m running out of ideas and I have no answers! Has anybody had the same issue? Is anyone able to help me figure this out?!?! I am at my wits end…
I hate to tell you this but I never replace incandescent flashers with LEDS
They cause to many problems
There is also no need, as the the temporary current drawn is not an issue
They are not significantly brighter
They do not always give an indication that one has failed (like incandescents)
I suppose it is to late to suggest put it back the way it was ?
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OK OK i know this one well. firstly a normal flasher unit needs the resistance of an iridescent bulb/ bulbs to work. if you remember in the old days if you had on bulb blow the remaining bulb would flash at twice the speed. IE it now had 1/2 the resistance. well actually 1/2 the load bla bla. So that little bulb in your dash works when one wire has more current than the other side, if you have LEDs on the other side and not iridescent bulbs then the LEDS will be pulling a minuscule current, thus the different in current is bugger all. hence the dull glow if at all. if you replace the dash build with an LED then there is minuscule resistance to run the flasher unit. so your options are. change the dash to and LED and get a LED flasher unit. get a very low wattage dash bulb ( good luck) or change one of the led bulbs on each side back to an iridescent bulb. * this with luck will increase the resistance to something acceptable. Give up and return to OEM drive to your local auto electron dude and open your wallet, Now for the bad bit, if you have a generator ( NB you didn’t note what car you are working on) give up. the power supply and condition is usually a bit ruff for LEDs
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Thank you very much for your help, Dean! I’ve got a 1961 Mark IX.
I have already converted the headlights running lights back up lights and all dashboard lights to LED. The difference is astonishing. The only issue is the indicator light. I’ve used both incandescent which glows just barely enough to see in complete darkness, and an LED. The LED does absolutely nothing. I then put a Sylvania LED load resistor in line and it didn’t affect it at all… I’m sure somebody else on here is experienced the same nightmare and there’s a solution. But obviously I haven’t found it!
Unfortunately, there are a large number of unknowns in the problem that you’re trying to solve. I assume a positive to negative ground conversion was done long ago.
All of those LED-compatible flashers are basically the same. Adding a load resistor to the Pilot circuit won’t change anything. My hunch is that Jaguar did something clever that depends on the characteristics of the original flasher to make the dash indicators work.
Can you post the turn signal section of the schematic? Have you traced the wiring from the flasher to the dash indicator bulbs to the stalk (probably)?
Ron
My car has an alternator now so no generator issues are involved. Everything works except the indicator lights…
It would be worth checking what voltage is on the in cabin indicator LED with a multimeter
To be true, I dont even know what It should be
That’s one of the frustrating parts, Ron! When I use a test light it glows like the Fourth of July. I put an incandescent bulb in the filament just barely turns red and it does flash but you can’t see it unless it’s totally dark. Definitely getting voltage but I can’t get a bulb, either incandescent or LED to work. And it is flashing. It is just so dim, you would never know it!
Well, it sounds like you are using a test light between one wire of the dash indicator bulb and ground. A better test would be to connect the test light across the dash indicator bulb socket. One of the clever things Jaguar has been known to do is put battery voltage on both sides of a bulb in order to extinguish it.
Ron
OHH that girl is a making of a wet dream. nice and all credit to you.
But i feel you have missed my point or i have Not made my point well. there is another post from a RON, he’s on the money!
I took the bulb out and ran a meter to the empty socket. It registers close to 12 V going to the socket. I also ran a test light to the socket and it worked perfectly including flashing. Put a bulb, either incandescent or LED, in the socket: incandescent- filament barely gets red. LED- nothing.
OK ok, get your meter out again. is this bulb a bayonet type?? if so then voltage between centre pin and earth, flashers on, and flashers off. do the same from the side of the bulb holder flashers on then off. next Ign off. resistance from centre pole and from side pole to earth. lastly you clipped in the resistor with a red connector. what’s on the other side of that connector please Pic would be nice.
Run a new ground to the relay. If you are connecting a new ground with the test light, that may be the reason you are having a perfect glow with the test light!
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The red connector that you see is a Sylvania load resistor that I purchased yesterday and installed last night. It did nothing and I have taken it out of the equation.
Red not yellow. yellow is your resistor, red is just a connector. i want to know what you have in the back of it? ie is there 3 wires? as the resistor should be in series and at the moment i suspect you have it in parallel.
i should add, i only have the Mk10 and Mk7 wiring diagrams. how ever there are some safe assumptions. British and Jag. in short the power supply for the indicators runs though the dash light. then though the flasher unit. on the other side the earth for the indicator lights runs back though the bulbs though the flasher unit and back though your dash light. the earth on the flasher unit is just for the flasher unit, not for anything else. the short story is the LEDs do not produce enough drain/ resistance though your dash light to get it hot enough. remember this is all about AMPs, voltage has little to do with it. and since i am unsure of the wiring, can you please just methodically go though the testing i wrote before to confirm and then we will know which way to jump. and if anyone has a Mk9 wiring diagram that would be great.
Matrix,
Trying to remotely troubleshoot a problem with very little information is way too difficult. You need a meter (a cheap one is better than none) and a schematic to have a chance at solving this.
Connecting a test lamp the WRONG way tells you little. Voltage get to the dash indicator. Connecting a test lamp ACROSS the dash indicator socket the CORRECT way tells you if the indicator should illuminate. If the test lamp does not illuminate, the “cloud” side is either providing battery or is open. To troubleshoot the cloud (probably the stalk et al), you need a schematic.
Ron
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First of all, let me just say that you all have been fantastic! I won’t bore you with the details but I went through all types of configurations. The last thing I did was I disconnected the pilot wire and I ran the test white directly to the flasher. The light flashed four or five times and then stopped. I still had current going to all four flasher lights and obviously power going in the relay. So at this point, I’m assuming that the flasher relay is bad. I’m going to order another one tomorrow, and I will keep you all posted with updates!
Once again, thank you very much to my fellow Jag lovers…
Thank you Ron! I have a buddy coming over this week we should be able to diagnose this much better than me. But if there’s no voltage out of the flasher relay at the pilot position, wouldn’t you agree that the flasher relay is defective?