Very quiet turn signal tick and intermittent dash light.

decampos

decampos

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The indicators/turn signals work as they should on the outside but the bulb in the speedo only flashes for the first 'tick' of the relay. The sound is also very quiet, sometimes when the flasher doesn't auto-cancel I can be driving for several miles before I relize it's still on.

Would I be right in assuming this is entirely the fault of a bad relay?
Any help very much appreciated.
 
decampos said:
The indicators/turn signals work as they should on the outside but the bulb in the speedo only flashes for the first 'tick' of the relay. The sound is also very quiet, sometimes when the flasher doesn't auto-cancel I can be driving for several miles before I relize it's still on.

Would I be right in assuming this is entirely the fault of a bad relay?
Click to expand...

Sounds like two distinct issues: lights and intermittent turn signal cancellation.

For no dash signal indicators start here:

http://www.e9coupe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6507
 http://www.e9coupe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=439
http://www.e9coupe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2184

For turn signal cancellation issues:

http://www.e9coupe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7408
and http://www.e9-driven.com/Public/Library/BMW-E9-Manual/pages/en/32311310.html#refertoc
P1030715.jpg
31010001_z.jpg


Hth :wink:
 
My car does the same thing, with a brand new relay. I brought this up with my mechanic (who works on a lot of 2002s and E9s), who tells me that this is a very common situation, and blames more recently-manufactured replacement relays. He tells me that he has warrantied dozens of these trying to get perfect ones, but nothing has been perfect (although some have worked for a few months before starting to act up).
 
Btdt

sometimes the solenoid in the relay is "a little" weak and can't pull in the mechanism as it's supposed to.

If you have nothing to lose, you can open the relay and mess with either the spring or some creative very slight bending of the mechanism. It will work without the cover, open in your hand, and you'll see how things are.

If you don't know how to open the relay, look elsewhere, but I've been in there and they can be made to work a little better. At your own risk, of course, and YMMV.
 
Relay

I've also found that when the light in the instrument cluster either flashes intermittently or not at all the problem might be the turn signal relay contacts. You can carefully remove the black cover from the turn signal relay, use 220 or 400 grit sandpaper, slide it back and forth between the contacts a couple of times replace the cover and give it a try. That often works for me.

Doug
 
MMercury said:
Assuming your relay IS the root of the problem, this video may offer some insight. Your stock relay is a different size and found under the dash, but the working parts are practically the same. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlVSNX_NaOs
Click to expand...

After being driven nuts by this problem for some time, I followed the instructions in the video, and voila!, the dash indicator started flashing > 1 X. My e9 doesn't have its stock TS flasher - actually, mine looks a lot like the one in the video.
 
When this happened to me it was actually a bad connection to one of the turn signal bulbs. When the bulb wasn't making contact, the click was not thee and/or the green indicator would not flash even though the functioning bulb would appropriately blink. Are both your bulbs correctly 'blinking' when this happens?
 
same problem . . .

can someone post a picture showing the location of the stock turn signal relay. Thanks in advance./Andrew/ '73 cs/polaris/blue
 
This was a very frustrating problem for me as well.

Ended up being the relay BUT I bought a brand new one that did the same and then had to buy another new relay.....apparently I was told they can be finicky so buy/try a new one as needed..

Good luck.
 
Andrew said:
can someone post a picture showing the location of the stock turn signal relay. Thanks in advance./Andrew/ '73 cs/polaris/blue
Click to expand...

How about a "bad" picture with bizarre orientation? It appears that the relay is hand held for identification rather than where it is attached. http://www.e9-driven.com/Public/Library/BMW-E9-Manual/pages/en/61313600.html#refertoc

31360001_z.jpg



From memory, (for left hand drive) open the left hand enclosure you ordinarily use to expose the hood latch. The shop manual quaintly describes this as a "glove box." Find the steering column. Look around and (if your relay is original) you will "likely" find a rectangular object like the one depicted below. It is retained by a hook assembly. Pictures from this thread may be more instructive: http://www.e9coupe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5938

P1270006.jpg

P1270005.jpg



There are many substitute signal flasher relays available.

Hth




61311364984.jpg
 
Last edited:
Great news. I've managed to solve the problem with the indicator lamp in the speedo flashing only once. The reason for why the lamp fails over time is complicated but was remedied by wiring a resistor in parallel with each rear light circuit. All credit to John Castle who manages the CS register here in the UK, he's written up a guide for this which I've attached (hopefully he won't mind).

Was an easy fix and the extra wire can be neatly hidden under the boot/trunk flooring.

Thanks for the posts regarding the relay, I will look into a louder one but for the main problem I was experiencing, it was a red herring. I can imagine BMW sell loads of relays to people assuming that's where the problem lies.
 

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If the MOT spots that resistor they should fail you, because it defeats the purpose of the mechanism. Now it is possible to have a burned lamp and not notice it from inside. It would be interesting to measure the current through the resistor and know if the low load problem is on the front or rear circuits. If it happens for both left and right circuits it is probably on the shared part of the circuit, not so much the cables and connectors. The shared part includes the turn signal stalk, the relay, the flasher button, maybe a fuse or even the ground path.
 
Arde said:
If the MOT spots that resistor they should fail you, because it defeats the purpose of the mechanism.
Click to expand...

Oh, I dunno - seems like a valid fix to me - perhaps a bit "klugey", but hey, this is a 40 year old car! The company that sells LED arrays for automotive use (SuperBright LED's - see: http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/index.cgi?action=DispPage&Page2Disp=%2Fpt%2Floadresistor.html) also sell resistors to wire in parallel with their lamps so the current draw will be sufficient to trigger a conventional flasher.

Now it is possible to have a burned lamp and not notice it from inside.
Click to expand...

Well, that's a good point. The lack of flashing is a way to determine that a lamp has burned out.
 
jmackro said:
Oh, I dunno - seems like a valid fix to me - perhaps a bit "klugey", but hey, this is a 40 year old car! The company that sells LED arrays for automotive use (SuperBright LED's - see: http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/index.cgi?action=DispPage&Page2Disp=%2Fpt%2Floadresistor.html) also sell resistors to wire in parallel with their lamps so the current draw will be sufficient to trigger a conventional flasher.

Well, that's a good point. The lack of flashing is a way to determine that a lamp has burned out.
Click to expand...

Do the LED folks recommend where to place the resistor? With this fix if you ever get a short at the bulb socket the fuse will not blow (you will be putting ~2Amps through the short limited by the resistor), but the 10W resistor will be dissipating 24W, and it sits right above the gas tank...
 
Arde said:
Do the LED folks recommend where to place the resistor? With this fix if you ever get a short at the bulb socket the fuse will not blow (you will be putting ~2Amps through the short limited by the resistor), but the 10W resistor will be dissipating 24W, and it sits right above the gas tank...
Click to expand...

The resistors listed are 6 ohm 50W for the signal lamp circuit. At 13.5V you are dissipating 30W with a dead short. If it's a flashing bulb you will have about half of that.
 
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