Could someone check for me please-

A

andysat

Lifer
Hi all before i changed my sidelight bulbs for led's i put the sidelights on without the engine running, looking closely they seemed to flicker every so often,is this the norm or is something amiss?-thanks
 
mine don't dim at all. Stay on solid (although the sidelights in my headlights are not currently connected)
 
Does it do it with the engine running?
Is there anything electrical turned on, especially something that at 10 second intervals could be drawing current - are there are relays clicking in or out at those intervals?
 
Hi -just checked with the engine running,seems to pulse more until i turn the dipped lights on then stops :( i noticed the pulsing on the original bulbs so nothing to do with the led's :headbang:
 
There must be something in the electronics that's causing the voltage or current to the side lights not to be stable. Not sure why the dipped beam means its more stable, unless they are on the same fused circuit so the extra supply to the dipped lights helps. I wonder if an electrical choke on the cable would help - much the same way as a choke on a radio aerial can sometimes remove the interference from general electrical noise.
 
Sorry if I'm telling you stuff you already know. Car engines tend to make a lot of very 'noisy' signals that interfere with electronics - basically what should be nice smooth voltage levels end up being horribly uneven squiggly lines. Car electronics go through pretty rigorous design & testing to take account of it. My post above was wondering whether that's the case, speculating that with a small amount of power, the noise could be enough to interfere, where as with full lights then the power would be much higher, and the same amount of noise would be less in comparison.

Would canvas a bit more opinion to see if it's common or not to have these flickery lights.
After that check if there is anything else that is being switched on and off at the same times (listen for changes in engine note and general noise etc - fans going or something).
Would clean up the earth connection for the lights too.

Finally, I can't comment on how sensitive the led's are to the flickering, especially without knowing how bad the flickering is. Do you know if the new lights are just a string of 12v LED's or is there other circuitry with them? Chances are they could well be fine to swap over anyway.
 
Thanks for the in depth description mate,the flickering is more of a faint 'pulse'-the bulb doesnt dim as such its like a 'beat'-bit hard to describe really,the original side lights did the same i noticed before i changed to led's-the led's are a quad light direct replacement fit. :?
 
A couple of things to try ...

1) Likely to be a dodgy/corroded connection. Take the bulbs out and re-seat them, check the connectors for corrosion.
2) Could be a faulty earth - Measure the resistance between the earth of the bulb and the car body work ( Unpainted ). ( It should be zero - or near enough )
3) Use an Analogue voltmeter ( Digital wont react quickly enough ), and check if the voltage is collapsing/fluctuating wildly ( it if is then the connections are ok and you need to look elsewhere )

The only logic I can apply to the dipped beam fixing the issue is that its now pulling more current, and thus more electrons are flowing and thus the slightly iffy connection does not stop the current anymore ( a bit tenuous - but feasible )

Have you timed the 10 seconds ? Every 10 seconds on the nail ?

Good luck ( Auto Electricals are a pain to fault find )

G
 
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