 | Home > Tdi > Rear light setup on 300tdi |
 
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| Martin Site Admin Member Since: 02 Apr 2007 Location: Hook Norton Posts: 6605   
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I know that’s what is on the diagram (I spent ages editing it all out to make the diagram I posted) but in real life the switch doesn’t make use of logic to connect the circuits.
 1988 90 Td5 NAS soft top
2015 D90 XS SW |
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17th Jan 2019 8:08am |
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| dorsetsmith Member Since: 30 Oct 2011 Location: South West Posts: 4554 |
LR past and copy
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17th Jan 2019 9:55am |
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| jimmythomson Member Since: 18 Jul 2017 Location: Norfolk, UK Posts: 46
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I had a chance to play around with the indicators wiring today and though I'd share some info (though the solution is already well known).
The problem I was having with the indicators was that when I indicated either left or right, both sets of indicators flashed. So I indicate right, all indicators illuminate. Indicate left, all indicators illuminate. The LED lights that I'd fitted came from Bolt On Bits, and I'd seen info suggesting that their 'RDX Earth Fix Kit' would do the trick: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RDX-Earth-Fix-K...2280619868 I wasn't happy with parting with money without knowing why i needed it, so I removed the instrument panel and took a look at the lights there... Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge The circuit diagram I've been looking at is for a 97 MY Defender, though I thought that it was supposed to be the same as my 96 MY. It turns out it isn't, as my dash only has one tell tale indicator light, whereas the 97 MY diagram shows one for left and another for the right. The joint that I've highlighted in red below, doesn't exist on my dash: Click image to enlarge Instead, I have a single indicator tell tale on the dash, and it's wired to be in the middle of the circuit joining the left and right indicators. Here's the accurate representation that I've created: Click image to enlarge So let's say I indicate left. Current will flow through the indicator stalk, then it splits off so that one part of the circuit goes off to the left indicators, and the other part goes off to the dash tell tale buib. All the indicator lights are earthed nicely and so the left hand indicators flash as expected. Unfortunately however, as the dash tell tale has no dedicated and deliberate path to earth, the current has no choice but to head through the tell tale bulb and around and on to the right hand indicators, through the lights and back to earth. So I now understand why the Bolt On Bits earth fix kit will work. Why wasn't this a problem with old non-LED bulbs? In the example above, in order for current to flow through the right hand indicators, it has to have gone through the tell tale bulb. This bulb effectively acts as a resistor, limiting the current to around 0.09A. The old non-LED bulbs needed a lot more than to turn on, and so remained off (I can't remember the exact figure, but I think it was 1.5A). The RDX LED bulbs however, only need about 0.08A to light up! I've seen that people have wired in diodes in order to prevent current flowing to the opposite side of the indicator circuit, but from what I can see, this would just result in the tell tale bulb not working at all for me. The solution does indeed appear to be the earth kit from Bolt On Bits. Seems like a lot of money, but at least it'll be a nice bright LED dash bulb. Cheers, Jimmy. |
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17th Jan 2019 7:44pm |
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