Gah! Off on holiday tomorrow (driving to Okehapmpton from Cambs)
Car (2000 X reg mondeo Estate) has picked today to develop a fault.
With the car lights on, the off side indicators don't flash, they just light up. Lights off they work fine.
I guess some sort of fault/short is causing them to come on with the lights. I'm off to have a look now, but any tips for tracking it down if it doesn't get done quickly?
chris French gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
I'd be looking for a poor earth to probably the rear light cluster.
Agreed - seems common on Fords. Do the brake lights also affect it and possibly dim a little as the indicator tries to flash.
In message , John writes
No don't think the problem was that, didn't get those symptoms. I've had that problem before on other cars/the trailer.
The problems has now gone away (as opposed to being fixed). I poked about it bit, checking connections, checking light clusters etc. and now it's working ok.
Which is of course unsatisfactory, 'cos don't know if there is a problem waiting to re-occur, but just have to wait and see I guess.
chris French gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
Is the indicator working?
Yes-no-yes-no-yes-no...
In message , Adrian writes
Nope, but it does go no-yes-no-yes-no-yes......
That is *such* an old joke. Didn't stop my oily mender chap from using it recently, though.
Earthing is a likely contender but another one is sometimes an apparently un-related blown fuse in the fuse box. could be worth a check. Otherwise brush up on your hand signals!!
Bob
Empty the half pint of water trapped in the rear light cluster?
In message , chris French wrote
In older cars it took the current in both flasher bulbs in order for the lights to flash and a very slow flash or the remaining bulb just stuck on was a sign of a blown bulb at the other end of the car.
Not the ones I use!
However the hand signals in the Highway code are still legal.
That is not how I remember it. The remaining bulb would flash at twice the speed making the flasher unit sound demented.
In message , Alan writes
Yeah, but these worked fine when the main lights weren't turned on.
Hi Can't remember if the Mondeo has the light switch and indicators on the same stalk if it does check the ring that turns on the lights if its sloppy (side to side) the switch can short out when the lights are turned on.(spent hrs looking for it years ago) if not ignore post..
CJ
In message , cj writes
:-) thanks.
No, it has the lights on a knob on the dash
Goh that used to happen with bad earths in the lighting cluster with mechanical flashers
Thought i'd seen the last of it circa 1980
Most mondeos I have seen have no lights and a knob a bit behind the dash.
Mondeo man. That's the name of it.
I had something similar when a dual-filament stop-rear bulb developed a short between the two filaments.
My father-in-law back in the eighties was very proud of his Fiat 128 because he had noticed that the manufacturers had arranged it so that the front side lights came on when you braked so that pedestrians at crossings knew you were stopping. He was quite miffed when, after I replaced the shorting dual filament bulb that fed stop light current straight into the side light circuit, it didn't do it any more.
I found my problem when I noticed that the engine kept running after I switched off the ignition but stopped when I took my foot off the foot-brake.
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