Turn signals and hazards don’t work in front

Gotta love that wiring . . .
MrGreen
Posts: 22
Joined: Tue Jun 23, 2015 5:22 pm
Your car is a: 1980 Spider 2000

Turn signals and hazards don’t work in front

Postby MrGreen » Thu Feb 09, 2017 11:11 am

Towards the end of the top down season all my signals stopped working. The Hazards haven’t worked since I got the car 18 mos ago. I read what posts that seemed pertinent. I started by cleaning all the bulbs and connections in the rear. This got some life out of the rear signals. I looked under the dash and found a wire coming off the headlight switch that had completely burned through its covering. I traced it (taking off the dash) to the lighter and since I don’t need it removed it and repaired some of its neighbors it had burnt along the way. I also found a “mystery switch” spliced into the red wire from the hazard switch. I tested the flasher unit with a bench top power supply and it fires at a good rate at 12V.

This is what I have at the moment
All parking lights front and back work
Break lights work
Rear signal will work, left slower than right, both faster if I give the battery a boost with the charger (can’t run the engine just now because the garage is snowed in)
No signal lights up front.
Rear hazards come on strong with good rate only if mystery switch is on
No hazards up front.
Any thoughts?

MrGreen
Posts: 22
Joined: Tue Jun 23, 2015 5:22 pm
Your car is a: 1980 Spider 2000

Re: Turn signals and hazards don’t work in front

Postby MrGreen » Sat Feb 11, 2017 10:10 pm

Two days, 31 views and no replies-not a good sign that there is a simple fix.
More data.
I cleaned off and replaced some of the fuses. Alarmingly there were a lot more 16 and 25 fuses in 8amp slots. After that I took off the covers on the front turn signals and roughed up the sockets a little. This got the front lights blinking for both signals and hazards but not too bright and the left is still noticeably slower than the right. Side markers come on with lights but don’t blink with signals. Tring to figure out how to reach them. Still feels like I’m losing voltage somewhere.
I’m also wondering if the fuses are higher amp to make up for aftermarket stuff like fog lights and alarm system.

User avatar
Nanonevol
Patron 2018
Patron 2018
Posts: 828
Joined: Thu Nov 13, 2014 9:17 am
Your car is a: 1977 Fiat 124 Spider
Location: Medway, Massachusetts

Re: Turn signals and hazards don’t work in front

Postby Nanonevol » Sun Feb 12, 2017 7:58 am

The side lights don't normally flash with the blinkers although some people wire them to do so.
1977 Fiat Spider
1985 Jaguar XJ6
1967 Triumph Bonneville (hard-tail chopper)
1966 BSA Lightning

spider2081
Patron 2024
Patron 2024
Posts: 2967
Joined: Fri Jan 27, 2006 11:45 pm
Your car is a: 1981 Spider 2000
Location: Wallingford,CT
Contact:

Re: Turn signals and hazards don’t work in front

Postby spider2081 » Sun Feb 12, 2017 9:27 pm

You mention the parking lights work front and back. Do you feel they are proper brilliance? If not I would check the ground spiders on both front fender wells under the hood. The front light sockets, signal and parking lights share the same ground. A poor ground connection will effect signal light brightness and speed the light flashes.

profcucchi
Posts: 248
Joined: Sun Oct 23, 2011 2:12 pm
Your car is a: 1979 Fiat 2000
Location: Toronto, On

Re: Turn signals and hazards don’t work in front

Postby profcucchi » Sat Mar 04, 2017 5:51 pm

Good afternoon,

#1 Do whatever spider2081 says

I added new LED head lamps and I had the exact same symptoms you did. Solution was I needed a modern flasher unit; and some rewiring.

Start with the grounds: clean and clean and remake if you have to. Check wiring from the PO that looks wrong; after a while it becomes apparent. And, lastly, refer to #1
1979 Fiat 2000 "Luigi"


Return to “Electrical Issues”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 44 guests