Indicator Issues - Earth Fault

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Indicator Issues - Earth Fault

johnooo

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ok well just to be a pain when i log in to this forum and start at the home page what is it i click on to start writeing up problems straight away as it took me a while to work it out the last time. lol any way 1 of my problems on my car is when i put my indicater on the rear passanger side is really doll and the brake light flashes like traffic lights with it but only on that side, i fill its a bad earth problem some where but wudnt no where to start looking. any idears
 
If anyone's owned a Ford from 80's to 2000's they will know exactly what this is
363lol.gif

Its a bad rear earth/cluster contact, the reason it happens is, you break and it has just enough earth to bring it on bright, you start using indicators and your trying to earth out two things, the bad earth cant cope, so you get
*bright brake light, then indicate and brake turns into bright dim bright dim bright dim*
Clean every contact and bulb holder, then with a fine paint brush brush the contacts/bulb holders with copper grease. :D
 
Best tool is one of the small glass fibre brushes you can buy online.

I've never understood the logic behind using copper grease. Any grease is better than nothing in that it'll prevent corrosion. Vaseline is better than ordinary grease because it is dielectric (and doesn't stink). Silicone grease is better still and withstands higher temperatures. Copperslip is just ground up copper in ordinary grease.
 
i dont use grease on.my connectors just ensure they are tight and clean

the earth pin will be brown.(rust) or black (overheating/arcin) so ckean it up a good spray with electrcial cleaner spray should sort this for u

i laughed as i saw a 08 transit doing alternating brake and indicators on both sides when turning right

ziggy
 
ok well just to be a pain when i log in to this forum and start at the home page what is it i click on to start writeing up problems straight away as it took me a while to work it out the last time. lol any way 1 of my problems on my car is when i put my indicater on the rear passanger side is really doll and the brake light flashes like traffic lights with it but only on that side, i fill its a bad earth problem some where but wudnt no where to start looking. any idears

stab the dol
thatull do it
 
i dont use grease on.my connectors just ensure they are tight and clean

the earth pin will be brown.(rust) or black (overheating/arcin) so ckean it up a good spray with electrcial cleaner spray should sort this for u

Contact cleaner is the best stuff for low current switches. Were we dealing with a computer or some sophisticated but of electronic hardware, I'd recommend it.

But it's not really up to the job on cars and bikes. The idea of the greases is not to do any cleaning (that you do manually) but to prevent the corrosion re-occuring.

Many years ago one of the Ducati dealers got peed off with the number of bikes coming back for minor electrical problems under warantee. Being a smart guy with more exciting things to do like preparing race bikes for Hailwood and Rutter, he engaged his noggin and decreed that pulling every connector apart and applying a wee bit of silicon grease to each one should be part of the pre-delivery check. Result, a massive drop in electrical warantee issues.
 
say what - dielectric= non conducting


You couldn't have got it more wrong. Most greases are not dielectric. They conduct. Use one of those on some circuits and you'll possibly get feedback or even arcing. Factory fire...............

Contacts are called contacts because that's how they conduct electricity -- by (duh!) contact. They don't need a grease that conducts.

better keeping your vaseline for your "fun nights in". Or spice up your life with copper grease?

In the heterosexual community the use of vaseline for "fun nights in" has fallen out of fashion. It rots rubber so it's no good for use with condoms, and it tastes pretty unpleasant.

Strange you didn't know that! For fun, go water based lubes!
 
How about! Not using grease?
Keep it clean pull the connector out and a wire brush once a year or a smooth micro file?

i use copper grease only on bolts and nuts and on the earthing points - nothing else

Vaseline - never used it - never will got a big tube of copper grease for that :)

Ziggy
 
Copper grease is highly conductive,
it wont rust up, it gives better electrical contact.
just clean up and paint it on the contacts it'll never happen again.
 
by the way modern copper grease is crap its like normal grease with bits in

best to find a tin of proper stuff in grandads shed

vaseline is ideal stuff to ward of gremlins but to be honest the problem lies with the poor quality fiat end bits rather than anything else
 
When i say Earthing points fingers - thats the body to neg and Multiplug to body
100% perfect for the job
Increase conductivity and does resist okay to water spray off the road

in connectors - i dont use anything

The earthing wire - i use a spray once i've done rubbing the pins to down to clean it out thats it

Ziggy
 
When i say Earthing points fingers - thats the body to neg and Multiplug to body
100% perfect for the job
Increase conductivity and does resist okay to water spray off the road

in connectors - i dont use anything

The earthing wire - i use a spray once i've done rubbing the pins to down to clean it out thats it

Ziggy

I disagree (and I think any electrical fitter would) BWTH.
 
When i say Earthing points fingers - thats the body to neg and Multiplug to body
100% perfect for the job
Increase conductivity and does resist okay to water spray off the road

in connectors - i dont use anything

The earthing wire - i use a spray once i've done rubbing the pins to down to clean it out thats it

Ziggy

i want one of those eh errrr buttons;) because a a tight clean connection is the answer rather than a high resistance grease connector

to prove my point try doing a bit of car migging without a good earth connection on car body and also clean bright working area for mig tip
watch for splatter splurge and poor weld though:p
 
i want one of those eh errrr buttons;) because a a tight clean connection is the answer rather than a high resistance grease connector

to prove my point try doing a bit of car migging without a good earth connection on car body and also clean bright working area for mig tip
watch for splatter splurge and poor weld though:p


Never welded on a car im affraid
Only in Weld stations - which is preset up blah blah - you need no details here :)

Ziggy
 
10 years veteran electronics engineer here,:wave:

might put a bit of lithium grease on battery terminals but other than that wouldn't really bother putting grease anywhere else unless you're planning on mud plugging in a big 4x4, that said if you do have problems then a silicon grease is preferable, the last thing you want is to smear Vaseline all over a dodgy earth for it to get hot and ignite the highly flammable petroleum based goo.

Any sort of conductive grease should be kept away from multi plugs as you might end up shorting out the connections.
 
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