Technical Indicator lights not working

[Tipo19GR]

Hello,

I hope you are all enjoying Tipo ownership

I took my ‘96 1.4 i.e. out of the garage after a cold winter and I will not mention that I backed it straight into the family car that stood in the driveway. Oops. The damage is not too bad and will be fixed soon. Anyway, the Tipo is driving really well, but I did encounter one issue that I have to solve before I go to the technical assessment next month. The problem is that the front left indicator as well as the indicator on the left front wing are not working. The relay clicks twice as fast to indicate the problem, however it seems the bulbs are not at fault. They were replaced with different bulbs but that did not fix things. I must note that the indicator on the rear left works fine.

I checked the fuse box and it looks all good. I also looked at the earth point front left next to the battery tray and it seems all clean. I sprayed some electrical cleaner but no luck. I looked at the electrical schematics for the 1.4 Tipo in Haynes, Porter and the two German books that I have in my possession and I conclude that if it was a problem with the line, the windscreen wipers should also give issues, however they work fine. So, if that amateur assessment is right, it would suggest that the cause is a bad earth. I have also cleaned the contacts at the sockets of the indicator bulbs.

My next step then was measuring the sockets both earth and line. The earth gave a resistance above zero when connected to the engine block or the mass cable at the battery, it was around 0,4. The line gave a voltage of 9+ when I used the emergency indicators which is odd but I am not sure whether that is a result of my multimeter not being able to follow the speed at which the relay turns the signal on and off. I am no electrician as you already guessed.

Is there anyone who can advise on how to proceed to diagnose the problem?

 

[jonti]

backed it straight into the family car

I did same in the Spring. My replacement rear light came from Deutschland. Yes, I had a few of these issues, in my case I traced it to the hazard warning switch which seemed to be affecting the current in some way.

 

[Tipo19GR]

Good evening! I received my new light cluster and the car is in for painting. So I will try to forget this mistake as quickly as I can

I fixed the indicator lights, the culprit was the socket of the front left fender indicator which was rusted. Fixed with sand paper and wd40

 

[jonti]

Good evening! I received my new light cluster and the car is in for painting. So I will try to forget this mistake as quickly as I can

I fixed the indicator lights, the culprit was the socket of the front left fender indicator which was rusted. Fixed with sand paper and wd40

Glad you are getting that sorted. I need to fix the Tipo's dent to the Scenic. Tried a trip into Manchester yesterday, but the fault light on all the way and misbehaving on the way home. The new TPS I plonked where the old one was, was reading 2.5v (researching all this today, they say 0.5 to 1.5v). At 1.5v, seems initially to be running ok, as any less and it cuts out. No idea where we would find the intended value.

 

[Tipo19GR]

Mine is also silver with fog lights Did you make sure to align the tps exactly where the old one came out? I have read that some spray paint it first

 

[jonti]

Mine is also silver with fog lights

Somewhere on here, I think you posted a picture of it? Maybe another is due after the repairs? I used the paint method, but it seems a new unit won't be the same and requires calibration. As I think you've said before, garaqes are not keen, so we solve ourselves.