Indicator light sticking and clicking relay

[phil_r]

Evening,

Drove down to Birmingham last night and just after Nottingham had a relay noise clicking light I wasn't wearing my seat belt. Checked all was ok with the seat belts and it was. Later after indicating left after overtaking a lorry the indicator didn't turn off even with the stalk in the middle. Tried indicating right and both left and right indicators where now on......this was sorted it self after a few seconds and I was very aware of potential for random indicators on! Whilst this was going on I had intermittent relay clicking with periods of minutes of silence then minutes of clicking.

Had a look this evening and it seems to off burnt out something in the indicator switch, looks like two resistors but I haven't pulled it fully apart yet. When it was connected and ignition on there was definitely smoke and you could almost see something brightening up red inside the unit.

The headlight function and cruise control are fine, disconnected the indicator function and the relay clicking is no more and headlight full beam works but of course no indicators at all!!

Has anyone heard of this? Seen a thread from a while back but the solution wasn't posted. I suspect I just need to change the indicator stalk but am concerned that something else may of caused it to burn out?????

Just need to try and get a replacement switch from home down here which would be easier if I had a address. Joys of old cars!

[phil_r]

Panic now over. Accepted I might as well dismantle the stalk in my hotel room and found that what the grease on the end of the contact was burning out. Presumably the grease has some copper which had transferred of the contacts and then shorted. Only a theory but all I did was clean of the grease which stank of burning put it back together and hey presto all seems ok.

Photos to follow but I'm not taking it apart again till I get home as its working at the moment and I need it Thursday evening to escape Birmingham. Going to swap it over anyway with the one of my old car as it has always felt a little strange and not smooth but didn't think anything off it.

[bobthecabbage]

You might find its now fine (no guarantees!).

I had this on an old car (minus the smoke and burning admittedly) and I think maybe I cleaned up the contacts twice in nine years and its still going strong.

[dralphs]

Hope it is working ok now.
If it does start ticking again at odd times at the same speed as the seatbelt warning but the indicators seem otherwise ok its probably the indicator relay itself.

Mine started doing that a couple of weeks ago, fast ticking at odd intervals, all seatbelts ok and indicators themselves ok. Changed the relay and all ok.

[foxhole]

Originally Posted by phil_r

Evening,

Drove down to Birmingham last night and just after Nottingham had a relay noise clicking light I wasn't wearing my seat belt. Checked all was ok with the seat belts and it was. Later after indicating left after overtaking a lorry the indicator didn't turn off even with the stalk in the middle. Tried indicating right and both left and right indicators where now on......this was sorted it self after a few seconds and I was very aware of potential for random indicators on! Whilst this was going on I had intermittent relay clicking with periods of minutes of silence then minutes of clicking.

Had a look this evening and it seems to off burnt out something in the indicator switch, looks like two resistors but I haven't pulled it fully apart yet. When it was connected and ignition on there was definitely smoke and you could almost see something brightening up red inside the unit.

The headlight function and cruise control are fine, disconnected the indicator function and the relay clicking is no more and headlight full beam works but of course no indicators at all!!

Has anyone heard of this? Seen a thread from a while back but the solution wasn't posted. I suspect I just need to change the indicator stalk but am concerned that something else may of caused it to burn out?????

Just need to try and get a replacement switch from home down here which would be easier if I had a address. Joys of old cars!

You might find the problem re-occurs , had intermittent problems with indicators for a few month, new relay sorted it.

[phil_r]

Few photos showing the inside of the switch and what I did;

Removed the steering wheel cowl, 3 screws under steering wheel. With that out of the way removed 2 small screws holding on the indicator switch. Wiring disconnected and pulled the unit out.

There are 2 small Phillips screws holding the 2 sections of the switch together, remove them both and carefully prise the little black plastic clips and it pulls apart.



You can see below the copper contacts, it basically seems to join the middle contact to one either side when you move the stalk. My problem was the grease which I removed with a rag was shorting out between two of the contacts, burning and glowing red. You can see the tracks it makes when being pushed up and down.




Once I did this all worked ok, apart from occasionally indicating right the switch wasn't making contact. I have now swapped out with the one in my old car which works fine.

Hope that helps someone out in the future. There does appear to be a variety of different switches as well, and not just cruise control/ no cruise control as my 2001 petrol is majorly different to the switch in a 2002 diesel and both had cruise control.

[SOJ Blackburn]

I have exactly the same problem and will look forward to taking the steps that you have taken. I will post on here if it works, because this is mightily frustrating and I have already replaced a relay at a cost of £13...