LED turn signals.. Strange problem

[ctcamper]

I have been running the same bulbs for about 4 years. They were working fine on the last coach. Now I am getting a problem where the opposite bulb will flash very faintly when the turn signal is on for the other light.
Example: turn on left signal and the left bulb is nice and bright and working correctly and the right bulb is very faintly flashing.
All other functions work normally .. parking... brake no problem.

I double checked the wiring yesterday.. no shorts everything is golden. I changed out the bulbs for incandescent and they work normal.

I am wondering if I need to get a new flasher.
I might clean the bulb ground contact area today but I doubt that is the problem.. but you never know.. I thought of this after I finished and closed up the lenses

Just in case I did order a new set of LED turn/brake signal lights .. they say 5 watts draw just in case that is the problem.. maybe the older led bulbs I have aren't drawing enough?

Any suggestions?

[Rick & Hope]

Check your grounds

[stuhly]

Very likely a ground problem.

[JohnRR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick & Hope Check your grounds

I have to agree with that.

[ctcamper]

Thanks .. I will check the bulb grounds then. I did ohm out the ground wires to the bulb housing and it was good. I have the ground wire soldered onto the housing as it's a plastic lens cover. The only weak link would be the bulb. I have dielectric grease on that .. I will wipe and lightly sand the surface.

Gotta love these little unplanned problems lol ... esp when there is so much else to be done..

[bigskymt]

I'd think a bad ground would more likely manifest itself with higher current draw lamps then an LED.
A feedback through the switch, trailer light harness or even turn signal indicators (or dash) may provide enough leakage to energize an LED. A filament type bulb would quickly draw off those few leaking mA.
Do both sides work identically? What if you replace only one side with an incandescent?

[ctcamper]

I replaced both LED's with some LED units that had 5 watt draw and the problem is gone. Works great again.
I still can't figure out why both lights started doing that after so much time of working fine. I checked the wiring in the plug, the harness, the connector and all was perfect.
If I used one incandescent the other would not ghost flash either. Since I set up my van with the same connector I tried it on that and it did the same...
It works again so I am good to go. I got the bulbs from overseas.. they were set up with two small pc boards with the leds on them, the top board was held to the bottom with just the wires for the led's. I couldn't put them in the socket without breaking those wires as it was twisting so much so I had to order some thermal epoxy... a few dabs of that and no problem

[wa8yxm]

This should not happen with LED's but the advice to check your grounds is hearby seconded.

Now if you have tungsten bulbs mixed in. That might do it

But the problem is a ground, at least one lamp has a bad ground.

[ctcamper]

I would think, but I have ground wires soldered to the socket and connected to frame in back and front and to MH. All were good.

[mahon1993]

Do you have any diodes installed in the lamp circuit for toad or trailer lamps, such as going from a two lamp system to a one lamp system? Diodes can fail or "leak" backwards.
Greg

[YC1]

Sure smells of a ground issue. Here is a way to prove it. Get a long enough piece of wire such as speaker wire and run it to the negative terminal of your battery. Find which side of your light is hot. Get it acting silly and apply your temporary ground to the other side. If the issue clears there is your answer. You might have to connect that temp ground to both sockets to eliminate the issue.