Intermittent near side rear indicator issue

GMJ

GMJ

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My near side rear indicator has developed an irritating fault. It occasionally decide to flash for no reason. It may do this once/twice in fairly quick succession and then not bother for 20 mins or for 10 hours or longer!

The MH is stationary and plugged into a 16A EHU supply.

The sound is a double click 'tick-tock' type noise as per the usual indicator noise.

Any ideas how I can investigate?
 
Basically when you flick your indicator lever you actuate a trafficator switch.
It’s entirely possible that you have a faulty switch which is closing the circuit without you dipping the lever. But there are more possibilities.
 
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Switch or indicator relay going down, most likely the relay, you can now by electronic units which are better than the old coil and points units, you can also adjust the speed on the electronic ones
 
mark61 said:
If it were switch or relay, wouldn't all the indicators on that side flash?
Click to expand...
Should do, also may be a stray short over other wires back tracking, have you a tow ball connector by any chance, clean all the bulb contacts and holders and see how it goes.
 
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Rock the van, wiggle the loom under the van and clean the hitch electronic box.
do they all work good when vans started up ?. Are they as bright as otherside when in-service, hazards work ?

Is it full of water ?
 
mark61 said:
If it were switch or relay, wouldn't all the indicators on that side flash?
Click to expand...
They could all be flashing on that side, he must be standing at the back to notice the rear light, it would be difficult to see the front at the same time
 
Thanks all. Great responses as usual. (y)

Trying to pick up on the points...

- We have no hitch.

- The noise is coming exclusively from the back rear corner of the MH when we are inside. Outside I cant hear it but with the random indicator flashes that is why I put 2 and 2 together.

- I'll try and have a closer look later but as the ground is sodden with more rain to come, I cant get underneath until we get somewhere dry as we are touring in Spain at the mo!
 
Right!

I spent most of yesterday afternoon underneath the MH trying to sort this problem out.

Firstly I thought to check out one of the rear LED indicator clusters as it has some small external damage due to my incident last year in Italy. There were some cables visible underneath but they looked good. I also unscrewed the LED unit out and the connection was sound to that. I also managed to remove a small piece of panel underneath the MH to access some more of the cabling but it al looked good.

Next I traced the clicking sound to the Sargent VLM5 LED control unit which was in my garage. I checked the plugs were connected properly in there and then started to isolate each plug and time the clicking noises to see which (if any) plug helped the problem. By doing this I identified 1 plug so then traced that back to the EM40 floor fuse box behind my drivers seat.

I then removed the corresponding plug in the EM40 which was basically the 2 wire power circuit to the rear VLM5. Job done!

The clicking has stopped but I must remember to put the plug back in when we are travelling as it controls the rear LED's.

I have emailed both Sargent and the dealer who installed my new EM40 in November 2022 as this is now the second thing wrong with the EM40 on this trip as the plug/socket for the fridge control burned out a couple of weeks ago. I have had a response from Sargent on this and will update with some interesting news from them in due course, when I have had replies to yesterday's emails.
 
Better to bin these over complicated systems and go simple with all separate units.
electrics .jpg
 
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