[Moph]

Last time I went offroad the Zook developed a funny symptom after she'd been banging around on the rocks for a while ... while driving along with the headlights on, the indicator light on the dash gradually fades on, then off a bit, then on, etc. Occasionally I think it builds up enough charge to actually fire one of the bulbs (LEDs up front; incandescent side and rear) and goes off suddenly and completely before building up charge again.

Any ideas as to where it'd be building up this charge? It's almost like its got an inductance loop or something that's just building up a bit of charge. Can't see it happening during the day (headlights off) but that could just be because it's normally quite faint. Should test it with headlights off at night I guess.

Suggestions??

[SuziBlu]

I had weird things going on with my zook, turn lights on, temp gauge goes into instant boil, indicators sporatic at best.

The earth lead to the body was below par, I used a nice big heavy duty earth strap, no more issue.

[Moph]

Nah general earthing is fine - got a 100A strap from the block to the chassis plus a 0 gauge (thereabouts) cable from alternator to battery. Shouldn't be an issue there.

[royce]

so by indicator you mean little green arrow light? right hand one by any chance?

[SuziBlu]

Don't tell me the bloody fuse again ?

If it is, that lil bugger has a lot to answer for.

[SuziBlu]

Moph wrote:

Nah general earthing is fine - got a 100A strap from the block to the chassis plus a 0 gauge (thereabouts) cable from alternator to battery. Shouldn't be an issue there.

Try an earth lead from the negative side of the battery to the body. When I was having issues, there was a lead, small and quite melted.

300 amp welding led did the trick.

[Moph]

No Royce - it's both of them in sync. That's what's really weird.

SuziBlu - will check earth lead from battery to body. Am pretty sure I've got a smaller 8G or so in there but it could have rattled loose.

[royce]

I think things to look at would be things common to both those lights, I dont suppose when the dash lights come on youve checked to see if the indicators outside are on too

Could be worth looking at the hazard switch, its common to both though I dont know how it would light up without flashing or buzzing the flasher

The earth point for the earth circuit for those lights, if that earth is funny, whatever else earths through the same line would travel through the lights in the dash, down the indicator wires, through the indicators and earth via the indicators earth (though I would think with LEDS this would be unlikely as the current would be very low, are the rears normal bulbs?)

Do any gauges go funny at the same time?

[Moph]

Nah gauges don't go haywire - just the indicators. Yep the rears are normal incandescents still. Normally happens when driving so haven't managed to check whether the outside indicators are on too

Suspect not though because the indicator light is really pretty faint. Not enough that either my iPhone or digicam will pick up on it. Enough though to be pretty noticeable by eye.

Ah no stress. Am taking it out hunting Fri night so will have a play with it then. Thanks for the ideas - given me things to check =)

[royce]

If you can reach up behind the dash and grag the loom plug give it a wiggle to clean it a bit and check the earth screws along the dash support bar are tight

[Moph]

Okay ... found the "solution" ... both brake lights were blown No idea how or why, but that's what was causing the issues.

Actually not blown ... just not coming on. Give the bulbs a tap and they'd come on. Reseating them didn't help so I replaced them (they looked fine) and everything has worked fine since. Brakes okay, indicator lights not fading in/out.

Weird....

[bazook]

may need to do the earths on your tail lights or sand the terminals in tail lights