Indicator and steering? Time for some fault finding.

[Lazy-Ferret]

Since my car has a problem with injector number 1 and I am awaiting parts, I have been using Jiggly for running around in.... I have now found 2 new problems with her...

Firstly, "sometimes", infrequently, when I indicate to turn right, it blows the indicator/hazard fuse... The first couple of times, before replacing it, I connected a meter, but everything was ok. I put a new fuse in, and it's fine for a while, then just as I relax, it does it again.

The nearest I have found, although this was only today, so not 100% proved, is it seems to do it when pulling away on an up incline, turning right, obviously with the indicator on.. By the time you can safely pull over, it's all back to normal again...

I have gone round, with the hazards on, moving the wires behind the rear lights and front lights, but it has no effect, so I do not think it is the obvious wires/connectors that normally give issues.

Now... I am not proud of this bit, but I got desperate, so the last time I replaced the fuse, instead of a 10amp, I put in a 15 amp!!! Now, instead of blowing the fuse, the dash light goes dull, and flashes really fast, so obviously a short, but not a full on one.

Any ideas on how to fault find this further as I can not get it to do it on the drive, and apart from the possible clues about the incline, I have no idea how to make it happen?

The second thing is, when I turn right, the lock is nowhere near as tight as the Left lock, and is at least 10 foot bigger than my cars full lock... The obvious thing would be the steering stops, but before I start playing with them, is there anything else to look for... The tracking is also a long way out so I was wondering if this could be linked... all the linkages are nice and tight, so not worn ball joints.

Again, any clues?

 

[Thomas61]

Hi.
Not suggesting this is your indicator problem, but a friend of mine had a very similar issue. Turned out he had water in his indicator lens that would cover his bulb and holder then blow the fuse if he stopped facing down hill whilst indicating right. If he just sloshed the water about whilst indicating on the level it would cause the indicator light on the dash to flash quicker. He always waited for the weather to dry out before trying to fix it, by then the water had evaporated or drained down then could not find the fault. Got there in the end but frustated him along the way.

Good luck

 

[Lazy-Ferret]

Hi.
Not suggesting this is your indicator problem, but a friend of mine had a very similar issue. Turned out he had water in his indicator lens that would cover his bulb and holder then blow the fuse if he stopped facing down hill whilst indicating right. If he just sloshed the water about whilst indicating on the level it would cause the indicator light on the dash to flash quicker. He always waited for the weather to dry out before trying to fix it, by then the water had evaporated or drained down then could not find the fault. Got there in the end but frustated him along the way.

Good luck

Funny you should say that, I did a look round for water, as had that same problem in the past on a BL car. On this T2, the front indicators are the clear ones with the orange bulb, so easy to see if there was water in there, and the rear are harder, but look OK, will take them out and check properly in the morning.

 

[jims-terrano]

Firstly whip that 15amp fuse out if you haven't already.

Someone posted this issue. Wiring loom behind the rear bumper lights had worn through and it was causing this exact issue.

Also check any tow bar wiring.

 

[macabethiel]

Don't know if it is only on the r3mR models but on my old Terrano when you put the indicators on with the sidelights on - the sidelight would brighten on that side.

If this is the case with the standard Terrano could be water in the sidelamp unit or whatever it does to make the sidelight brighter. I think the idea was to make the lights brighter on the neaside if you were turning left and visa versa for turning right. Some modern cars have a similar thing with the fog light coming on with the turn signal.

 

[solarman216]

in my teens I worked for a garage, BMC dealers their answer was to put a bolt in the fuse and watch for the smoke, Rick

 

[Lazy-Ferret]

I will have a look tomorrow, now you mention it, I did take the rear bumper off to get to the wiring, after discovering the grommet was pulled out...

Cheers

in my teens I worked for a garage, BMC dealers their answer was to put a bolt in the fuse and watch for the smoke, Rick

:lol:lol Mind you, they only had 3 fuses for the entire car...

When I was a Kid, I used to go out with my dad sometimes, when he serviced or fixed the pub fruit machines.... My job was to be given a pile of coins and keep playing the machine till it went wrong... I always remember to one where every so often it would blow the fuse, dad would have a dig around, replace the machine, and I would then spend the next 20minsor so playing it, till it went again... Anyway, after about 2 hours, we are getting bored, and no closer to finding the fault, so Dad replaced the fuse with a wing nut...

After about 10 mins of playing, huge bang, and the sound of stuff hitting the wall behind the fruit machine, which had no back on.

This relay had literally blown to pieces, and was now hardly recognisable as a relay.

It turned out that the relay causing the issues, had a manufacturing fault, where the switched mains side was shorting to the low voltage coil side when it tripped, but this was a special relay with a timer circuit in it, so an earlier event would trigger it, but it would not actually flip until several other events had occurred. We actually found a fault that had been evading all the other engineers for a few weeks.

 

[Terrano Steve]

For your wheel alignment issue check that someone hasn't fitted the pitman arm on to steering box off centred ( say one spline out)

 

[briggie]

my indicators are intermittent ........ on / off/on/off :augie

 

[emjaybee]

my indicators are intermittent ........ on / off/on/off :augie

I have a similar problem with my hazard lights.

:nenau

 

[Mav96]

I have a similar problem with my hazard lights.

:nenau

& I have similar problem with my brain :doh

 

[Lazy-Ferret]

For your wheel alignment issue check that someone hasn't fitted the pitman arm on to steering box off centred ( say one spline out)

Thats a good call, how would I know if it was one spline out, is there some sort of marker I can look for?

 

[Terrano Steve]

As you have another to compare with I would park them side by side with wheels straight ahead then check to see if pitman arm appears to be at same angle. I can't think of any other way to check with out actually taking it off.

I have never removed pitman arm from a terrano & don't even know that it is possible to fit it one spline out as it may have a master spline but I have seen it on a hilux.

 

[Lazy-Ferret]

Firstly whip that 15amp fuse out if you haven't already.

Someone posted this issue. Wiring loom behind the rear bumper lights had worn through and it was causing this exact issue.

Also check any tow bar wiring.

Good call, I took the rear N/S rear light out, and had a grope where the wires come out the back of the car, which promptly blew the fuse again.. finally worked out the wire had rubbed against the edge of the metal bumper apron, so I have put a temp cover over the wire until it stops raining long enough to remove the rear bumper and do the job properly. So glad I ran the towbar wire in flexible conduit now.

As you have another to compare with I would park them side by side with wheels straight ahead then check to see if pitman arm appears to be at same angle. I can't think of any other way to check with out actually taking it off.

I have never removed pitman arm from a terrano & don't even know that it is possible to fit it one spline out as it may have a master spline but I have seen it on a hilux.

I think I will wait for better weather to start that... I guess I could easily check to see if on full lock it touches the stops though, that would give me a clue if it is the box, or the stops hindering it going any further.

 

[jims-terrano]

Good news Clive, now you'll be paranoid about the ferret truck:doh

 

[solarman216]

Thats a good call, how would I know if it was one spline out, is there some sort of marker I can look for?

The drop arm/pitman arm is master splined, but if you can find my recent steering box strip thread you will see there is a marker where the steering wheel shaft enters the box when aligned this is the straight ahead position, Rick

 

[Lazy-Ferret]

Good news Clive, now you'll be paranoid about the ferret truck:doh

:lol

Actually that is another one of those differences between the 1999 and 2002 trucks, the rear light wires on my older truck, come out in a thin plastic trunking and then go directly to the light connectors etc, so are fairly well protected, but on the later truck, the wires pass through the grommet, where they are only wrapped it in a bit of insulting tape. They then make their way to a pair of connectors that the true Nissan tow bar wiring would plug into before heading off to the lights. Because of this, they are unprotected for a couple of inches before they go into the connectors, and it was here that rubbed.

 

[Lazy-Ferret]

The drop arm/pitman arm is master splined, but if you can find my recent steering box strip thread you will see there is a marker where the steering wheel shaft enters the box when aligned this is the straight ahead position, Rick

Ahhh, so I would need to check the steering wheel side if that was the case...

Thanks Rick.

 

[solarman216]

Just looked back through the thread to see the reason to ask this, and see you have unequal locks, this will be due to track rod ends each side being adjusted unequally, and so your steering box at straight ahead will be off the ahead position, it is vitally important that the box is at straight ahead when the other steering geometry is also straight ahead because the box is taper machined to be tight in the ahead position and goes slack very soon after, you can check this easily by putting it on lock and checking steering wheel free play, there will be a fair bit, Rick