Turn signals fast flashing

Your new lights are LED the old ones are incandescent. So the lighter load of an LED is causing the relay to cycle quicker. Google and you will find DIY and plug-n-play what is basically just a resistor of the right load to compensate.

Easiest and possibly cheapest "fix" is to buy electronic relay.

You can purchase a led flasher at any autoparts store, this was the fix I used on my ktm. I do not like the idea of the resistor as it puts an extra load on the wiring harness. It shorts the positive to negative by using resistance.

I got this one from Princess Auto for about $8. My fronts were incand, my rears LED. As mentioned, this one won't work for ALL LED unless you put a resistor.

I went to a Honda dealer during this dilemma. Various parts can be purchased for about $20 for Honda bikes (all LED) or universal ones thru places likes Parts Unlimited.

I went to an electronics component store, but I couldn't get my geek on heavily enough to decipher what all the numbers and symbols meant.

jmscrttndn said:

I got this one from Princess Auto for about $8. My fronts were incand, my rears LED. As mentioned, this one won't work for ALL LED unless you put a resistor.

I went to a Honda dealer during this dilemma. Various parts can be purchased for about $20 for Honda bikes (all LED) or universal ones thru places likes Parts Unlimited.

I went to an electronics component store, but I couldn't get my geek on heavily enough to decipher what all the numbers and symbols meant.

Click to expand...

That is just a electronic version of a regular flasher. It uses a circuit board instead of a metallic heat strip but functions with the same resistance values. You can buy a led flasher from a autoparts store. The flasher will be the same but has a ground strap from the inner workings that creates the resistance required for LED's. My last one purchased was about $25 and two years back.

FE350 said:

You can purchase a led flasher at any autoparts store, this was the fix I used on my ktm. I do not like the idea of the resistor as it puts an extra load on the wiring harness. It shorts the positive to negative by using resistance.

Click to expand...

Together with the led the resistor puts the same load on the wiring harness as an OEM flasher. That is the purpose of that resistor.

It does work and does put a load on the wiring harness, All pending on the resistor. The resistor is usually generic and is not vehicle specific, with this being said the values might be higher than what the engineers designed for the current draw on a specific harness. This could create extra load on the wiring and prematurely wear it out. The led flasher only puts a load on the flasher and not the harness. Most harness manufactures use the minimum gauge possible to save money. I personally would rather not take a chance loading extra current through a harness.
The resistor is a quick fix (and works),but not a correct fix.

FE350 said:

The resistor is a quick fix (and works),but not a correct fix.

Click to expand...

Good points being thrown around... but I will interject.

From a mathematical (engineering) standpoint, the resistor is a perfectly fine solution that will not over-stress the harness IF:
The overall sum of resistance of the LED and Resistor in series does not exceed that of the stock flasher.

I do not happen to be an electrical whiz, but you can easily measure the resistance across the stock signal, then the resistance across the LED, and deduce the required value of Resistor.

Resistor (ohms) = Stock signal (ohms) - LED (ohms)

Also, you could look at the rating of the Flasher Relay to determine the minimum draw that will cause it to function... then buy a resistor to add to the LED to achieve that exact value.

Food for thought.

I was lazy/cheap, so I used incandescent on front; LED on rear to keep circuit resistance high enough to "trip" the flasher relay.

jmscrttndn said:

Good points being thrown around... but I will interject.

From a mathematical (engineering) standpoint, the resistor is a perfectly fine solution that will not over-stress the harness IF:
The overall sum of resistance of the LED and Resistor in series does not exceed that of the stock flasher.

I do not happen to be an electrical whiz, but you can easily measure the resistance across the stock signal, then the resistance across the LED, and deduce the required value of Resistor.

Resistor (ohms) = Stock signal (ohms) - LED (ohms)

Also, you could look at the rating of the Flasher Relay to determine the minimum draw that will cause it to function... then buy a resistor to add to the LED to achieve that exact value.

Food for thought.

I was lazy/cheap, so I used incandescent on front; LED on rear to keep circuit resistance high enough to "trip" the flasher relay.

Click to expand...

Yes this is true and very correct. The point I was trying to get across is that not everyone knows how to sum the values. With this said, most led lights come in many different types, styles and usually do not have the metrics listed with them. Some have 5 led's, some 3 and others have 7 etc. Now who knows what circuit board is in these light systems and most do not know how to test the current draw from the lights and or have the equipment. So without the info we take a guess and add a resistor that who knows what value as most are sealed units? Now we have no idea of what the current draw is in our circuit. Sure everything is working fine, but who knows? Could we be putting extra stress on our harness????? We will not know until the wire melts and or fails in some other way?

So the point was to use a LED flasher in what is the correct way any bike system with LED lights is engineered. Then we do not have to worry about any of the above. It is a small piece of mind to know that you will not have an issue in the future. Led flashers are about the same cost if you look at time involved to placing a resistor into each led circuit, with cost of the resistors, solder, heat shrink tubing. A flasher takes a min to install and works right of the get go without any of the above issues and puts no load on the harness at all.

I do understand resistors are cheap and most just crimp a connector on and tape up and go, but correct installation takes away from future problems.

Yes I see your point and for sure a flasher solves the problem in a very nice way. But at a much higher cost than a few cheap resistors.
I'm not too afraid to put too much heat through the harness because of turn signals. If the hi beam doesn't melt the cable a not perfect resistor with led will not be close. The cables have enough margins, people even connect GPS chargers and what not to the head light. Same cable thickness.

I'm not trying to argue against you, more explaining why I prefer to go the cheap route. I was about to buy a flasher to my CBR because it is a very good solution, but I couldn't as I had a much simpler and cheaper solution that was just as good

jon andersson said:

Yes I see your point and for sure a flasher solves the problem in a very nice way. But at a much higher cost than a few cheap resistors.
I'm not too afraid to put too much heat through the harness because of turn signals. If the hi beam doesn't melt the cable a not perfect resistor with led will not be close. The cables have enough margins, people even connect GPS chargers and what not to the head light. Same cable thickness.

I'm not trying to argue against you, more explaining why I prefer to go the cheap route. I was about to buy a flasher to my CBR because it is a very good solution, but I couldn't as I had a much simpler and cheaper solution that was just as good

Click to expand...

Just a point to think about, just because the wires don't melt does not mean that the wire under the insulation does not wear and become weak, this will create a open in the circuit down the road, I have found many wires broken under the insulation just from someone probing with a test light. A small pinhole in the wire shielding will create a corroded wire and will fail, then it takes a while to find the open in the circuit. It is very true that the circuit will take more of a load then what the load is, but with this said, manufactures cheap out to save money when building. For instance changing one wire in a harness from 16 to 18 gauge can save a manufacture 100's of thousands of dollars during production.

I decided to change my headlight in my Harley from a 55w to a 80w. I was riding and every once in a while my turn signal dash light would come on steady, then my theft system started acting up. I was quite pissed as my bike just had 26k worth of custom work done at a shop. I took it back to them bitching. They said it was nothing possibly that they could have done. Well I put up with it for a while and just didn't have the time lol / or want to start into diag on it as when home from work the last thing I wanted to do was work on my bike. Anyways, my headlight burnt out ( I thought ) I removed the light to find the connector and everything around it was burnt and shorted together. This by just changing to a different bulb. This was a brand new bike off the showroom floor 6 months back, so the only cause to issue was the bulb replacement. It was a lesson well learnt as I should have known better. lol

I don't argue with the resistor and am sure it will be more than fine, Just making conversation

PaulS said:

Thanks for all the feedback!

Finally had a chance to look over the bike today and was ready to do the resistor mod.
To my surprise the signals are actually incandescent as I originally thought. 10w bulbs.

The flasher switch is a tl111 which I believe is an LED flasher?
Perhaps this is my issue? Using incandescent bulbs with and LED flasher ?

Click to expand...

LOL, its an opposite issue The led flasher should work with the incandescent bulbs, also a poor ground to one of the signals will create this issue as well. Check grounds? Yes the tl111 is a ( Sicass ) led flasher.

Bet ya that is what is causing the fast flashing, I am now thinking your running lights are in series and with one removed this will create a fast flash. Allot of automobiles are designed that when a bulb burns out the signal will flash fast, The systems are in series so to warn you a bulb is burnt out. Without the bulb it would act the same as the bulb being burnt out Try putting a new bulb in and see what happens?

PaulS said:

Looking at the wiring for the signals, the BROWN ground wire runs through various other lights including the driving light lamp indicator which has the bulb removed.

Would this cause a short in the system?

Click to expand...

If I remember correct?? The Brown is power and ran in series for the running lights (for some reason Brown is standing out as power but I might be incorrect just thinking out loud??), so you will need to have the bulb in place. Should you be out this way, feel free to drop me a pm and I will be happy to help you with the diag.