YSK that if your turn signal is blinking unusually fast (like 3 or more times a second), it generally means you have a bulb out.
YSK that if your turn signal is blinking unusually fast (like 3 or more times a second), it generally means you have a bulb out.
Why YSK: Your signals alert other drivers as to what you're doing; a signal bulb costs a few bucks and is usually a quick and easy repair to do yourself (consult YouTube); and any place that regulates motor vehicles probably requires you to have working turn signals. So knowing when and how to replace a burned out signal bulb can save you an interaction with law enforcement.
Adding: You can diagnose which bulb is out by turning on your hazard lights and checking all four corners of your car. It'll be the one not flashing.
This is also probably a good time to check your brake lights. Put something heavy on the pedal or have a friend hold it down and check that all three brake lights illuminate. Replacing a burned out brake light is also usually pretty cheap, quick, and easy.
I sometimes back into parking spaces that are in front of a glass storefront so I can see that my brake lights are working.
This is really smart. Considering tail light will get you pulled over, this can save you some pain. I never figured out a good way to check on my own. Thanks!
Put on your emergency lights and walk around the vehicle?
Oh for brake lights, yeah, some weight probably works best, or backing near something and seeing if it lights up, don't even need a window
This 'hyperflash'ing will also happen if you have replaced an incandescent bulb with an LED bulb due to the different power requirements.
LEDs draw so much less power that they don't draw enough current through the flasher relay. The relay will then think that the bulb is burned out.
To fix hyperflash due to having installed LED bulbs you can wire a resistor inline or replace the flasher unit with a unit designed for LED bulbs.Yeah. And that's why fitting arbitrary bulbs in your car isn't allowed in some countries. You have to use something that is certified for use in your specific car. It's the same thing with the normal headlights. You'll annoy and blind oncoming traffic if you manage to get the wrong bulbs in. At least in some cases.
Yes, there is mandatory inspection every 2 years here. Your car will absolutely fail if you use some uncertified shit.
Blinkers will flash fast with trailer hooked up too if there is a light duty flasher.
You should also know that (most?) Auto Parts stores will either loan you a screwdriver to change the bulb, or actually do it for you. For free.
Be prepared, though. It's easier in some vehicles than others. Some will require you to move other things out of the way first just to get to the bulb. The bright side is these days there's a YouTube video for everything.
Additionally, if your dash goes dark, your tail lights/brake lights are likely dead.
So you mean if you see the dashboard indicator going fast, the bulb outside is burnt?
Yes
Or dying
You can’t see the bulb from inside so that’s how they warn you
This is like "I'm 16 and just got my car" level of YSK.
Fun Fact: in the dominican republic it's very common for cars to never get any replacement bulbs whatsoever throughout the life of the vehicle. The amount of cars you find on the roads with no working lights is terrifying, just like how their drivers behave in traffic.
This is like "I'm 16 and just got my car" level of YSK.
For you and me it is, but a lot of people don't really know much about their vehicles, or haven't had the opportunity to learn everything about them.
It's never too late to learn something new.
Not everybody knows what you know.
You'd be surprised at how many people drive for decades without ever having lifted their own hood.
But more importantly, how drivers behave to pedestrians?
signal bulb costs a few bucks and is usually a quick and easy repair to do yourself
Heh. $200 sealed units are fun.
Or you have a blown fuse.
I don't believe so. The clicking is from the bimetal strip that flexes due to electrical resistance heating up the strip and repeatedly breaks then connects again as the metal cools and makes contact. A blown fuse would not send electricity to the blinkers to cause the rapid blinking. The reason it blinks faster with a blown bulb is there's more voltage to the strip so it heats up faster and breaks the connection sooner but doesn't allow it to heat up enough to cause a longer off delay.
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This is the most utterly incorrect thing I've read this week 😂 Bimetallic strips? That type of lamp hasn't been in use since the 1970s! And even then wasn't used for indicators, just for warning lamps for roadworks!
Even a car from the 1960s onwards will blink at double speed when the (perfectly ordinary) bulb pops. If the relay detects a broken circuit, that's what it does
What's the Lemmy version of r/confidentlyincorrect?
Mines fast because that's where I store my meth.
Quick and easy fix for me is 2 hours of tearing apart the entire front end to access the bulb. On a Chevy.
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Everyone with a car should be checking their signals at least once a week.
Park near either a reflective surface or close enough to a wall that you can see the lights individually. Apply your brakes make sure all of them light up, turn your signals on and make sure front and back on both left and right side flash, with emergency brake applied go into neutral and take your foot off the brake to make sure your reverse lights work, test your high beams and fog lights.
I miss having a car that didn't have timed pulses, like where if you tap it once you always get 3 blinks. I used to love overtaking people sat in the middle lane and then mash-tapping my inside indicator, as if to say "RRRAAHHH YOU SHOULD MOVE OVER!!" and then I would latch it on and blink normally while I pulled to the inside clear lane. Half the time, people understood what I was getting at and moved over themselves.
The other move on middle lane hoggers was to overtake them, move to the inside lane, slow down so they pass you and then move out and overtake them again. The game was to count how many times you could do this before they moved over. I never got a very high score.
You're kind of an a*hole for doing the latter. But I get it. Middle lane hoggers are amongst the worst. And I have no good solution to offer.
Honestly the best solution, as with most traffic annoyances, is just to quietly curse at them as you go about your day and let the police deal with enforcing the laws.
When trying to teach someone a lesson, you might get the occasional person who was absent-mindedly being annoying, but most people are just going to come away from the interaction thinking YOU are the asshole. Not to mention the person who is being an asshole on purpose looking for confrontation...
I'd agree that it's kind of asshole-ish, but not full blown asshole. However, it's perfectly legitimate to do, meanwhile sitting in the middle lane is explicitly illegal in most cases. I did find that it was better to slow down with the brakes, if only lightly to show the lights, as just taking your foot off the throttle was more likely to confuse. Also, I was sure to make it two separate lane change maneuvers with clear space in front of them, not just sweeping across two lanes across someone's nose.
Also, slowing down so that they pass you inevitably hurts you, as you end up accelerating more than necessary and reducing your fuel economy. Tbh, I don't do it that often, precisely for that reason.
Frankly, I wish beginner driving instructors would teach what I learned in advanced driver training:
If you're not overtaking something within 10 seconds, you should move to the inside lane.
I ended up working to 7 seconds, as I found 10 seconds was sometimes hard to judge at distance, and by the time I hummed over it I was well within the bounds of staying out. Meanwhile, if you ever drive in the Netherlands you'll find people cutting your nose off all over the place - they pull in right away.
Hah, that's funny though