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Italian wiring fun (turn signal issues)

2557 Views 15 Replies 11 Participants Last post by  sportiva
Hello so I am re assembling my gtv6 after paint and I am having issue with the blinkers. My problem is the front blinkers won’t work at all and the back blinkers will only work when the parking lights or headlights are off. The drivers side rear light blinker will work when the lights are turned off so will the passenger side however the passenger rear light illuminates the turn signal and the brake light and it looks dim I can’t tell if it just needs new bulbs or if there is a loss of power somewhere. When I painted my car I did a side marker delete would this affect anything. Also my license plate lights won’t work either. Any suggestions would be great!
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Did they all work before paint? Either way, it's likely going to be a methodical cleaning of light sockets, make sure the fingers are contacting the bulb when in and locked, and checking grounds/connectors. I know at the front at least, all the lights ground at the point on the fender down by the alternator.
Personally, my experiences have been at the rear, corrosion between the light sockets and the circuit board they are attached too and at the front, the little fingers being bent away from the bulbs.
Check tje grounds first. In my experience they cause 90% of electrical problems
This is one of those laborious, take each apart, clean it, and put it back together again exercises. My recollection is that many of the lights are in series, not parallel, so everything has to be looked at. The printed boards at the rear lights are delicate, so very carefully pull that apart. Check for continuity on the boards and repair as necessary.
Second cleaning connectors and ensure a good ground.
I reconnected all the lights and checked the grounds my license plate lights are now blinking aswell as the brake lights
I reconnected all the lights and checked the grounds my license plate lights are now blinking aswell as the brake lights
And now the engine lights won’t work and all the binkers won’t work I’m not quite sure what is going on


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Check the grounds at all the body points (on the radiator header behind the drivers side lights - and many elsewhere), Clean them really well. Also clean the connectors between the turn signals and the main car harness. Your side marker delete may have affected how things are connected. A multi meter and patience will be needed to work it out if that is the case.
So I checked all the grounds and I still have nothing I’m very confused because my front blinkers would light up when the headlights turned on and they along with my interior lights and engine bay light just randomly stopped working. The flasher relay is working however the lights still aren’t flashing. Only the left side brake light works. The side marker delete shouldn’t affect it because it is the lat point on the circuit so it doesn’t matter. Plus I’ve never had them in and the blinkers used to work. Is it possible something under the dash is causing the blinker issue. It looks to me like I have multiple problems going on
Pull the connectors off the rear lights one at a time then squeese the two retainers on the connector and lift the flap this exposes the terminals, pull each terminal out one at a time and feel for broken wire at the terminals then use a peice of wet and dry paper to clean the terminals. There is also a ground point behind the carpet near the number plate lights. After that check as described earlier the terminals on the printed circuit and the bulb holders for corrosion and the height of the finger terminal at the bottom of the bulb holder.
The last photo shows a terminal removed from the connector use a micro screw driver blade to bend the tab up then pull the terminal push the tab down when refitting
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The types of problems you are describing are EXACTLY like the really weird things that happen when connections, bulb sockets or grounds are corroded, loose or dirty, or the circuit board traces (see pic immediately above) are broken. There’s nothing weird happening....99% sure.
Take the good advice posted to clean everything and the gremlins should disappear, one by one.
Using a multimeter or a simple test lamp to see where power is getting to (or not) is a valuable indicator of where to narrow down your search for the culprit. If you’re not sure how to use one, YouTube it.
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The side marker delete shouldn’t affect it because it is the lat point on the circuit so it doesn’t matter. Plus I’ve never had them in and the blinkers used to work.
Maybe the side markers ended up providing the proper ground to the whole circuit?
If you've lost any harness connectors and are wiring connectors individually, make sure they're connected them to the right post. The way these lights work, many are wired in series so a misconnected wire will cause all sorts of funky issues. Things could appear to work, but they don't really. For example, turn signals will be always on, or flash in reverse, which disrupts the path to the other lights in the series. If you ever get around to rewiring lighting, it helps to do them in a parallel configuration. For example, each of my headlights has its own relay, and the high beams are also on a separate relay from the low beams. Turn indicators are on a separate circuit from the tail lights, but triggered by the same wire form the stalk. A little more complicated but improves reliability.
Caleb, Sportiva's third photo shows those fingers I was telling you about. They slide over the circuit board when you plug in the connector. I recalled them being brass, but these are obviously not. That's the connection that causes a lot of GTV 6 tail light issues, along with broken/weak solder joints at the bulb sockets. Keep going... you're on a roll!
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Recently i pulled into my garage in day light and as I stopped I noticed the headlights were flashing when I pressed the brake pedal. I checked every ground point with no luck so I pulled the tail light connectors and cleaned every possible connection with a 1500 wet and dry paper and put dielectric grease on each of those connections. As alfaloco says and chairmankaga there is a series of links across the three connectors it will take some time but if you open each connector flap and check for broken wires then clean each of the fingers and the circuit board and the bulb holders there's every chance you will fix the problem.
If not then you have just serviced the rear light section and won't need to go there for a couple of years
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