260Z, Turn Signals+Horn Dont work
#1
260Z, Turn Signals+Horn Dont work
hey all, Recently I left my headlights on while at work (yeah, im a dummy). Anyway when i got a jump, i noticed that my turn signals, and horn dont seem to work. Well, my turn signals seem to work intermittantly, and my horn is not loud at all. I'm almost sure that the battery wasn't fully charged as the horn requires a fairly large amperage. but im not sure if the signals are related. Anyone got any ideas?
Thanks
.Creator
Thanks
.Creator
#3
Re: 260Z, Turn Signals+Horn Dont work
well, their wierd thing is, the left hand side signal is the only one that seems to work intermittantly. the right hand signal works fine 99% of the time, whereas the left is more like 10% of the time.
I'm sure the horn problem is the alternator since at high rpm's the horn works just fine but at idle its only a light *hoooonk*. heh
any other ideas?
.creator
I'm sure the horn problem is the alternator since at high rpm's the horn works just fine but at idle its only a light *hoooonk*. heh
any other ideas?
.creator
#4
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Re: 260Z, Turn Signals+Horn Dont work
Could still be a weak battery. Even once you run it around a bit to charge it up, it may stay weak, especially if it's a few years old anyway or if the headlight incident ran you down to absolute zero. In the worst case, could have ruined a cell in the batt. To charge the battery as good as possible may take a good 40 minutes on the highway or more. It won't charge much, if at all, at idle. There are a lot of really boring (for non EE people) reasons why that's so, but the long and short of it is that auto batteries are not meant for deep-cycling and never recover very well from it. For why the turn signal problem would go with this is that on most cars with a few last-ten-years solid-state exeptions, turn signals run on some pretty decent capacitors. Charging those actually takes a fair amount of power, and if the battery is now sub-par it's not going to power that circuit very well or consistently. Solution: new battery, especially if you have any warranty left on the old one, as they're usually pro-rated for time. Other fun with capacitors: if you know anyone who does the annoying play-with-things-on-your-desk/workbench behavior when they talk to you, leave a charged capacitor sitting out. Sooner or later they'll touch both leads (completing the circuit)and get a hell of a zap out of it. I wouldn't advise this if they're heart patients or pre-disposed to legal action, though!
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