Flickering lights on gauges

[chocker]

Hi guys,

I had changed most of my gauge lights to LEDs and they are great. I have LEDs in the head light and turn signals. The problem I seem to be having is that basically the right side of my gauges is flickering. The speedo seems to be solid but the RPM gauge, clock and fuel gauge are flickering most of the time. It doesn't seem to be throttle related. Is there a ground perhaps that I'm missing around the gauge area or somewhere else. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Mark

[FJmonkey]

I upgraded to LED in my dash as well and had a flickering problem. One of the leads on one light was broken and made intermittent contact. I replaced it and all is good now. Just a pain to pull the fairing to swap out one failed LED.

[chocker]

It's weird though, the speedometer doesn't seem affected unless it's wired in two parts. Then there's the annoying issue of removing the gauge pod. I don't even have the exact replacements for those type of bulbs. So I should do a trial and error way to approach it I guess. Replace one bulb and test and so on. At least it is probably related to a dying bulb. I'll try that to start with.

Mark

[FJmonkey]

Are you having an issue with one light flickering or the entire dash flickering? Forget the speedo, it is mechanical, the lights are separate.

[chocker]

It would be the lights on the right side of the pod. I started it and let it idle and the light that covers the 6 - 10 rpm gauge, the clock light and the light over the fuel gauge are flickering. They flicker on and off at different rates. They seem to get a little more intense when I rev the engine. I assume that is because the vibration makes it worse. When I spoke about the speedo, I meant that the light on it was not flickering. I wasn't talking about the needle.

Mark

[FJmonkey]

More than one light flickering seems like a bad connection that powers that side of the dash. You will need to open the dash and try one light at a time to sort out the issue.

[Pat Conlon]

Markus, school me on LED's.....if one bulb has a problem, it affects all the others? Or some of the others?

How does that work? What causes that?
If I have a filament burn out on one old school bulb, just that bulb is affected, not the others.

Of course Xmas lights are a different matter.

[FJmonkey]

Markus, school me on LED's.....if one bulb has a problem, it affects all the others? Or some of the others?

How does that work? What causes that?
If I have a filament burn out on one old school bulb, just that bulb is affected, not the others.

Of course Xmas lights are a different matter.

Pat if you refer to me as Marcus (two Marks in this thread) then LED is much like a Florescent bulb. There is no direct current connection. That is why they cause the fast flash condition. An open circuit due to a lack of filament. On the FJ the circuits feed each socket and are not linked like Christmas lights as far as I know. Seems like a bad failure mode, one light goes out and they all go out. I had one go in and out without affecting others so not likely. So if more than one is flickering then the circuit is in question, not a single bulb.

[Pat Conlon]

Thanks amigo, that follows the logic I know...

The world is full of Marks, but there is only one Markus that I know....that's you bubba head.

[FJmonkey]

Thanks amigo, that follows the logic I know...

The world is full of Marks, but there is only one Markus that I know....that's you bubba head.

I am feeling the love... Thanks...

[rktmanfj]

So if more than one is flickering then the circuit is in question, not a single bulb.

If there's no other fault in the circuit, sounds like a rectification problem...

[chocker]

I'll try to open it up this weekend. I will check light by light bulb. Maybe there is a crimped line that's causing it as well with vibration.

Thanks,

Mark

[Charlie-brm]

What does the base of each LED look like? I used LEDs that replace #194 bulbs and their base has 2 exposed wires folded back up against the plastic base. I made a point of angling those leads across high points on the base to give some tightness to the fit. Otherwise they would do what you are describing. Three years, no problems. If they are flickering at different rates it sounds like a bulb by bulb problem.

[chocker]

Yeah I have the exact same bulbs on the right in the picture. When I take it apart I'll do that to give tighter fit when testing. I figure one bulb may be faulty but all three, there has to be a connection issue somewhere.

[Charlie-brm]

Good luck. The leads tended to fall into the grooves you can make out in that photo. Either bend them over at an angle or distort them so they can't end up back in those grooves again while they are pushed into the sockets. I guess we get what we pay for. Spectacular performance when done though. I have another bag of ones with 3 layers of LED elements and they are too much for the gauge lighting. The color from the various indicators is washed out.