Calling all experinenced XJS owner/ drivers. I have been working on a newly acquired '91 XJS and one of its abnormalities is the left turn indicator in the dash. When signally a left turn, the green arrow only flashes 'ONCE', if at all. The external operation of the front and rear lights are all fine. The right side is fine, inside nd out.
Kirby's book- which is absolutely chocked with all kinds of information...states that if the dash indicators does this - flashes once or not at all, then there is something wrong with the stop/brakes lights???
This I can not fathom at all!!
Has anyone ever struggled with this before??
Thanks.

 

Starting with stating the obvious, you say the Front and Rear Lights are fine.

Does that observation, include the 'Brake Lights' as well.

 

Yes, front and rear turn signals work fine - BOTH sides, and the Brake lights on both sides are 100% also.

 

I had the same thing on my old Ser III XJ6. Assuming the same basic circuitry the dashboard indicators are powered from the flasher relay. In my case replacing the flasher relay solved the problem

Cheers
DD

 

on my 90, i had intermittent indicator issues and Doug had posted this:

"Supply voltage for the turn signal circuit comes from the hazard warning switch....which often suffers oxidized contacts from lack of exercise. I'd begin by cleaning the hazard switch contacts.....which often can be accomplished by simply exercising the switch rather rapidly multiple times. No need to get rough with it, though. Or...perhaps you can get into the switch with aerosol contact cleaner.

I've fixed a couple erratic turned signal systems this way. If it works for you it'll be the least expensive Jag repair you've ever experienced

Worth a try.

Cheers
DD"

It worked for me (thanks Doug!)

 

Continuation/Working the problem - I wanted to replace the brake/stop lights and the rear directional bulbs (both 1156's) with bright LED's. In the disassembly I noticed that there was different type/wattage bulb in the L/H side, the side that was giving me the strange 'one flash' dash indication. The R/H side had the correct 1156 bulb in it. I replaced the bulbs in both, both sides with 1156 LED, one Ruby Red, one White - and not only did I expand my problem - now the R/H side only flashes once, BUT the Lamp Warning System lights up with the Brake/Stop lights AND the turn indicators. I was advised to install these CAMdust (or something like that - looks like a shunt to me!) that were meant for this problem in installing LED's with these fancy warning systems. After putting one in each light, two each side - it now does NOT trigger the warning system - and I have nice bright LEDs in the brake and turn signal indicators....BUT I have a 'one flash' indication on BOTH sides now, on the dash, with normal operations outside the car. I'm going to change the flasher relay, but I'm not holding my breath!!
Any more ideas???

Tony

 

Hi Tony,

Some of those LED's do not provide the same resistance as the original incandescent bulbs. The result is that the flasher will not operate correctly. I believe that someone offers a flasher unit designed to work with LED bulbs or you can splice in a resistor.

But before you do that I would highly recommend that you get all of the lights working first using the correct incandescent bulbs. That way you will fix the original problem and not chasing new ones.

All of the XJS's I have bought so far had issue with lights not working due to lack of use and corrosion. In each case I had to clean all of the switches and bulb sockets, clean relay and flasher contacts, clean fuses and install correct light bulbs. Once all of that was done the lights would work properly.

As another poster mentioned, the hazard switch is part of the turn signal circuit. Make sure it is clean and give it some exercise. Many times that alone will resolve issues.

Mark

 

ALL FIXED. I agree with Mark, 100%....we can get so far into mods and repairs that we lose our way and it takes returning to basics to get a clean start.
I was not very confident that the flashercrlay would make any difference...but since I had gone through the trouble of find it and paying the $24, I had to try it...it was too easy a plug in to pass up. Low and behold.....it fixed the dash indicator lights...100%.