Side marker problems

Wes

New Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2019
Messages
11
Location
Kailua Kona
Hello this is my first posting, so first of all I wanted to say I have enjoyed reading all of your posts and it’s helped me do many things to my YJ and TJ alike.
These forums are in valuable to guys like me who learned how to work on cars because of owning a Jeep and wanting to make it my own.
Thank you all who have helped me and so many others.

Now to my current issue on my 2001 wrangler 4.0,
Here is my complete set up for lighting.
Rear led trailer tail lights, front markers and front turn signals are stock.
My headlights are the led projectors with halos that are the ones you find all over amazon for 100 bucks.

Just to get the basics out of the way, when my headlights are off, and I switch on my turn signal stock to the left or the right, my front side marker lights turn on with my front turn signals.
I’m assuming that is normal.
I also asume it is normal that when my lights are on or I switch it to the middle setting on the switch (turning all marker lights on) the side markers and turn signals illuminate at opposite times.

Ok so the problem I am having is this,
When my lights are in the off position, if I hit my turn signal indicator to the left or to the right both of my side indicators flash along side the turn signal that is supposed to be illuminated. Along with this the license plate light flashes and my rear drivers side turn signal light flash with the turn signals, but both lights flash dimly. Mind you, they are led lights as I mentioned before, so they do not take much power to turn on.

Does anyone know what would be causing this? I have replaced the turn signal resistor (the one in the steering column) already with one for led lights. So I don’t think that is my problem. I’ve been trying to find something with the wiring but I haven’t found any problems yet. Currently I have all the wires disconnected from my tail lights and I still have the same issue in the front, so I assume the problem is so where up front.

Anyway thank you for any suggestions!!! It will help me keep more of my hair in my head if I can figure this out.
 
I agree with Daryl, check your grounds. If you put in anything aftermarket other than just bulbs (like the LED tail lights), make sure you have a good ground for them. The OEM taillights are a bit strange how they make ground through the mounting bolts and it could be easy to muff that up.
Another possibility would be a bad connection (plug?) somewhere. I'm thinking on these lines because you say your license plate light blinks. If it blinks out-of-sequence with the turns signals (off when they are one and vise-versa), it might indicate a bad power connection that causes it to be starved for voltage when something else uses power/current (the turn signal).

BTW, get yourself a tube of dielectric grease and, any time you disconnect a plug, goop it up well with the dielectric grease before putting it back together...it will help keep water and corrosion from mucking things up in the future.
 
Thank you for the quick replies!
Upfront everything is stock (other than the headlights) so is it still a possibility that my grounds are bad from stock?
Like are you thinking maybe a mouse chewed them or something?
What should I be looking for exactly, is there any easy way to follow them because it’s hidden in the wiring harnesses or do I have to take that apart to trace the wires?

The license plate light flashes with the fender lights (the ones on the side not the ones in front of the Jeep) along with my rear turn signal at the same time but the rear signal and license plate light are half brightness.

Thank you again. Would a video of my problem make it easier?
 
I agree with Daryl, check your grounds. If you put in anything aftermarket other than just bulbs (like the LED tail lights), make sure you have a good ground for them. The OEM taillights are a bit strange how they make ground through the mounting bolts and it could be easy to muff that up.
Another possibility would be a bad connection (plug?) somewhere. I'm thinking on these lines because you say your license plate light blinks. If it blinks out-of-sequence with the turns signals (off when they are one and vise-versa), it might indicate a bad power connection that causes it to be starved for voltage when something else uses power/current (the turn signal).

BTW, get yourself a tube of dielectric grease and, any time you disconnect a plug, goop it up well with the dielectric grease before putting it back together...it will help keep water and corrosion from mucking things up in the future.
Oh also as far as the taillights, the way they are made is a sealed connection in like a silicone so there is no way to access each individual bulb.
I also ran the ground and drilled into the tub and connected it with one of those wire connectors with a metal loop and put a screw threw it into the tub.
I’ll definetly add some of that line stuff to the rest of my bulbs though thanks.

Also it could be that I have a bad plug somewhere. How could I tell if I have a bad one?

I’ll take some pictures of my tail lights in the morning and post them.

Thanks again
 
Nah, I don't think the flasher could be the issue as things that are not supposed to be flashing are flashing (rather than things that are supposed to flash not doing so)...i.e., the flasher is doing its job.

To check things, go to the connection for each bulb and slap a meter on the "hot" side to see what voltage you get when it's on (this is where an old-school analog meter really shines because of the short duration...and a digital meter may not update quickly enough). The voltage should go from 0 to 12-14 volts with each blink (for the things that SHOULD blink). Next, measure from the ground connection of the light (as near to the bulb as you can get) to a known good ground (a really good connection to the chassis). This should ALWAYS read 0 volts, no matter what. If it varies or seems to pulse, you have a bad ground there and need to trace down how it goes to the chassis to see where it's failing.
 
Hey yes thank you for your reply.
I did install one of those.
I bought it from Auto Zone because when I first put in my rear led lights the signal wouldn’t flash, it stayed on constantly.
It’s posible I have a bad one one though, could that be my problem??

Does it say EP26 or EP27 on it? I know that the wrong relay can cause all sorts of wonkiness. So I'm not sure it's your problem, but I'd be curious to see what your relay says on it, as it would be easy enough to rule out.
 
Is that the correct flasher relay to prevent hyper speed LED tails flashing?

It is indeed.

If you run LED taillights without one of these relays (or the wrong relay) all sorts of weirdness happens with the taillights / running lights / turn signals!
 
It is indeed.

If you run LED taillights without one of these relays (or the wrong relay) all sorts of weirdness happens with the taillights / running lights / turn signals!

Yup. I have the ORO led tails and mine just flash really fast like when a normal bulb burns out. Everything else is normal function though. Dumb question maybe, but where are the relays located? I'll add this to my Amazon cart, thanks!
 
Yup. I have the ORO led tails and mine just flash really fast like when a normal bulb burns out. Everything else is normal function though. Dumb question maybe, but where are the relays located? I'll add this to my Amazon cart, thanks!

The LED relay is underneath the steering column covers. Remove the upper and lower covers (just a few screws) and the covers come right off. The LED flasher relay will be on the top side right behind the steering wheel. Probably took me 5 minutes to change, it's that easy!
 
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Sounds like you likely have at least a couple sources of problems. One for sure is the LED side markers which change how they work when the headlight switch is on vs. off. The side marker circuit sends current through the side marker bulbs in one direction then the other depending on if the headlight switch is on or off. The bulbs need to be able to pass current in both directions but LED lights only allow current flow in one direction... not both.

A fix for that is to install a bridge rectifier for each of the two LED side markers which makes the current flow through the LED lights only in the correct direction. Personally I'd get replace the LED side marker bulbs with standard bulbs before I'd go to the trouble of rewiring that circuit to use bridge rectifiers which don't just plug in.

That your license plate light bulb flashes when the turn signals are on sounds like there's a missing ground somewhere.

Converting to LED bulbs should be done with enough knowledge ahead of time so you know what you're getting into beforehand. Installing LED bulbs willy-nilly all at once is likely to wreak havoc, best to install them one circuit at a time and solve the problems as they come up instead of having multiple issues confront you at once.
 
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Another easy test, you could disconnect the Halos and see if you still have problems, possible they are connecting things that shouldn't be connected. I didn't catch that the OP had LED marker lights, "front markers and front turn signals are stock."
 
Thank you for all the help.
I ordered a new turn signal stock (multifunction Turn signal switch) last night as recommended by a mechanic friend of mine.
I’ll let you know if this fixes it.
 
Another easy test, you could disconnect the Halos and see if you still have problems, possible they are connecting things that shouldn't be connected. I didn't catch that the OP had LED marker lights, "front markers and front turn signals are stock."

I’ll try undoing the wiring for the halos too, thanks for the suggestion.
They are wired for power to the radio so they come one when I turn the key.
I don’t think they have any attachment to the outer signal lights but at this point I’ll try anything.
 
Alright sorry I didn’t get to post the other day. I spent some time on it this morning and I did find a cut wire that was wired into the drivers side front turn signal. I cleaned it up and deleted the cut wire and now my rear turn signal Does Not come on with my right turn signal when my lights are off as my first post described. My license plate light also does not flicker any more just from fixing that wiring in the front.

HOWEVER, the problem has now swapped to my right turn signal coming on when my left signal light is on, and the head lights are off. 🤯🤯🤯