This isn’t necessarily a CRD issue, but I don’t know how to find the other section.
Others have noticed the issue. Driving at night with the fog lamps on, they will randomly blink off when the turn signal cancels…
The background.
Back in November I purchased new headlamps. Sylvania Silver Stars and they made a huge difference compared to the seven year old OEM bulbs. Since more was better, more more must be better better so I proceeded to update/upgrade the fog lights to 55W Silver Star H7’s. The only downside is an increased incidence of oncoming drivers mistaking the added photon output for my high beams.
A few weeks ago I backed out of my driveway to go to work and was greeted by the dulcet sounds of shattering glass. My recycle bin had blown over in the night distributing unbroken glass bottles in strategic locations in my driveway. After converting these to broken glass bottles and cleaning them up, I decided to fulfill a multiple year old ‘to-do’ item and purchase a White Night rear lighting system. This neat little item draws power from the trailer 7-way, plugs into the 2” receiver and provides 2 x 55W of lighting that automatically turns on and off with shifting into Reverse. In practice it was an improvement, but not as large as the front lamp replacement.
Then last week, I had no fog lights. Quick diagnosis showed I had blown fuse #19 in the driver door fuse block. New fuse, working fog lights, back in business. Of course, by the time I had made it to work the next morning, no fog lights, blown fuse again.
Being stubborn (or possibly slightly insane) I decided to try again, but since I had raised the wattage, maybe a larger fuse was in order. I had a 25A (stock is 20A) in the glovebox, and put that in. Same result – it worked in the garage, but was blown within a day.
So digging a little deeper, the title of fuse #19 is ‘Frt Fog Lights/Trailer Tow Stop and Turn Lights.’ I still can’t figure out what the two have to do with each other, but sure enough they are joined in the wiring schematics to provide power to the relayed Trailer tow Stop and Turn lights. I’ve towed trailers, and I’m sure at some point I have had the fog lights on and used the turn signals, so evidently it isn’t a problem. Or hasn’t been. Gee, didn’t I just add something new to the 7-way?
But, the White Night still works. And I’ve always had the intermittent issue of the fog lights blinking off during right turns. So there is some interaction between the two circuits. Maybe I’ve always had a shaky relay and as it switches off, it takes out the fog lights temporarily.
Last night I disassembled the fog light assemblies and determined that there is no meltage due to the hight lamp wattage, and with a new fuse, the fog lights work until you use the right turn signal.
So now, I’m down to investigating three things.
1) The cause is the White Night. It is somehow shorting the turn signal power.
2) There is a short in the 7 way itself.
3) One of the trailer tow relays has gone bad (Remember they actuate every time you use the turn signals, brake pedal, or running lights. If there is nothing connected to the 7-way, no current is passed, but the armature still actuates.)
Unfortunately I’ve run out of 20A fuses, so I’ll update when more info is available.
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