• If you currently own, previously owned or want to own an Avalanche, we welcome you to become a member today. Membership is FREE, register now!

My turn signals "Sometimes" wig-wag?

TXAVy

SM 2003
Full Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2002
Messages
1,986
Location
McKinney, TX
Ok, someone tell me that I'm hallucinating and that they know how this works, but here's what I've seen on a couple different occasions.

If you look closely at the front amber turn-signals you'll find that there are actually two separate light bulbs in there (especially easy to see while it's blinking). The first is the obvious amber bulb right behind the clear lens on the front of the truck. The second is a not so obvious smaller bulb which is inside the same housing, but facing out the amber reflective cover on the SIDE of the turn signal enclosure.

Here's the wierd part. On most occasions while my turn signal is blinking both of thsoe lights turn on and off in unison. But on SOME occasions, they blink on and off independently so that the lit light wig-wags back and forth between the front of the truck and the side.

I thought those two lights would operate off of the same activator wire. Is there any reason that would cause them to blink separately? Is there any possible way that they COULD blink separately? (Perhaps I was just hallucinating). I thought for a moment that I'd found a perfect activation wire to attach to my DRLs to make them wig-wag with my turn signals whenever I turn. But unless I'm dreaming, they only SOMETIMES do what I want them to, so I'm still stumped.

HELP!!!
 
TxAVy

The lamp ( small one ) is called a marker light.
You can find it on page 8-347 (LH) and 8-349 (RH) of
Volume 4 of the service manual...

Basically, if the Park lamps are on, it will Wig-Wag, if
the Park lamps are off, it will signal at the same time
as the turn signal, but not as bright......

As for the second part, if you want your DRLs to flash with your turn signals you'll need to add some diodes, as explained in earlier posts... JHC wired the diodes in the lamp harness, while I wired on the underside of the fuse panel in the engine compartment,


The connection in the fuse panel in the engine compartment is as follows,

Removed black curve fender support bracket - 4 bolts
Remove top fuse panel cover
Remove surrounding fuse panel cover... 2 clips on engine side to release
Flip up fuse panel, retaining clip on fender side...

Connector C4 - after opening the bottom of the fuse panel its the top left hand connector ( green )....

terminal A3 is for the Right turn signal supply
terminal B2 is for the DRLs
terminal E1 is for the Left turn signal supply

I cut the 2 wires on the B2 terminal.... after identifying which wire went to which DRLs.
Tied the 2 diodes together and solder the combined end to the wire leading to the DRL light.... I then took 1 diode end and soldered it to the DRL supply wire, terminal B2......
I took the other diode and soldered it onto the turn signal wire ( stripped back a little bit of insulation, did not cut the wire ), put everything back together....

Hope that answers your questions..

dichris
 
does this work with the full timers DRL's? Anyone go this with the 02? and what type diodes?

as explained in earlier posts....where?


Jon
 
Alaska_AV

For the Full Timers - No....... You have to turn off the Bright DRL's at night in order to get the turn signal feature to work... Thats why I wired up the low wattage element on the 3157 NAK DRL bulb, so that the DRL's are not super bright at night, and then JHC ( thanks ) informed me that I could easily hook up the DRL's for turn signal at night... which I did!!! and they look Great!! Just ask NatsCanAV!!!!!!!

The diodes I used were from Radio Shack and there part number is #276-1114 which are rated at 2.5 amps... ( package of 3 costs $2.19 CDN, plus 15% taxes ( 7% GST, 8% PST (Ontario)))

More info can be found by doing a search for the Post labeled

Night Time DRL's ( Low Powered ) = Ntlpdrls

In the above post, there is even a crude drawing for the installation at the light bulbs.... I hooked up the diodes underneath the fuse panels in the engine compartment....

Enjoy...

dichris
 
dichris said:
Basically, if the Park lamps are on, it will Wig-Wag, if
the Park lamps are off, it will signal at the same time
as the turn signal, but not as bright.

Ahhh, that's it! They only wig-wag when the marker (parking?) lights are on. Now I don't feel like I'm going crazy. Would have sworn I saw them wig-wag but could never make them do it when I WANTED them to. :p

I'm still digging on this. Not sure I want the DRLs on at night at all other than to act as turn signals. Pretty sure I DON'T want them on at the same time as the fog lights whether they are on at night or not.

Did you start the NT LP DRL idea because full time DRLs at night didn't look right to you?
 
TXAVy

That is correct.....(not sure if some else hadn't already done it).... but I know that I was the first in this area......... just like the LOF in this area......Amber DRL's in my town.......

I didn't like the idea of having the DRL's on at night as they would be quite bright... But having them on at the same level as the parking lights ( running lights ) sounded like a good idea.... Besides there was already the filament there for the low powered... Just had to hard wire them in......
JHC, got me onto the turn signal, and boy, its nice at night!!!!

56 Watts at night to tell the world in front that YOUR TURNING!!!!!

dichris
 
Back
Top