blinker indicator brightens when I press the brake pedal

[Ed*]

Hi

Back with another odd issue on my 1995 LWB. I blew a fuse on my brakes, and replaced it rightaway (i was stuck in park at a gas station). Then a about a week later it blew again. I repalced the fuse again and now notice that when I have the blinker on (either direction) and press on the brakes the blinker indicator on the dash gets brighter and the frequency of the blinks on the dash indicator changes.

I stil cant figure out why i'm blowing fuses, but maybe this is a clue? Any suggestion folks? I'll post my results if I ever resolve this, untill then I've got a few extra fuses.

[Les Parker]

Hello there,

Do you have towing electrics fitted?
Could be a bad connection on the 7 pin trailer socket, thus when brakes applied, is shorting to ground or the indicator circuit.

[Ed*]

thanks for the advice, i wont get a chance to look at it until the weekend becuase of work, but I will post and update as soon as i do

thanks

[Ed*]

well I spent sometime this weekend working on this and now its worse. I cant track down the short for the life of me and now every time i replace the fuse it blows on the first or second time I step on the brakes. Needless to say I cant get the rover out of park.

Can anyone tell me how I go about tracking the short. I've checked the bulbs and they are all good. I have a volt meter, but no idea how to start chasing down this issue.

[Ed*]

quick update

still cant figure out what is going on with the brakes
when I put in a 15 fuse it blows as soon as I push on the brake pedal
a 20 blows too
and a 30 doesnt blow.

Sadly I had to do this to get the truck home. It had been stuck at the train station. Somehow these issues never pop up when im at home in the driveway.

I dont plan on driving it any with the wrong fuse, but I cant find a short.
I checked the trialer wires and they all seem in good condition.

Any suggestions on how to test them or otherwise track down this short?

[Les Parker]

?Have you tried removing the brake light bulbs? This should let you drive the veh. allbeit with no brake lights, (a suggestion is to get someone you know to follow you), I would start at the fuse box, check the grounds and connections where the indicators plug in and especially the tow connections, with test lamp and another person pressing the pedal.

[Ed*]

Well folks I think this has been resolved.

After a long time tracing the issue, mostly guessing and testing everything I could think of with the volt meter.

I found the brake switch (at the pedal) was not working - the plunger would not go in and out. I took off the switch and noticed it was actualy melted.

I replaced it with one from roversnorth (thanks for the super speedy shipping) and replaced the fuse. The two brake lights worked but the 3rd light on the back window didnt.

I started by testing the wires to see if I was getting currant at the light and I wasnt. I had a problem with loose multiplug on my tailights (see my other posts) so I figured it might be a loose plug here too.

Checking for loose wires I eventually ended up under the headliner in the back - behind the round speakers. and thats when I found it. There must have been some short becuase the green/purple wire for the brake lights was melted away and the multi plug was ruined by the melting. The melting went throught the multi-plug and melted the green/purple wire all the way to the other side of the car and up to where it connects to a thicker wire. In spots some of the adjacent wires were also melted where they had been near enough to the green/purple.

I replaced all the melted wires with new wire and made sure nothing was touching or exposed re-assembled everything and after more than a few hours the truck runs and the brakes work fine. Even the blinkers work normally now.

I hope no one has a similar issue, but in case you do. Perhaps this record will help. Again I encourage everyone who posts with an issue to post the answer once they find it. I often search here when I have an issue and find that someone has previously posted a similar question - but without a follow up on the solution it isnt that helpful.

Thanks again everyone.

[Les Parker]

Ed*,

Thanks for the update.
As with a lot of wiring questions, the tracking down and resolution is hardly ever a 2 minute job.
Glad to learn that you stuck with it and all is now well.