[safetyart06]

Hey everybody. I'm having a problem and just fishing to see if anyone else has experienced this same situation before I start tearing my bike apart. My bike is a 2009 V-Star 1100 Custom. Long before I owned it the front and rear turn signals were replaced with all LED lights. The tail light is now the running light, brake light and turn signals all in one. The problem I am experiencing is as follows: When I activate the left turn signal, everything works fine. The front and rear turn signals work fine and only on the left side and the indicator on the speedometer cluster lights up and flashes. When I activate the right turn signal, both right and left turn signals on the front and back flash and the flasher indicator does not work at all. It's almost as if hazard lights are on, however, to my knowledge, there are no hazard lights on this bike. I know what I am going to have to do to start troubleshooting this issue, just curious if anyone has experienced this and could narrow it down for me. Any ideas or knowledge would be greatly appreciated. Oh, and I don't know if it has always been this way or if the problem started recently. Thanks for any input you guys may have.

 

[lesblank]

Here's a good article on fixing the four way effect. It's a feed back issue due to lower amp draw of LED lighting. Read the entire article, gives several ways to fix the issue.

V-Star 1100 Wiki Knowledge Base - Lighting

sites.google.com

 

[safetyart06]

That makes sense but wouldn't it be the case when either right or left signals are activated and not just one side. In the mean time, I am going out right now to take the indicator bulb out.

 

[Bobber650]

I had a similar issue after converting all lights on my 650 to LED - all signal lights flashed when I turned them on in either direction. I installed a diode within the instrument cluster to prevent back feeding across the turn signal lamp housed in their. This worked perfectly to correct the issue.

 

[lesblank]

That makes sense but wouldn't it be the case when either right or left signals are activated and not just one side. In the mean time, I am going out right now to take the indicator bulb out.

Certain brands of LED bulbs have built in resistance to eliminate this effect, while others do not. Bet you have at least one bulb with resistance in the left side.

 

[safetyart06]

Ok, tried the quick fix of removing the indicator bulb and no luck. Same problem.

Odd that it would only be on one side.

Ok, two more pieces of information to ponder, first, while the rear turn signals are all one unit they are all flashing at the same rate when the right turn signal is activated, however the front signals, which are separate, wrap around style led strips are flashing at a different rate. This tells me that the lack of resistance is the problem, however the condition still exists with the dash indicator bulb removed. Second, about three months ago, while replacing a fork tube, the left side turn signal was removed and replaced, while the right remained untouched. I had to use a metal hose clamp to replace the signal, unlike the original plastic that was there and I'm wondering if that is causing a low volt grounding issue that I am not aware of.

 

[lesblank]

Do you know if your tail, turn and stop rear light have a circuit board on it? Thinking out loud, might have an issue there. Bummer the removing indicate build didn't work, that's why I'm thinking might be an issue with the rear light setup. Didn't you say you had the left front signal off one time? Did you unhook the wires? FYI, I never paid any attention to your lights, they aren't bright enough and you do a great job with hand signals.

 

[safetyart06]

Yes, did have the left front signal off. Did not unhook the wires. If I cant get it fixed tonight I will use hand signals tomorrow and let you look at what its doing.

 

[safetyart06]

One other thing, the front turn signals turn into white driving lights when turn signals are off. Dont know if that has any affect, but knowing all of the information helps.

 

[CantRider]

I don't know if this will work or not. I do not know anything about the lights on the 1100.

LED stands for Light Emitting Diode. A diode has a polarity, if it is hooked up backwards, it won't turn on. What I'm thinking is that one of the lights on your right side is hooked up backwards. Being hooked up backwards is called reversed bias. Being hooked up correctly would be called forward bias.

If one of your lights is reversed bias, this will provide a path to the other light on the same side, thereby causing everything to be on at the same time. I'm not familiar with the way the yellow/white turn signals actually work, so this test might not work. What you could try is to (on one light at a time) disconnect the wires from the light, then hook them back up opposite to what they were when you took them apart. I'm guessing that when you do this, the light you did it to should not turn on (it would be reversed biased). If it doesn't happen, put it back they way it was when you started, then do the same thing with the other light.

The bulb out indication is a faster flash. This is based upon the current draw of the circuit. If there is not enough current being used, the system thinks a bulb is out. LEDs use much less current than conventional bulbs, that's why they flash fast. Adding a resistor will cause more current to be used, thus satisfying the system's current determination. It won't affect the forward/reverse bias of the LEDs.

If you have an Ohm meter, you can check the LED to determine which lead is positive and which is negative. Connect your red and black leads from the meter to the LED. If it is forward biased, you should read zero Ohms. Then the side the red lead is connected to will be the positive side. If you don't get a reading on the Ohm meter, you are reversed biased. In that case, the red lead would be connected to the negative side. You can confirm this by reversing the leads from the meter. Make sure your + voltage wire is connected to the positive side of the LED.

If one of the directional lights is hooked up incorrectly, that is where the feed back path comes from to provide power causing the other light to light up. Its sorta like those 3-way switches in the hallway, where you can turn the light on no matter which switch you use.

 

[safetyart06]

Ok, confession time: so it turned out that removing the indicator bulb did solve the problem completely. I found this out after I took the cluster out, replaced the neutral indicator bulb and removed the turn signal indicator bulb. Thanks for the tips. So, I will see you out on the road, and you will see me as I will be the guy rolling for 50 miles with my left turn signal on.

 

[lesblank]

You just needed a mirror to get the correct orientation since the cluster was upside down. 🙃

Glad it worked till you can deep dive into it.

 

[Grayrider]

In case you ever want to get your indicator working again, here's a diagram of what worked for me. Just did it on a xv250. Bought the diodes online really cheap.