Turn signal blinks very slow | GTAMotorcycle.com

Turn signal blinks very slow

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unL33T

Well-known member
I haven't ridden my RS125 in awhile but today I noticed the turn signal blinks really slow. No idea if it did this before and I just didn't notice but either way it's annoying to me and makes me worry someone may not notice the signal. It's 5 seconds on, 5 seconds off while other vehicles appear to be more like 1 on, 1 off.

The bike was sold originally with no turn signals but the previous owner added OEM Aprilia LED signals.

Do I just need a new blinker module or is there something else I should be looking at?
 
unL33T said:
I haven't ridden my RS125 in awhile but today I noticed the turn signal blinks really slow. No idea if it did this before and I just didn't notice but either way it's annoying to me and makes me worry someone may not notice the signal. It's 5 seconds on, 5 seconds off while other vehicles appear to be more like 1 on, 1 off.

The bike was sold originally with no turn signals but the previous owner added OEM Aprilia LED signals.

Do I just need a new blinker module or is there something else I should be looking at?
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Normally a digital blinker relays is necessary. If you have 5 second on an one second off that would indicate an incorrect relay for sure, but 5 on 5 off is rather odd.
 
Mad Mike said:
Normally a digital blinker relays is necessary. If you have 5 second on an one second off that would indicate an incorrect relay for sure, but 5 on 5 off is rather odd.
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I wonder if it's been like this forever and I just never noticed. I've had the bike since 2013 though.
 
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If its a normal indandescent bulb that usually indicates the wattages are different.
If they're LED I'll have to leave it up to you 21st century thinkers.
 
None of the bulbs is burned out including the indicator one in the instrument cluster?
 
Trials said:
None of the bulbs is burned out including the indicator one in the instrument cluster?
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I didn’t actually check the front one. Guess it could be. LEDs don’t usually burn out though.

Instrument panel is working. That’s how I noticed it’s slow.
 
LED so it should have a solid state flasher circuit that is nothing like the thermal circuit breaker type ones of old.
Still check all the LED's and or incandescents on that circuit are good. Just a hunch you should watch for resistors too.
Are there any makings on a signal flasher unit or is that integral and buried inside something?
 
I'm going to guess that the RS125's flasher relay is conventional and that its timing is based, in part, on the current drawn by the signal lamps. With LEDs the current is lower and so the flashing rate may be slower. Sometimes people will add a power resistor in parallel with the LEDs on each side to increase the current.
 
Trials said:
LED so it should have a solid state flasher circuit that is nothing like the thermal circuit breaker type ones of old
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100% this. Old style thermal based flashers rely on the load from incandescent bulbs to heat up the bimetal strip and open the circuit, then it cools and closes again, repeat over and over again and you have your flasher.

Key word being "incandescent". As soon as you change to LED the load on the flasher is significantly less so that bimetal strip takes way longer than it should to heat up and open, hence your issue.

If your battery is old and weak this will also make the problem even worse as there would be less amps flowing through the flasher causing the bimetal strip even longer to open.

Your fix is to just replace the flasher with a solid state relay based unit and your problem will instantly go away.
 
Alright. Just assumed if the OEM flashers were LED the PO would also use the matching OEM relay.

I'll look at it some day when it doesn't keep raining on and off.
 
If the blinker relay is thermal, it would be on 5 off 1, once the relay opens, there is no impact from the low resistance of an LED, it should cool in less than 1 second. OP says 5 on 5 off -- that's doesn't directly suggest a thermal relay is causing the problem.

I'd try Sburns suggestion before buying a new relay -- change the blinker fluid first.
 
No idea :| everything I could find suggested the 2009 Aprilia RS125 came with incandescent flashers, you could buy replacement bulbs cheap and the flasher unit is the same one used on a TS125 Suzuki among other old bikes that all preceded LED tech. ymmv.
 
Trials said:
No idea :| everything I could find suggested the 2009 Aprilia RS125 came with incandescent flashers, you could buy replacement bulbs cheap and the flasher unit is the same one used on a TS125 Suzuki among other old bikes that all preceded LED tech. ymmv.
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If I search the parts list I have for "indicator" the description for each result says either "1led" or "4led" in it. I think mine have 4. I'll take a look sometime this evening and see what I can find on the flasher as well.

They came with nothing originally and weren't supposed to be street legal. Local dealer added the signals and sold them as street legal. He got in trouble supposedly. The new stock for sale outside of Ontario are listed as track only.
 
Evoex said:
Huh? I thought you needed a relay to slowdown the intervals not speed them up. :unsure:
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A thermal relay works by heating up a bi-metal strip as current flows through it. Each side of the strip has a dissimilar metal that expand at different rates when heated (light on), this causes the strip to curl and eventually the contact at the end disconnects the circuit (light off). The strip cools, straightens out and reconnects the circuit so power flows again (light on)... rinse and repeat.

Incandescent bulbs draw more current so they heat the bi-metal strip in about half a second, and they are designed to cool in about the same time. LEDS take a lot longer to heat up the relay, some LEDs don't draw enough power to trigger the relay so a resistor is installed in the circuit to draw a more current. When the relay trips, the 'light off' period will be the same for incandescent or LED.
 
Well I tried it again today after I couldn’t find the relay and it was more like 1-2 sec on and off which seems fairly normal. Dunno what was up with it the other day. Also, I have OEM 4 LED signals. Based on the sound the relay is buried in the tail somewhere even though I found a forum post where someone asked the location and the answer provided was that it’s behind the dash. Weird.
 
Double post. Tapatalk screwed up.
 
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