Left turn signal blinks rapidly when headlights are on

Asked by Deadpoolio8820 Aug 06, 2019 at 07:45 AM about the 1999 Dodge RAM 1500 Laramie SLT Quad Cab 4WD

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

I have a 1999 Dodge Ram 1500. Just recently I found out
that my left turn signal blink rapidly only when I have my
headlights on. I have checked to see if the bulbs were bad
and they're practically new still. It's not a relay issue. I saw
it could be a weak or no ground problem but I don't know
what that exactly means. Does anyone have any ideas on
how to fix this problem?

1 Answer

I have 2012 Ram 1500 and my right side blinker was faster than my left. I investigated and found my front blinkers were fine but my right rear had one of the two filaments blown inside the brake light bulb. First I replaced with an LED replacement and then both sides blinked fast. Took those out and replaced both rear left/right bulbs with OEM bulbs and everything returned to normal speed. I *think* the LED bulbs have a different (lower) resistance so the circuitry has a capacitor that charges and discharges more rapidly causing the lights and blinking to occur more rapidly. As to why the right side was blinking more rapidly when it had one of the two filaments burned inside the brake light bulb, it is because with one filament blown the overall resistance of the bulb was lower causing the RC constant of the capacitor to be lower and discharge and charge more rapidly than if both filaments were present.

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