My indicators (MY00) are silent inside the car. I'm sure that they used to make a ticking sound as they flashed. Otherwise they work fine.
Is it the relay that makes the sound? Where is the relay?

Am I going mad?

 

Yes, the relay makes the sound. It's high up, fastened to the front bulkhead, driver's side, under the dash. An absolute bitch to get at, you can see it, or feel it, but not both at once

Mine is now no longer attached since I changed it for a towing one. It hardly makes any noise now.

Alcazar

 

A-ha!!!

I had a Subaru tow-bar fitted a few months back. It hadn't occured to me that this would affect the indicators. Why does it require a new relay?
My wife has been driving it since then so I didn't notice but we've switched cars again and I find that I have forgotten to cancel it a few times.

 

The indicator relay works by heating a wire which heats up a bimetallic strip, opening the contacts. the strip then cools, closes the contacts, etc.

When you have TWO indicators working, enough current flows for it to open and close between 60 and 120 times a minute (IIRC), which is the legal requirement. If a bulb goes, it heats up faster, as MORE current flows to it and less to the indicators, so your indicators flash quicker.

Now think about the other scenario: Your car now has to power THREE indicators, and on some trailers, FOUR.

Obviously, this will slow down the indicators too much, so a towing relay contains electronics that sense this and keep it at the right speed, while also sending a message to an extra lamp, (mine's a green LED), or an audible buzzer in the car to tell the driver the indicators on the trailer are working.

Alcazar

 

Thank you very much .
You've saved me a lot of routing around.

Simon

 

Bloody hell

Did you Google that or summit - very knowledgeable stuff Mr Alcazar !!

 

No mate, that's "O" level physics.........or it used to be. The stuff they do now is what we did in the 3rd form What they now call year 9

Alcazar

 

I have not looked at the Scooby relay for the indicators but I would expect it to use the electromagnet type. Certainly other relays in my MY99 are of the electromagnetic type.