Annunciation Bulb on Instrument Panel Flickers

Hello Steve.

Problem solved! Thank you!

The second place I looked was the left rear tail light. I found that the bracket weld on the 'bulb failure module' had separated from the device, so there was no ground. I unplugged the wire from the WL terminal. Now I have correct operation. Annunciation lamp goes out within 2 seconds. No more flickering.

Thanks again for being there for me.

Best regards, Bob G.

Thank you Steve.

Edited on 2012-03-30 10:24:45

Don't worry too much about the "brightness" of your rear lamps. You have dark, smoked lenses that are also focused. Unless you are directly behind the lamp, as you would be in a car following, they will not seem very bright; that's just their design. Stand 40-50 feet behind your car at night and have someone step on the brake, you'll see they get the job done. If they seem dim then, there may be a grounding problem to track down.

Cheers,

Hello Steve.

After reading your description of the location of the bulb failure units, I just remembered another observation. My tail lights are very dim. I have replaced the bulbs, and cleaned the lens without much improvement.

The question: Is it possible the rear bulb failure units also control the voltage (or current) to the tail lights?

Thank you again Steve. I will look for them and secure all connections. I appreciate your help.

Well, see what happens when you shoot from the hip?? You get it wrong.

Robert, you have a total of five bulb failure units, two at the RH component panel below the glove box, one at each tail lamp and one attached to the midpoint of the LH dog leg brace, just up and out of sight.

Happy hunting!

Thank you Darel. I will do that. Can you please tell me where to "find" these modules?

Check your grounds on all of the modules. They are chassis ground, so if it flickers when you hit a bump that means one is loose or poorly grounded and you're momentarily interrupting that ground.

Thank you Steve. When you have time, would you please look up the part numbers for these 3 modules. Then I can decide if it is worth the money to replace, or just ignore the flaky operation.

Life sure is a lot easier with my XKE ... hardly any electronics.

Sounds to me like one of the bulb failure modules are flaky. I think that car has three, one in the console for the rear lights, and one under the dash on each side. I don't have my laptop handy with all my tech stuff to be sure.

Nothing to be worried about, just an aggravation to deal with when you can.

Thank you for the quick reply Steve.

Takes about 30 seconds from the time I turn on the headlights, until it goes out. Do not know if this is normal.

Once out (off), it flickers on and off. If I hit a bump in the road, it flickers on for a half second or so.

Any ideas? Or am I worried about a non-problem?

That is the Bulb Failure warning light. It should go out after a few seconds. If it stays on, it's indicating there is a bulb out. The key is, does it stay on.