CDO64352

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london, uk
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ZS EV
Can anyone please tell me exactly where the blinker/flasher is located on the MG ZS I wanted to install LED lighting, but to my surprise they blinked on high speed, only to learn a blinker Relay was needed to slow them back down, I’ve searched online to see where the Flasher is exactly located but can’t find anything, thanks for your help…
 
How would that shock you.

This is how cars have worked for many many years.

The way a car with incandescent lightbulbs indicate to you, that a bulb is blown is by using what is called a variable load relay, when all bulbs are working the load they put onto the relay makes it flash at the speed, specified in the law. (This was how it was done back in the day atleast)

When one or more bulbs are blown, the load is less and the frequency increases.

I believe the simple way it achieves this is when it turns on, it heats up a bimetallic strip, the more current that flows through the hotter it gets and when it gets hot it will "disconnect" until it has cooled down.

So all bulbs = More current = hotter bimetallic strip = Longer time to cool down.

When a bulb fails, it will not get as hot and cool down faster so the frequency is going to be faster.

The way, most people deal with this is to buy, what is, mostly erroneously called "CAN BUS safe bulbs". (As the bulb is not on the CAN BUS at all)

What these are, is essentially a bulb, but with some sort of resistor, so that the LED, that draws a LOT less power has a resistor in parallel, that makes the complete bulb assembly draw more or less the same amount of current as the normal filament bulb, cheating the circuit into believing a good bulb is installed.

Some cars nowadays, especially those with LED's from factory, have an electronic variant where the frequency is determined by one of the "computers" in the engine compartment. They just have a very low ohm series resistor and measure the voltage drop across, if the drop is not "large" enough, the bulb/LED is assumed to be faulty as i draws no or too little current and the frequency of the output is then adjusted.

So your best bet is to either get some resistors to put in parallel over the bulb or get some "CAN BUS safe" LED's.

On the ZS EV the bulbs/LED's seems to be driven by the BCM, so you can not just change a relay, you will need to do the resistor "hack" to match a filament bulb's current draw.

Please be aware, that doing so, will disable the cars own internal bulb blown circuit as even if the LED should stop working, the resistor will still draw power. Depending on the law where you are, this might be illegal to do as you will not be "alerted" that one of the lamps are not working, if you get into an accident where someone misses your intention to turn, because of the defective light, you might be held accountable for the accident happening.
 
I doubt that there is a can type relay for the indicators on new cars, it might sound like one but it is noise that is generated by an electronic part of the system and the final noise comes from a speaker. If you play with the setting, you can adjust the volume to your liking and for once I can actually hear when my indicators are on.
 
I doubt that there is a can type relay for the indicators on new cars, it might sound like one but it is noise that is generated by an electronic part of the system and the final noise comes from a speaker. If you play with the setting, you can adjust the volume to your liking and for once I can actually hear when my indicators are on.
Yes, the tik tok sound comes from the internal speakers, that's exactly why it is possible to adjust the volume of the blinker sound.
 
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