What makes a car blinker blink?


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A small device called the flasher houses two contacts seperated by a piece of tungsten steel. As current passes through the steel it heats up and 'warps' to break the current. As the steel cools it makes contact again and this causes the turn signals to blink off and on.

Your flasher could be bad but more likely its the turn signal switch.

Wow...you should be a car expert :)

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:blink: i am hypnotized by your knowledge raven...

:D I've been knowing this since 3rd grade, lol

It's the same way christmas tree lights flas, you can look at them and see it working.

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OK found the reason. I had to buy the flasher. I had to get it from the Jeep dealership, but I put it in myself. Set me back $40. Guess my granddad was right. We always asked/made fun of him when he wouldn't use his blinker. He always said he was saving it....LOL

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weird, i know a decent amount about cars, and i thought it was all digital as well. like a 555 that someone mentioned earlier...

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hey you can always blink it manually!

grab the wires and cut it.. and when you want to make a signal, just tell your partner on the right to connect and disconnect it while you're turning :D

on... off.. on.. off.. amazing

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hey you can always blink it manually!

grab the wires cut it.. and when you want to make a signal, just tell your partner on the right to connect and disconnect it while you're turning :D

LOL....I was doing that on the way home!!

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Yeah no kidding, I felt like I was driving a beater-upper around. No pimpin' for me!

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you know my 87 cherokee never had its blinkers go out yet. almost to 210k miles also.

I was very surprised that a 3 year old car with 38000 miles on it would have a bad blinker flasher too... :wacko:

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I always thought it was a relay.? I should ask my dad, he's a mechanic.?

I don't think a 555 timer can handle that sort of current.? It would have to be a mechanical switch such as a relay or what raven said.

the 555 timer ic can't handle the current load of a signal lamp on it's own, you need a lower voltage input to power the 555 and the RC (resistor/ capacitor) or other timing circuitry. you CAN however use the clock pulse generated by the 555 chip to run other things, such as a relay, that CAN handle those kinds of current loads. the 555 just generates a clock pulse, you can use that to do anything you want, from set off a nuclear bomb to starting your coffee pot in the morning.

There are dual timing IC's as well, i believe the model number is 558, and it comes in a 16pin dip package, as compaired to a 8 pin dip package for the 555.

If you want I can draw you a timing schematic using a 555 chip, and if you need an actual circuit, i can design one for you if you would rather have it digitally controled instead of with the flasher module, but I don't know why you would want that, since it'll take up more space (especially for the relay)

Also, in addition to a relay, you could use an opto isolator to act as a switch. its like an optical switch.

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