Blinker problems after a radio upgrade

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What a pain.

Left hand directionals went out in BIL's 2000 Acura RL (nice car, A+ maintained).
Removed and replaced the blinker relay with new. $95 at dealer.
The left blinkers operated for 5 seconds then grew weak and stopped working.
Yes, I checked the dual filament bulb and it was OK.

THEN my brother-in-law said this all began right after some shop removed the factory GPS unit (above the ACC panel) and installed a multiple input radio (iPhone input) with a handmade frame.

Another relay is coming from RockAuto ($56) but my hope isn't high.

Heaven only knows what happened.
 
All the blinkers go through the hazard blinker button. Does that button work?

Also the same blinker relay does both left and right. So if only one side doesn't work, it's something else.
 
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Many after market radios have special after market wiring harness adapters to have everything function properly-since many things are integrated. If they didn't use a special harness to integrate everything back to OEM after the radio change-this could account for the issues.


For example- on Siverados the turn signal chimes come through the Left (driver's speaker). There is a PAC wiring harness one has to use to have full functionality. There are a couple of Pioneer radios that use a small speaker built in to the radio itself for the turn signal/door chimes instead of the door speaker.

Installing an after market radio in late model cars is hardly a "plug and play" situation any more.
 
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You need to do some electrical diagnosing, it sounds like they may have pulled power for the additional iphone thing from something in the blinker system.
Pull the relay and blinker fuse and see what else doesn't work and go from there. Post your findings. I may have a diagram on hand for this one so I can look the circuit up but that is a good starting point.
 
Originally Posted By: Kira
What a pain.

Left hand directionals went out in BIL's 2000 Acura RL (nice car, A+ maintained).
Removed and replaced the blinker relay with new. $95 at dealer.
The left blinkers operated for 5 seconds then grew weak and stopped working.
Yes, I checked the dual filament bulb and it was OK.

THEN my brother-in-law said this all began right after some shop removed the factory GPS unit (above the ACC panel) and installed a multiple input radio (iPhone input) with a handmade frame.

Another relay is coming from RockAuto ($56) but my hope isn't high.

Heaven only knows what happened.


Do not know about an Accura , but on latter GM trucks ( and cars , I think ) it is necessary to buy an interface to perserve the " chimes " function .
 
Japanese cars up until recently were simple compared to GM or European products - but if that Acura had navigation things can get complicated as there's also CAN/IEBus(Toyota's AVC-LAN, Honda's GA-NET and Pioneer's IP-Bus are based off IEBus) and parking brake/reverse/VSS signals that the navigation computer and display will use to interface with the vehicle.

Sounds like the audio shop tapped into a 12V source they shouldn't be using. Get a copy of the EWD for this car and find out which wires they tapped into. Typically, many aftermarket systems will be happy with the factory +12V hot at all times and switched power lines from the factory audio connectors.

If he had a Bose unit, there should be a converter to grab the aftermarket pre-outs into line-level outputs the Bose system's amp/DSP can understand - that needs external power to operate.
 
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