Jon

No rain here this morning so got on with it. Ran a continuity test on blue/green near side rear multi plug to indicator stalk multi plug. New Hong Kong meter chirrupped and read 582 ohms. Thought I would see what the corresponding off side reading showed up...... blue/yellow over there, ohms were negligible. Then my confidence was shattered when I got similar reading off the adjacent terminal. Wished I had a wiring diagram and was not confident that I really knew what was between the two multiplugs ! (However I did find a non factory brown wire earthed very optimistically with a ring terminal under one of the four nuts retaining the plastic o/s light cluster) More on this later. Moved back to the n/s and the earth situation. Used a separate earthing location for the meter. Both earth terminals in the n/s rear multi plug checked out. They arrive along with the two o/s earthing wires at a brass 4 way ring terminal and a 10 mm bolt which I removed to reveal some of the best paint on the whole car ! Carved away paint, extended the non factory brown earth from the o/s and replaced bolt. Tested indicators.....solid as a rock. Gremlin evicted ! and who knows the parking censors might work now as well ? Thanks again both ! Will have to drink beer now to celebrate.

Thanks guys will try again tomorrow if there's a break in the monsoon.

It was frosty here this morning and my indicator Gremlin returned ! Rigged up a 21 watt test bulb with micropins on the tails. Disconnected the near side rear multi plug and inserted test bulb tails direct...no dice. Substituted analog meter and got 12volts flashing as before. Traced blue/green positive feed back to the indicator stalk. Disconnected multi plug from indicator stalk and applied a 12 volt hot supply from the cigarette lighter into the blue/green wire microsocket. Panel repeater green arrow illuminated. Went to the near side rear multi plug and test bulb which had not illuminated. Substituted meter for test bulb. Steady 12volts indicated. Suggests to me that the Gremlin is located between the indicator stalk and the rear multi plug ? Will now drink beer and plan my next move.

Very nice Lumpy !

Thanks Dave I never fail to be impressed by the ease that these rare beauties gobble up the miles and simply can't understand why they didn't get the recognition (in this country) that they deserve. I recently did Harrogate and back, completely stress free, in a day. On that occasion my passenger was in disbelief that the car was naturally aspirated.

Wow Dave comprehensive as ever ! Thank you I will have to read you thoughts again and try and digest in full. Your detailed explanations seem to support my suspicions. What makes tracing these "gremlins", as PTR calls them, so maddening is that everything still looks at first glance to be in factory fresh condition ?

As you have read I am in the same boat. As an interim measure I invested £14 for 4 bulbs by Stripey Elite on Fleabay. As much as I hate to recommend dodgey outfits who claim 100 watts and only deliver 66 watts they are blue and quite driveable.

Welcome Lumpy excellent choice ! Only 98k...... just about run in then ?

My 20 year old Coupe has done 114,000 miles and is smooth and willing at all speeds. Suspension is original except this summer I treated it to new anti roll bushes all round which has restored the silence at lower speeds. I think I understand where you are coming from about 70 mph, they are long legged vehicles and start to come in to their own at higher speeds. Tut tut Officer !

Welcome Cardi !

Time for a progress report on my clock light which I noticed was becoming dim. On inspection the bulb was blackened and showed all the signs of getting too hot ! Fitted another grain of wheat bulb but this time did not seat it tight in the plastic holder so cooling might be improved ? Only 4 months service is disappointing so if anyone has tracked down an LED alternative it seems to be a better solution. See how long this one lasts ?

Hi PTR It's all plastic, there are only two wires, positive feed and earth. I drove 12 miles this evening and all was well. This is the first time I have had an electrical snag of any kind with this car. I suspect damp somewhere so ran the ac and will do while the monsoon lasts. I also made a note when we get a dry day to pull all the fuses and clean them. I can only think there was enough contact to give meter readings which broke down under load ?

Hi PTR thank you too. My description was poor that's what I meant by reference to the swinging needle on my analog meter. Till the next time ! Cheers Jon

Thank you for diving in once again with this one ! Many have looked and I don't blame them for staying away ! You call it "very strange".....I have run out out descriptions. In between showers I have been at it again today. You almost stop believing in what's logical including yourself ! The only new thing I did today was pull the 7.5 amp fuse and test it, it was good. No immediate success when I refitted it, but then as if it was possessed it started working ! I just hope It continues. It has to be something to do with damp ? ......boy has it been wet down here !

Quite out of the blue my near side rear indicator packed up today. Front and repeater continued working at increased rate. Bought new bulb from local Honda main dealer. ( Have known Halfrauds bulbs to throw up canbus errors ) Installed new bulb....no joy ! Meter confirmed earth was good and on live test showed a swinging needle on the positive terminal. Carefully teased copper contacts in bulb holder and replaced bulb.....still no good ! Bench tested bulb all fine. More careful copper teasing and replaced bulb.....still no good ! Scratched head and drank tea then removed bulb holder to bench complete with bulb.....worked fine ! Reinstalled bulb holder in car ......no joy ! Have to admit I am now scratching my head with this one ! Ran out of time today so will pick up again tomorrow. All ideas most welcome.

Hi Dave, I thought I might attract some curiosity. I am looking to install a very retro dip switch....foot operated ! So far the only irritant is having to provide a new supply for the highbeam blue indicator light since it is currently supplied upstream and will need to be downstream. Early days more later. Thank for you for your interest

Thank you Hughezee I got some inspiration from the video, Actually I was looking for the actual location of the infernal clips. No matter I took the precaution of warming everything with a fan heater prior to starting work. All went fine, nothing broke and no evidence of entry.

Does anyone know the kindest way to remove the column covers on a Coupe please?

Headlight lenses are actually excellent and crystal clear other than very small areas where the lacquer has been been chipped by micro impacts. The dipped performance is now acceptable with the Stripey Elite Xenon bulbs and although I have yet to bench test them my guess is they are a tad over the old Stanley 51 watt bulbs. Beam to me is a bit disappointing but better than before.....all by 2 watts lol !

Thanks Dave this hadn't entirely escaped my attention, I will proceed with caution.

Well it just goes show everything's been done before somewhere. But oh boy what butchery ! My pins remain perfectly straight and no heat can be conducted down to the holder. I have no concerns on the temperature front. Final bench test at a solid 14.0 volts was revealing. Stripey Elite Hb3 advertised at 100 watts drew a measly 82 watts. I conclude for now I am a massive 2 watts better off. I am not ready to take the LED route and maybe will see what HID is all about ? Thanks Dave for your valuable input and bareing with me, after all of that I need a beer.

The "on car" rig was easier than I first thought but did require a sacrificial bulb and didn't tell me much. I set it up on "the easy to get" at offside inner where I have a Stripey Elite Xenon 100 watt bulb. With engine running the volts were modest at 12.1 and the bulb was only pulling 66 watts ! Back to the bench which now has revised power and can maintain a solid 12 volts under full load. A used Hb4 Stanley 51 watt at 12.0 volts was spot on at 51 watts. A used Stanley Hb3 60 watt at 12.0 volts drew a healthy 64 watts. If I have previously said these were rated at 80 watts I was wrong.....should have gone to Specsavers. I believe this is what Dave said I would find. Final step will be one more power upgrade to achieve 14 volts on the bench and test the Stripey Elites. Back to my reversing light saga and my most recent disappointment with Xenon 21 watt W3W's having previously tried Osram W21W LED's. Seemed l had exhausted all options there being no more wedge type bulbs to try. What I needed was a way to use alternative bulbs and set about using modelling techniques to make wedge adapters which would not damage the original bulb holders. Fortunately there is a huge range 12v halogens aimed at the medical market. I settled for a modest increase to 35 watts using Osram Halostar GY6.35's. They don't appear particularly bright and nothing like as bright to look at as the LED's but I am very pleased to say that my ability to see where I am going is greatly improved !

Very interesting that the U.S. uses a different system, thank you. Slightly improved my bench rig today (the on car rig will take a little longer). Now with an off load voltage of 14.15. Was rather short of time but did manage to hook up a Stanley 80 watt HB3. Saw 71 watts for a moment at 12.85 volts but things were moving pretty fast. Hope to have more time come the weekend.

Hi Dave Thank you for your interest with this. Rightly or wrongly I had assumed that the manufacturers of these bulbs which rely on a variable voltage would base their claims on a nominal voltage of 12v. I never expected the Chinese Fleabay bulbs to support their claimed performance but I was surprised by the Stanley bulb reading. I am now intrigued because they are identical.

Well the Lumro Xeon W21W reversing light bulbs arrived and were duly fitted. I can't say they were as good as I had hoped. They are blue and produce a nice white light but again the way finding performance appeared to be lacking for me at least. Back to the drawing board. However while I was looking for them I came across a package deal for 2x80 watt HB 4's and 2x100 watt HB 3's, Xenon by stripey-elite.com all for £14.15 including postage, so I grabbed them, Fleabay of course. Did the swap on Saturday and removed the tired old blackened bulbs by Stanley. ( I suppose they can't be original.....can they ? ) Filament positions appeared identical which was a good start.They were a complete revelation for me out on the road. Curious though I thought I might get flashed but didn't. Still curious and being a flyer of electric model aircraft I decided to see what was going on. Using my digital watt meter and a fully charged 125ah 12 volt battery, I set up a bench test. I only tested 2 bulbs. First was one of the very used Stanley HB3's rated at 80 watts and the other one my new Elite Xenon HB3's rated at 100 watts. They both recorded 64 watts at 11.9 volts, 5.38 amps ! My next move will be to manufacture a rig to take readings on the car and see how they get on at 14.4 volts.