# Signal light flasher on 2006 Canadian T30 XTrail



## DFSpencer (Oct 21, 2019)

I have been doing extensive, seemingly unending, work on a 2006 T30 XTrail that I bought in June of 2019 at a Nissan dealer's wholesale lot. It has required a bit more work than I had first estimated. At this point, now near the end, I thought I would replace some of the tungsten bulbs with LEDs. The first ones I replaced were the rear (amber) signal lights. Of course that resulted in "huperflashing" when the signal lights were activated, not a surprise because the low current draw of LEDs is not compatible with traditional flashers. So I bought a NOVITA EP34 LED compatible flasher. Then I had to find the flasher in the vehicle. Now I don't know whether there is something odd about Canadian XTrails (they were of course only sold as the 2005/06 T30 models) but tracking down the flasher was a bit of an adventure. Using a stethoscope, with signal lights for one side flashing, I found the unit that clearly contains the flasher, a grey, rectangular plastic box very high up under the dash, more or less above the brake pedal frame.I have no idea how the box is connected (it almost looks to me as if it would have been installed before any of the plastic dash panels were installed) and I cannot figure out how to remove it; I assume that the signal light flasher is one of two or more components in the unit. So, does anyone have experience with this problem and how (or if) I can even get the box out to install the EP34?
Thanks from Nova Scotia..


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## VStar650CL (Nov 12, 2020)

The flasher is generally inside the BCM on everything from about '03 up, and it isn't serviceable. To get rid of the hyperflash, wire a 10 ohm 25 W cement or aluminum resistor across one of the bulb circuits on each side, that will provide a "dummy" load for the BCM and allow you to use LED's.


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## DFSpencer (Oct 21, 2019)

Thanks for the rapid response. I hadn't considered that Nissan would put the flasher relay in the Body Control Module. When working it sure sounds like (and has a vibration like) a mechanical relay but why on earth would Nissan put a mechanical relay (with contact points) inside an essentially inaccessible BCM module? What is odd is that auto parts suppliers do list the Novita EP34 as an LED compatible replacement flasher for a number of Nissan models but from what you are saying that must be on older Nissans, I assume including the first years of the T30. After sending my note it did occur to me that adding a resistor to the lamp circuit to increase the current load would likely be my only option. So I first took an ohmeter and measured the cold resistance of the tungsten bulb I replaced (it is about 0.5 ohm). It really isn't possible with a multimeter, even a diode compatible one, to get any resistance reading from the LED replacement bulbs that consist of 13 or so individual LEDs. I played around with some component LEDs that I have and the voltage drop for even normal intensity units (about 1.8V) is higher than with silicon diodes, where the range is from about 1 V (or even a little less) up to about 1.5V for some high current components; the high intensity LEDs have an even higher voltage drop. Most multimeters of course use a 9 volt battery, and even my very old analogue meter (also with a 9 volt battery) cannot get a resistance value from the newer more complex LED bulbs. This 9 volt (or slightly higher voltage) threshold, is the same as with high intensity LED headlight replacements that are not (without some extra addons) compatible with the high-beam based daytime running light systems that reduce the voltage to the bulb to less than 9V. I next used a 12V car battery to power various bulbs, with an multimeter in amp mode in series, to get a feeling for what the LED's operating resistance is compared to tungsten.The amber tungsten bulb when running fully illuminated has a resistance of about 7 ohms.The LED replacement bulb (what I would call the cluster LED variety, so with 13 or more small LEDs) has an operating resistance of about 160 ohms; with supply voltages less than 12 this resistance actually seemed to drop slightly, to about 120 ohms. So your suggestion of a 10 ohm resister in parallel with one of the flasher bulbs is in line with what I have measured, although I may play around with slightly higher resistances for interest. The other curious thing is that the four-way warning flasher is not affected by LED lamp replacements, at least not by only one tungsten bulb being replaced.
I plan on making similar measurement comparisons for headlights, so halogen versus high intensity LEDs, if I can do it without blinding myself.


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## VStar650CL (Nov 12, 2020)

The flasher isn't affected because the BCM drives it digitally through a traditional relay, not a heated-wire flasher. The blinkers _do_ use a heated-wire type, but for some reason Nissan decided to embed it in the BCM. I suppose they wanted to maintain "hyperflash" when a bulb is out because it's what people are used to. To do that using a traditional relay would require a current-metering circuit, and plunking in an old-school flasher is doubtless much cheaper.


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## quadraria10 (Jul 6, 2010)

I fully agree. Put in a regular bulb and call it a day. One thing about the X is the taillights are very visible. I see zero benefits in changing them to LEDs


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## DFSpencer (Oct 21, 2019)

I'm writing this to clarify and correct some of the comments I, and others, made in this thread and that I now can properly talk about. I own the service manual (digital) for the T30 although it is the European version, and clearly doesn't always accurately reflect my 2006 Canadian T30; as well I have noticed occasional contradictory info in the manual itself. The manual does show what they call the "combination flasher" high in the dash and beside a box they refer to as the "Time Control Unit" (which is what VStar650CL refers to as the BCM, Body Conrtol Module, a term the service manual never uses). I knew these parts would be just below the "Driver box" (the manual term for it, it is above the steering column and with a lid) but just visually looking at it I couldn't see how easy it would be to remove the box and see what was below. I finally checked the manual and it was not as much of an ordeal as I thought it be to get the drivers box removed. The small panel at the left over the speaker and the vent has to be removed (these parts all come out by pulling straight out from the dash), you then have to remove the bezel panel around the central gauges and tach, etc. and then the four screws that retain the driver box become accessible and it can be lifted and removed. The box has a 'power supply socket' (I would still call it the cigar/cigarette lighter ) that must be disconnected. I am attaching three photos to document what I found. The first is the original arrangement:









Note that in the lower centre of the photo there is indeed a black unit and that is in fact the combination flasher unit. Behind it in the photo is the box you can see looking up from below.
The next photo show the unit removed from the bracket; it is held but a plastic unit that you compress with your fingers to release.








I actually initially unplugged the original flasher and hooked up the EP34 to see if that cured the hyperflashing and it did. Some people in posts say they take the old unit, remove the guts, disassemble the EP34 and put its internals in the old case. I chose not to do that but instead cut off the fastener area and glued in onto the back of the EP34. Th last photo shows the final result.









The original combination flasher (the term "combination" I am sure refers to the fact that single unit does both signal and hazard flashing) is actually not as primitive as I anticipated but instead has a small IC (presumably a modern version of or equivalent to the old classic 555), several very small resistors and a small electrolytic capacitor. You could probably play around with the size of that capacitor and change the flasher's behavior with LED lamps.
I cannot imagine, even knowing where the flasher is installed, that you could access it, disconnect it, and plug in an EP34 from below and up through the dash.

My next project on my XTrail is a little more challenging, modifying the DRL module circuit so that it will drive high intensity LED headlights. I have done voltage tests on the unit (outside of its box) in the vehicle and it is powering the DRLs with about 6.8 V, so essentially half of the vehicle voltage supply with the engine running. Those LED headlights need at least 9 volts to work. The standard approach from what I am aware is to use the high beams (at reduced voltage) for daytime running lights (if there are not specific lights for that purpose) but the XTrail seems to use the low beams, based on the wiring schematic in the service manual and also by just standing in front of the vehicle and looking at the DRLs running.


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## VStar650CL (Nov 12, 2020)

Wow, my apologies! Nissan hasn't used an electrical system like that in the 'States since before 2000. I know many X-Trails don't always have the latest stuff by contrast to their US analogs, but I didn't imagine an '06 would be electrically antique. We don't have documentation for them here, so I can only advise by extension. In this case, I wish I could have checked. Sorry!


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## DFSpencer (Oct 21, 2019)

No apologies needed, VStar650CL. My knowledge of Nissan vehicles is pretty much limited to the vehicle in my driveway, the 2006 Canadian T30 XTrail. I bought it in June of 2019 as a major project and I certainly have become intimately acquainted with many or most of its idiosyncrasies. I do get the impression that the T30 XTrails were a bit of an odd-ball model even within Nissan. For example the T30 has multilink rear suspension, with one forward parallel link per side, one rear parallel link, a radius rod, a stabilizer bar and a standard MacPherson strut. From what I can tell (and you would know this detail) I think the XTrail was the only Nissan with multilink rear suspension. Maybe Nissan viewed the T30 in some respects as a practical trial of multilink suspensions, and clearly ultimately decided to stop using them in any Nissan. The first XTrail, the T30, was introduced at least in Japan in 2001 as I recall and spread throughout much of the world, so to Europe, including the UK, to Australia, the middle east and I believe South Africa. No XTrail was ever sold in the US and in Canada only the 2005 and 2006 year models were available; 2006 was the last model year of the T30. Nissan introduced the T31 XTrail in 2007, which looked superficially (from the general body shape) like the T30 XTrail but had significant changes, including elimination of the multilink rear end, replaced with the same rear suspension as on the Rogue. The last year of the T31 was 2012/13 but Nissan actually retained the XTrail name for the T32 when it was sold everywhere except I believe in Canada and the US (where it was the Rogue), so with no obvious relationship to the true T30 XTrails. Nissan Canada sold the Rogue from 2007 when Nissan first introduced the line. When I have been running around locally to source replacement parts for my XTrail I have been surprised at how well-known these, now 14 to 15-year old vehicles, are in Nova Scotia. There are still quite a few on the road and the people in the Nissan dealer's parts department told me that the XTrail (2005/06) was a popular vehicle and a good seller and they were surprised when it was dropped for 2007. I have since read that the T31 XTrail (as sold outside of the US and Canada) shares the same base vehicle platform as the 2007 (and forward) Rogue, sold in the US and Canada, so that explains the confusing marketing.
Because the T30 XTrail was never sold in the US there is a real weakness in terms of aftermarket parts available for the vehicle. The few things that I have been able to find in Canada or the US are parts shared by other Nissans, such as the Sentras of the era. Even the Nissan dealer stocks little for the XTrail and when I have to get a real Nissan part it generally has to come from Japan, shipped to Vancouver and ultimately to here in the far east. I bought one or two exhaust parts from Poland, and I think the front axle assembly splash guards came from either Saudi Arabia or Japan, and so on.


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## intersol (9 mo ago)

DFSpencer said:


> I'm writing this to clarify and correct some of the comments I, and others, made in this thread and that I now can properly talk about. I own the service manual (digital) for the T30 although it is the European version, and clearly doesn't always accurately reflect my 2006 Canadian T30; as well I have noticed occasional contradictory info in the manual itself. The manual does show what they call the "combination flasher" high in the dash and beside a box they refer to as the "Time Control Unit" (which is what VStar650CL refers to as the BCM, Body Conrtol Module, a term the service manual never uses). I knew these parts would be just below the "Driver box" (the manual term for it, it is above the steering column and with a lid) but just visually looking at it I couldn't see how easy it would be to remove the box and see what was below. I finally checked the manual and it was not as much of an ordeal as I thought it be to get the drivers box removed. The small panel at the left over the speaker and the vent has to be removed (these parts all come out by pulling straight out from the dash), you then have to remove the bezel panel around the central gauges and tach, etc. and then the four screws that retain the driver box become accessible and it can be lifted and removed. The box has a 'power supply socket' (I would still call it the cigar/cigarette lighter ) that must be disconnected. I am attaching three photos to document what I found. The first is the original arrangement:
> View attachment 6962
> 
> 
> ...


Oh wow! Thanks so much. I have been having the same issue accessing the flasher unit on my T30 here in Trinidad. I really appreciate the pictures. Mine is 16 years old and still going strong. The flasher unit works but now has a very faint click, and sometimes remains on if I am not paying attention. Thanks again.


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