Whoa, lads, thought I was in for a bit of expense this week when the indicators stopped working on my Mk 1 Octy. They would come on and just stay on without flashing. Was OK for the first ten minutes after starting in the morning, but then no good, had to make the lights flash manually, not easy on a roundabout

BUT then I phoned my friendly local dealer (MKG in Stevenage where my wagon was born) and one of their chaps said to "be firm" with the hazard light switch, on and off a few times, which I did. And hey presto, after a few slow flashes, all is perfect again now.

So there's a new one to tell the grandchildren about.

The only thing is, why does this treatment fix the problem? I thought that the bimetal strip had got tired of life, so the only logical thing was to get a new relay. Any ideas?

SR

thats how mine started then in the end they would not work at all flicking the OCTAVIA badge under hazard switch works also, in the end got the hazard switch changed to sort for good

Alan

Problem is said to be due to the terminals in the relay getting corroded. Sounds like some brisk usage might scrape some crap off them and get them working again. I know some people took the relay out and scraped terminals themselves, but I got it replaced in 2 minutes, under warranty.

As you say, it's a real fiddle trying to manually do the flashes by working the indicator arm yourself, with your gearlever hand, on a roundabout. Also, I noticed after a while that the bulbs were not flashing at all.

My indicators went from being normal to completely unusable over about 3 days.

Just in case it's not obvious from the earlier answers, the flasher unit/relay is built into the hazard switch. When mine went wrong, a gentle tap on the hazard switch got 3 or 4 flashes out of it (easier that doing each flash by hand on a roundabout!). I don't know whether the hazard switch physically moves the same contacts (in which case it could scrape them clean as bk1 said), or whether it's just that shaking it moves the contacts slightly.

New hazard switch/flasher/relay under warranty cured mine. Don't know how much they cost if it's not a warranty job though.

I think cost is 15 or 30 pounds.

Don't want to tempt providence, but.........is it easy to fit a new one? I thought all the relays were next to the fuses?

Piece of cake to fit a new one. Pluck out the octavia panel around the switch, pull the switch out with the plug. swap the switch over, refit. done 5 mins tops.