Flickering sidestand and oil pressure light.

[klylor10]

I'm having an issue where my sidestand and oil pressure lights will intermittently flicker as I'm driving. It's really sporadic. Tonight it didn't happen at all at freeway speeds, but as soon as I got down to about 40 mph it started up again. When the engine is not running but the lights are on the lights seem to function normally, but sometimes they just stay on. It all seems really random.

I've tried to do some research on here and it seems like folks are having the problem with them staying on but I haven't seen anything about flickering during operation. I read that they are connected via a diode and that the issue may be a bad connection. I'm planning on pulling the headlight tomorrow to clean everything but wanted to check in about it first.

Thanks y'all.

 

[cowboyup3371]

I'm not so sure where the sidestand light wiring runs as I don't have one but let's get a couple of basic questions asked about the oil pressure light. Are you certain your oil level is good right now? Have you checked the wiring from the oil pressure switch in the engine and followed it up into the harness to ensure nothing is touching?

I suggest checking your entire harness, not just the bucket, to ensure you don't have even a small section of bare wires touching each other.

 

[bwringer]

You can get strange bulb flickering effects if the normal ground wire isn't connected or the connection is bad somewhere along the way; the instruments basically end up grounding themselves through the bulb filaments.

 

[klylor10]

I am certain that my level is good, yes. To be clear, I just replaced the oil pressure switch and cleaned the grounding plate that is under the metal switch cover because I was having an issue where the light was not coming on at all.

I haven't followed the wiring all the way up, but I can add that to the list. The wiring near the switch seems fine.

Edit: Just saw your reply, bwringer. Would the solution for this be to trace the ground wire from the diode that connects the sidestand/oil lights and look for anything out of order? I'm relatively new to this electrical stuff, but that 's what I assume you mean by "normal ground"