Signal lights problem

Jean-Marc Dugas

PCS Member
Here is the latest problem.......

When I engage the left signal lights, both the front and rear left lights work as they are supposed to, however, when I engage the right signal lights, the rear light works properly, but both front lights blink at the same time.

Any ideas on where I should start looking?
 
the steering wheel. the canceling cam in there has broken a tab. they then cross over the connections and do some weird stuff. it's the only place all 4 bulb wires and a hot wire come together.
 
Also check the grounds, it's possible that the opposite signal lamp is acting as the grounding point. A lot of times this is indicated by one or both of the front lamps illuminating dimmer than normal.
 
start with the ground

Jean-Marc,
I was going to say start with the ground(s). That already said let us know what it was. I sure this is not the last time one of us will have this experience.
Good luck,
Mike
 
The current is flowing through one bulb and back feeding through another bulb, which is a direct result of having a poor ground. I would start by removing the battery cables from the battery, and then remove each bulb and clean the sockets with a plumbers 1/2" copper fitting brush. Then clean the brass part of each bulb with some fine steel wool. Next, put a light smear of Vaseline on each bulb, and reinstall them. Hook up the battery, and check to see if the problem is resolved. If it is, then there was a problem within the bulb sockets and bulbs themselves. If the problem persists, then hook a long length of 14 gauge insulated copper wire to the negative battery terminal, and with the other end of the wire with the end bare, touch it to each of the housings, rubbing it on the flat surface to get a good clean contact. Do this until you find which socket is giving you the poor ground problem. Once you figure out which lamp housing it is, then it is easier to fix. The alternative is to go around the car cleaning all the lamp sockets and lamp housing grounds, and hope that you fix it. Better to know where the problem is, and work on just the problem light. I have seen people take the lights apart a couple of times, and never fix the problem, because they never identified where the problem was located.
 
Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

The signal lights are now working just like new :D

I think the problem was two folds.

1. The connection pins in the socket were loose and may have been touching together. I replaced the socket with a new one

2. Ground. There are two screws holding the signal light assembly to the sheet metal, and one of them was gone leaving only 1/2 of the assembly connected to the car itself. Also, there was rust everywhere, so there was no good ground. Took the old sandpaper to everything et voila!

I guess, so far, 90% of my electrical problems were caused by bad grounds. A good rule of thumb is check the grounds first.
 
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