Hello -

My 87 T/A's blinkers are intermittent, sometimes short, sometimes long and even sometimes brighter. I've replaced all the bulbs and they all work but for some reason the blinking is so sporadic. Any ideas, thanks!

TucsonTransAm

 

How do they work with the hazzard flasher switch enabled? If they work ok, then you turn signal flasher unit is probably going bad. You can find the turn signal flasher unit in a C clamp mounted above the convience center under the dash. The convience center is located above the driver's right knee. You will have to remove the hush panel if you have one.

You can get a replacment flasher at any of the auto parts stores for a few $$.

Let us know how you resolve this problem.

Dave

 

Hazard lights work perfectly.

I found and replaced the flasher but am still having the same issue...any thoughts? Thanks for your help.

 

I wonder if you have an intermintent or bad contact in your ignition switch. The turn signal flasher gets power from the Turn/BU fuse, which is hot in run, start and bulb test. The run, start and bulb test are a switch contact in the ignition switch. The contact could be corroded, or worn out so that it is not making good electrical contact. The power to the turn signal flasher is the only portion of the circuit the hazard flasher and the turn signal wiring that is different. The hazard flasher gets its power from a different fuse that is hot all the time. So you need to look for a problem in that area. The wiring from the turn signal flasher back to the fuse could also be bad. That wire, Dark Blue is spliced some here near the convience center, the other wire from the splice going to the back up light circuit. So trace and inspect that wire first, espically at the splice point. If the wiring is good back to the fuse block, them I would suspect the iginition switch as the source of your problem.

Dave

 

What is entailed in doing that - do I need to pull the steering wheel? I went through all my bulbs again tonight to make sure the connectors/wires were OK - everything checked out. To verify should I replace my flasher again?

Thanks!

 

I had a very similar problem develop on my '86 Bird. During the day, my left turn signal would work OK, but my right would blink a little slower. If I put my marker lights on it would get worse. If I used my headlights, all kinds of weird things would happen. Some days the right side would blink so slowly that I had to manually turn it on and off. Other times it would go really fast, then ultra slow, and back to fast. Initially, I too thought it was a short in the column. The last straw was when I was coming home from Vermont on I-91 South & got pulled over by a VT Trooper for not signaling. I explained to the trooper that I had signalled and that my marker had acted up. He said that all of my taillights were blinking as I changed lanes. He thought I was OUI & tapping the brakes. I turned the signal on to see what he meant and my God!, all the tail lights were blinking bright to dim. He told me to get it fixed & take it slow. I limped her home & spent the next day going from harness to harness searching for any cut and broken wires. I found a broken wire on the passenger side front turn signal. I cut off the old broken wire leads and spliced in a new section....I tested it and the problem was still there! I realized that it must be in the tail light harness, so I checked the harness from end to end and found nothing wong. I then had a friend of mine, who is an electronics wiz, look at the problem. He traced the issue back to the rear tail lights, I was both angry & confused. We checked the entire harness and each light bulb and still found nothing wrong!...........WTF?!?!? A few weeks later, I took the car out to run down and then refill the gas tank for the winter. As I was coming back, I drove into a wicked late year thunderstorm. Needed my lights, so on they went and suprisingly the marker lights worked fine! Huh? When I got back, I tore out the tail lights and began to look for the short. I found it quick too. I heard a sizzlin/ fizzing sound coming from inside a factory taped portion of the harness and when I touched it it was hot as hell! I turned off the car, disconnected the battery, and tore open the harness tape to find that there was a small rubber booted connection inside that part of the harness. I had never noticed it before. The damn thing had come almost all the way apart and with vibration, it had created a nasty short circut that would've burnt my car up had I not found it. That section of harness had heated itself up so much that the rubber insolator on that connection had actually burned a bit.

 

I will check it out, thanks.

What specific harness did you find the issue in? Where was it located?

 

It's the tail lamp harness that exits the inside of the car & out through a grommet on the driver's side of the tail panel. It then runs behind the tail lights themselves.
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Disconnect your battery first, you don't wnt to fry anything else. To get to them, you have to remove your rear inner plastic panels. Then, unscrew each of the special black plastic wingnuts that hold the entire section of tail lights. There is six or eight total, I don't remember. Start with the outside ones first and then work your way towards the middle. The tail lights will want to come out on their own, so be very careful if you've never done this before. Having another person to hold them in will help a lot. Once they are out, you'll see the harness and this is a good time to replace all of the bulbs 'cuz its a real PITA if you gotta do it again later!
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Anyway, I had to pull off all of the black convoluted tubing from the harness to find this connection. Mine was almost dead center, between both sides. If you run your hand gently down the wiring harness squeezing it a little, you'll feel it as a large bump inside the factory tape. Peel it back gently and you'll get to it. Just try to save the factory tape if you can, if not some electrical tape will work. Just make sure you wrap it back up tight so water doesn't get in. Check out this connection for corrosion too. If it is, take some electronic cleaner and some sandpaper to it.
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Let me know how you make out, Good Luck! .

 

Tuson TransAm

Yes, you have to take the steering wheel apart to replace the ignition switch. This requires a few special tools and some paitence to do. i have never had to take my steering column apart, so I can't be of much help with it.

It sounds like Brother Al had the same problem you are having. But the broken wire, corroded connection or sometimes shorted wire could be almost anywhere in either the front or rear turn signal circuits. Divide and conqueror is the only approach that will work here, and it will be very time consuming if you can't locate the problem wire(s) early on.

It may help to have a friend help. In the end, you may need to check every connection at every connector to make sure the wire is not loose inside the connector. I hope you don't have to go through that process and that you can solve your problem in the area Brother Al is describing.

Good Luck

Dave

 

I assume I will ONLY have to check the wires for the lights?

If there was a short then wouldn't my hazards be screwed up too?

Thanks for the help!

 

TucsonTransAm: It didn't do it unless my headlights were on. The hazards should work fine because that's a different circuit & relay. The other symptoms were a battery that drained after not being run for more than 2-3 weeks, (obvious short somewhere). Another was that my dash lights and headlights would dim in time to the pass side blinkers, with the headlights on of course. I checked every bulb and socket at least 7 or 8 times. I never would have found it if I hadn't gotten lucky. I was looking for cut/damaged wires and open connections. They didn't even use a Weatherpack connector on this. Why? I dunno. Stupid tho 'cuz it gets a lot of water in there and a lot of debris finds its way in there too. My plan was to just replace it with another harness. If you pull that harness apart, youll see that connection. It may or may not be the issue, but its a good place to start. Easier and cheaper too...LOL

 

That reminds me - when I do turn the blinkers on the guage on my instrument panel that measures voltage clicks along with the blinker from about 14-15 to 12-13. I'm not sure if that is normal.

Thanks!

 

Sounds more and more like the same problem I had. Post what you find, I'm working on a new problem of my own. I just got a definative answer of what WS3 means, (history/resto). That leaves me with a mystery posi in my car. Gotta check the date/code stamps.

 

I inspected all the wires from the back to the dash, replaced the flasher again, and inspected the bundle you were talking about. Doesn't seem like anything like you had, everything looked good. I will say that on 1 of the bulb sockets for the right turn signal there was a little rust inside. I cleaned it and replaced the bulb out but still the same issue.

Could a wire to one of the headlights or foglights be causing the issue?

Thanks!

 

That reminds me - when I replaced my rear light bulbs i got bulbs that were longer lasting (i think they were 2057LLs) does the LL make a difference?

Stupid question - are my rear marker lights supposed to blink when i signal, because they don't.

 

Yeah, they are supposed to blink. And No, the Long Life bulbs are fine. I dunno what else to check?

 

Check your grounds. Probably a different situation, but my rear harness ground wasn't hooked up right and it caused all sorts of problems, the ones you mentioned and more. Check all your grounds and make sure they're good and clean.

 

Thanks. When you talk about 'ground' wires do you mean the ones that are screwed to the body of the vehicle or does the ground wire go into each bulb socket?

Also someone mentioned that my rear sidemarker lights are supposed to blink which i use my blinker. They come on when I turn my parking lights on but I'm not sure if they've ever blinked.

Thanks again.

 

Sorry, that woulda been me. You said: "Stupid question - are my rear marker lights supposed to blink when I signal, because they don't." I was thinking tail lights...I'm the dumb one, sorry. No, the rear sides are not supposed to blink. Only the front side markers, front markers, & rear tail lights are supposed to blink.
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Duh, I shoulda thought of that with the ground wires, that's electrical shop 101.
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I think he meant the body ground wires- black wires w/ sheet metal screw. Sometimes they get a little rust between the connection & the body. Just take a little sand paper to those spots where they attatch. You just need to scrape it a little bit on that spot and clean off the "O" connectors on both sides. I doubt that's the problem unless your car has been repainted, sees a lot of humidity, or has some rust issues, but It would definately cause the problem. Also, you can buy electrical contact cleaner at Radio Shack. Spray some into each of the connections, sockets, & onto the grounds. Just make sure your Battery is disconnected when you do this. You don't wanna burn your car down. Keep me posted.

 

[quote=Brother Al;3472537]
I think he meant the body ground wires- black wires w/ sheet metal screw. Sometimes they get a little rust between the connection & the body. Just take a little sand paper to those spots where they attatch.quote]

Yeah, that's what I was referring to. There's no gaurantee that this will solve your problems as it did for me, but it couldn't hurt to try before tearing into something unnecessarily. Anyway, good luck with it, those elctrical mice are certainly a pain......

 

OK, first thanks for all of your help.

Second, this is what I've done so far:
Checked all wires to and from the lights. I found the two spots in the rear of the wire harness where one whire is connected to five wires and covered up in electrical tape. I checked, cleaned and rewired - no fix. I have replaced all the bulbs again just to be sure, no fix. I went through and jiggled every part of the wire i could touch while the blinker was on, there was no change. I checked the ground wires (to the body of the car) in the rear by the hatch release, no issues.

Odd thing happened today. I was troubleshooting (letting the lights blink to see if it was intermittent or consistent - it ended up being intermittent of course). Next thing i know - no blinking, no sounds, nothing. I jiggled wires checked connections, nothing. So i went and pulled the flasher buss fuse and plugged it back in, mysteriously the blinker started up again?! It started slowly then got back to its old intermittency. Does this point to something? Maybe wiring to the flasher buss fuse? I have already replaced it twice to be sure that was't the problem so i know it is good.

Also, my hatch third stop light doesn't work and my fog lights don't work (i.e. bulbs are out). I never mentioned that before, I figured it wouldn't matter much.

Thanks again!
TucsonTransAm