okay after hours of searching I'm starting a new thread. my problem is that when I activate turn signals or hazard, the volt gauge ticks back and forth with the flasher. Also when I have head light switch to on it's about a 1 volt drain on battery. I am going through and checking all my grounds, I have made sure the voltage is steady at both turn and hazard flashers before the turn switch. One of the main questions I have is there is a black wire in the connector for the turn/hazard switch that is not listed in chilton or similar wring diagrams. this diagram only shows PPL=L BRN=K White=P LT BLUE=H DK BLUE=J YEL=M DK GRN=N but I have 10 wires total and the one BLK=G is that a ground wire? I tested it to ground and got 47 ohms which would be bad if it is. and that's the harness side not to the switch, black wire on switch side open to ground. I tried a jumper from switch side black wire to good ground and did same thing. Does anyone have a service manual diagram for the turn hazard switch that includes the other 3 wires ( BLK, TAN, and LT GR) and what's considered a "normal" drain with parking lights on volts-wise? thanks in advance

 

Have you had the battery and alternator tested? Free in-the-car test at Advance/Autozone/Oreilly/whatever.

It should be normal, on a fairly accurate well working guage, to see a slight voltage drop when lights and/or signals are on - maybe your guage is just working well and showing the sensitivity that it should.

 

well I have a black and decker battery charger that also tests the alternator but no have not taken them down to be tested yet. I plan on getting a new battery but want to figure this out before that, I have replaced both in the past and the problem will go away for a little then same ol thing. I am running the charger on the battery while testing around for voltage so i don't drain the battery with lights running, etc. so at 12 amps charging the bat voltage is at 14.5, when i kick on just parking lights drops to 13.3 and holds, same when turn signals and hazard go. by comparison when i click ignition to on position and pump primes it barely goes down to 13.9. testing around I have super low volts on "INST LPS" fuse. with parking lights on only it reads 11.8 both sides. pull the fuse and see 13.3 on one side. I just replaced the remote dimmer transistor to see if that was it. same stuff. so I'm guessing some light in the INST LPS circuit is causing problems? any service manual schematics of these circuits would help alot and be very appreciated

 

can some one please measure the voltage they get on the INST LPS fuse with parking lights on I would really appreciate it! do you get full battery voltage or some drop, and how much?

 

just in case anybody reads this thing I replaced my battery and both cables, had my alt tested by o'reilly and replaced my fusible link wires at the starter. I also cut the terminal off the wire going from bat to alt and soldered a new one on. After all that my voltage gauge shows over 13 no matter if lights on and hitting brake or anything. with all lights off reads 14 so maybe was just the battery but all those things could have affected it overall. I did also find a few bad bulbs in my gauge instrument cluster. just things to check or replace if you have the same problem some time.

 

I have this issue exactly with my car. Its got 18k miles on it and a few months back, I noticed the gauge toggling with the turn signal about 1V. My alternator recently went out and was replaced, but the issues still seem to be there. Tonight, I turned on the headlights, AC on high, hazard lights and put the car in gear with brakes on. The voltage went from about 14V on the gauge to about 10V. If I turn everything off, the gauge went back to slightly over 13V. I put a Volt meter directly across the battery and it never dropped below 12.5V but was reading 14V at idle. Could I have a bad battery? Bad wires? Bad Gauge?

 

ok well I spoke a little too soon, not long after I think the problem was gone for good there it is but it seems to do it alot less often and not nearly as bad as before like what scott is describing. my guess is if you got the 105 amp alternator replacement like i did that it's not enough with all the lights on and the fan, etc. when i have the money i'll try getting the better aftermarket alt i've read about on here something like 145 amps bet that will solve it as a wierd twist my headlights randomly go out within 2-3 min of driving, if i turn switch off and on again they come back on and stay on. I do have the headlight doors module disconnected right now so maybe that is effecting it I'll have to plug it back in and see if there is any change.

 

Just an update to my issue....I removed the gauge from the dash and installed a VOM to the prongs. With the same test I mentioned before, the voltage barely dropped. I found a like new gauge on ebay for less than $20 delivered and installed it. My voltage has not dropped below 13V since and the turn signals do not affect it at all.

My recommendation is to replace the gauge and see what happens. It might be that simple.