My driver side signal light was first, when I turned on the headlights on the green indicator on dash stayed on. The yellow blinker outside the car was just brighter and stayed on solid when switch was on. When headlights are off no blinker at all now. Day two now the dash lights are flashing when the blinker is switched on but the blinkers are still a solid light not flashing. Day three now right side is not blinking and when I parked it tonight the head lights were off and my foot on the brake the yellow lights for blinkers are coming on and now lights or blinkers are all off. There is a short but I don't know wires. Someone please help me with my blinkonator problem.

 

First thing to do is check all the ground connections. There are many ground connections so a good repair manual would be a good start. Then check the wire connection to the instrument panel, they are copper strips that can get corroded. Also the printed circuit can break causing a open circuit. Bad grounding is usually the issue with most lighting problems.

 

I recently let someone hook up a radio amp and speakers, which means my dash area was removed near radio. But was removed within a couple of days. So might this had near this ground wire. And where are the ground wires for the lights. I guess tracing the lights back might help to find it. How do I know what is a ground? Are the colored like house electric? How many grounds are there and do the all end in the same area? Would they be in the engine area, under the dash, or near the lights?

 

There is a ground wire for the dash. This is why you need a repair manual. There are many grounding spots. One or more is under the dash, one is from the engine block to the firewall, and then there are some for the lights. Ground wires are usually black going to the steel of the car. The reason for a factory repair manual, and you can find them on ebay, is that each model may have different grounding spots.

 

This can happen if your parking lights are not properly grounded. I had the same problem. The power to those lights sought a ground through the dash indicator lamps, illuminating them. In my case, cleaning all the contacts in the sockets for the front park/signal lamps cured it.

 

Not to sound stupid, but I want to do it the right way.. What did you use to clean the contacts with? And was this on the printed circuit board?? Thanks..

 

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It was a while ago, but I'm sure I used an abrasive of some kind, probably emery paper. This was in the actual sockets themselves. As an alternative, you could buy replacement pigtails and just replace them.

 

I'm having this same problem. Whenever I turn on the headlights, the left turn signal stays solidly lit.

I spent a few hours last night working on the system since I also had a problem with no headlights whatsoever (it was a broken dimmer switch).

To clean the corrosion I took a dremel with a wire brush to the wire contacts that plug into the lights as well as the plugs on the lights themselves. After I was done the lights were a bit brighter but they're still not right. Another site had suggested overriding the ground wire yourself and connecting the ground contact straight to the body (for testing purposes only).

 

Good to know, I'll give that a try and see if that fixes it.. Thanks!

 

The socket contacting a separate circuit on the printed circuit is the usual problem. Its easily identifiable if you pop the top dash pad off and wiggle the illuminated bulb with the lights on. The short to voltage should disappear and gauge function will restore.

 

That worked for me.. Thanks for the thought.. I got it to work, but didnt have time to take it apart and clean it the right way.. So that will be next weekends project.. Now on to the fuel pump! Thanks!