Just wondering if my blinker is dead... it takes a lonnnnng time for that blinker to work when I'm at a stoplight (auto trans, so the car's in gear). At last check a week ago, the new alternator is charging fine, the battery's 3 years old and still holding charge, etc... lights don't dim with the blinker, etc. I've got over 230,000 miles on the car, and always use my blinker... could the thing just be worn out, or should I look elsewhere? Is this a sign of a bad blinker unit (slow blinking)? And yeah, all my lights are good, no bulb is burned out.

 

Either the EM coil inside starts to get weak, or the metal tab inside breaks off from being bent and unbent so many times. I've always just replaced it with whatever it was supposed to be replaced with, but some people have mentioned that you can get a different type that is more electrical than mechanical so it isn't effected by low voltage at idle (or something along those lines).

My convertable has the opposite problem, lol. I think it blinks too fast.

 

mine blinks slow too, not slow enough to cause any problems, i just wish i would blink a little faster, like modern cars, perhaps to also make it a little safer, is there anyway to get one the blinks faster

 

Electrical, eh? I think I'll go search the 'net for that. But I don't know if my problem is a "low voltage problem", with a voltmeter on the battery w/engine idling, I get 13.8ish volts. Or, haha, maybe it's time to replace the battery cables! I haven't replaced 'em yet. I wonder if I can get new "factory style" ones from GM.

 

I just cant resist....

Did you make sure your blinker fluid reservoir is full?

 

Dammit! Thanks for reminding me. It's been a while. I was waiting another 5000 miles, because that's when I change the air in my tires, but I'll go out and check it.

Seriously, nobody else has an idea? Hell, I'll just go pick up a regular blinker module and give it a shot.

 

Autozone has the electrical as well as the thermal ones.....just have the guy look up the part and ask for the electrical one instead..............not a big issue

 

mine went bad. It was rather slow when i bought my car but i had nothing to caompare it to so i didnt know. It cut out twice but came back. One night it went out and stayed out. It was replaced and the new one is much faster. So you can wear it out. This was at 130k

 

Great, thanks for the info, lunas! That's just what I wanted to see! Now that you mentioned it, mine's died once or twice too the blinkers were lit, but not blinking. And Slow89, thanks, I'll go check out that electrical one, if the manual one fixes my problem. Seems like a better idea.

 

electrical one is nice because it doesn't use the current flow(heat) to kick it on and off. The electrical one will blink at the same rate regardless of burned out bulbs or wrong bulbs--I suppose that could be bad. Thermal ones need to have all the bulbs working and the correct bulbs as well.

 

Well; an update: It worked! I picked up a blinker can at Pep Boys for $3, and man, the blinker is fast as hell now! (It's almost too fast... I don't like it.) But at least now, I don't get the feeling that my battery is almost dead, with that damned slow blinking.

Two gripes I have with the module I picked up.. can't remember the damn name of it. 1st, it has no "bulb out" sense. It's not electric, it's a thermal, but it says it will continue to blink even a bulb burns out. 2nd, with my old blinker, as soon as I tapped the stick to make a lane change, the blinker would blink. This thing doesn't do an immediate flash of the bulb- it pauses for about a second- and I wind up making a lane change without my blinker going on.

I've gotta try to hunt down the original Wagner Blue module, I guess. But if anyone's got a slow blinker and a lot of miles on the car, YES, change the blinker can!

Thanks!