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10K views 44 replies 19 participants last post by  JimD 
#1 ·
My turn signals seem to be blinking at two speeds, when I hit it to the right it blinks fast, very fast. The left side seems to be blinking at normal speed. Any ideas?

Thanks
 
#27 · (Edited)
Ok Boys & Girls.
I replaced the socket today with one from a junkyard.
(Dealer wanted $35.00!)
It was pretty easy. The Nappa guy told me how to use the butt connectors. My husband left me with me wire strippers & a crimping tool.
I'm sure I did everything correctly.

But sadly, I got the same result. It's still frigged up. (Though the dash hasn't flashed on & off in a while when driving)
But another thing I noticed now, because it was dark out I think, When the car is in park, headlights off, I step on the brake pedal, the dash panel lights up.

The old socket I replaced was getting darker & all the grease inside had now melted away.
I even made sure to replace the grease in the 'new' socket with the same stuff.

I don't know the first thing about looking for a bad ground. Though, after reading your post, Stoneage Caddy, I'm very afraid of something terrible happening.
(Like losing all my lights!)

I really had hoped this would be an easy fix.........Guess not.
 
#28 ·
if you feeling froggy i would take everything out of the trunk , even the carpet and all the plastic trim......then look around for a wire that isnt connected to anything...

from what your saying im thinking it could just be a ground , the hardest part is finding it as on my deville there are 3 chassis grounds in the trunk alone ......

Also you may want to make sure that a bulb is not in backwards , the bulb will have 2 posts one on each of the sides of the bulb's metal base, one will be a bit higher than the other on the bulb's metal base. These correspond with the socket on the car , one slot will be a bit higher than the other ....putting it in backwards would cause it to charge the park/head lamp circuits when you push the brake pedal.... so id pull all the bulbs out again and check them ....you never know ....i do that all the time as for some reason on these cars its pretty easy to get them in wrong
 
#29 ·
Thanks for the tips, Stone-age.......
(Now, how to get my daughter to empty the trunk)
I see one ground (black) wire. Will follow it & look for the rest. Also, the bulbs. I hadn't noticed any difference. I take them in & out constantly. Maybe I just get unlucky every time putting them back wrong? Also, this whole thing just started happening all by itself one day. (But I've fiddling w/the bulbs constantly since)
 
#30 ·
It happend to me all at once too , problem was it happend right after i got the car back from having a new transmission put in (not cheap) . When i got home the car had lights , then all at once they acted funny , sometime when i shut a door they would all go out in the back , flipt he turn signal and it would stay "on" and never flash.....

By luck i sat on the trunk ledge pouting and thinking of causeing harm to the tranny guy. All the sudden everything came back , took the panel off and found the little wire had somehow sperated itself from the connector (connector attaches to the body with a 10mm nut). I also have alot of stuff in there , namely a big heavy tool box that floats around in there to work on my Pocketbike (see avatar). I think it slid and hit just right to break the wire.
 
#31 ·
I'm so glad you told me this story Stoneage. (And mentioned your heavy toolbox)

I read it to my daughter last night. Interestingly enough, she tells in the past month, she's been throwing her 30Lb book bag in thr trunk whereas she used to toss it in the back seat! This thing with the turn signal started about the same time she started doing this.

So, when she gets home today, we'll both go out & look it all over.
I hope we find a simple fix, here.
Just hope I don't have to go through what you did drilling holes & making grounds w/paperclips.....LOL! (I'm not smart enough to know how to do this) Glad it worked out for you.

I'll post what we find, whatever it may be.
And thank you so much for your input, sir.
 
#33 ·
Well....Stoneage...
We stripped down the whole trunk. Not even sure what I'm looking for, but I don't see a dis-connected wire anywhere. I don't see a ground below the pull down motor.
I have the factory manual, from what I gather (though I don't understand electrical diagrams) it seems all the wires for the left side, bundle into one bunch then travel (inside the body, under the pull-down) over to the right side, where the emerge again going behind the jack stand. This is bolted down. Don't have nut driver to remove it ...I suspect it's a waste of time. There's a smaller bundle going to the 'pull down' all taped up. They look OK. But should I unwrap anything to look at them? The trunk pull down motor works perfectly. (Forgive my ignorance, but I really AM dumb!)

What's the little black wire that goes into a clear plastic tube-like thingie in the back of the tail light unit do? It's thin, and wanders off towards the left side door area & disappears into a hole? I thought this was a ground wire. I pulled it out & it has a small bare metal spot which looks like it's supposed to be there, against the body, so I put it back in place.

Another thought:
I forgot my husband replaced a burnt out back up light. But the turn signal stuck once, B/4 he did that, then it worked again for awhile. ...We thought it was moisture (But all's dry in there)
The back-ups work fine. However, in the book it appears to all be tied in. I don't even have a nut driver to remove the Lic.Plate to examine these bulbs, you mentioned earlier can easily get plugged in wrong. Could this be another cause for all these problems?

I wish the F/M book just showed an outline of the car pinpointing exactly where the grounds are ....a "Manual for dummies" LOL

Thanks for all your help & patience w/me Stoneage. I'm so lost now!
 
#34 ·
well the ground wire will look like a single wire that ends in a spot where it bolts to the car ...if you dont see any wires that are hanging with no place to go then ive probabaly lead you down the wrong road ...felt pretty certain when you said she carried alot of stuff back there ......I wouldnt untape any wire to look at them , if they look like they havent gottne pinched or anything id leave them alone...youll be looking for ground G402 , ill post a pic here in a second .....

First we should make sure that we have a gound problem , remove the bulb and socket from the tailight houseing keeping them connected toghter and to the wireing(we want to test them) . Find some wire laying around and attach one end to a good ground (like the bolt for ground 402) .then turn on the turn signal and touch the other end of the wire to the metal on the bulb , see if that makes the turn signal act normal again. Dont worry about electircal shock , not enough amps or volts here.....

As for the black wire that goes into the tube at the back of the light . Im willing to bet my lunch money that is just the fiber optic wire for the tailighit indicator thats mounted to the top center inside of the rear window....you know, those two little red glowing eyes you see behind you at night ......For a long time i wonered what they were putting in my ciggarettes , just turns out thats the cars way of letting you know what the tailights are up to. This wont be the problem....

I doubt the backuplights have anything to do with it .......

Sounds bad and i hate to ask after all this but perhaps the flasher unit has left you for a beatter place ?

wireing diagram:
 
#35 ·
Great Info! Pictures! Thanks....

I don't have the ground #402 where it shows in the diagram. There's nothing but the fiber optic which I thought was a ground.... and a bunch of plastic knobs. Do they hold on the metal casing? It looks like a hollow cover painted & welded to be part of the body. The wires there aren't exposed at all like in your diagram.

I did find ONE ground for sure on the trunk floor under right speaker area. A little black wire with a clip to a sm. metal post. Can I test w/long wire to this ground as #402 isn't there? (Or accessible) It's far, far away & for something else.

Also, now that you mention the fiber optic, this IS dim or off on the left when looking in the r/view mirror.

Regarding flasher unit being crapped out:
Why would single filament bulb work (albeit w/headlights off) & the correct bulb stick? And could THIS then also cause all the other electrical strangeness? Weird!!

Also, I looked up index for "flashers" in Factory Manual (Original for '88 DeVille) Page 8C-11 which says see figures 1A & 1B (I don't see these. The figs. have diff.#'s!) But says 3 simple steps to remove the replace the flasher located somewhere below the steering column. Sounds an easy fix.
I guess the only way to find out for sure is to replace the flasher. The book doesn't talk about left & right side flashers. Is it all one unit?

I really can't thank you enough, sir, for all the info, help & the time you've given me Mr. Stone-age. (Pardon, my underscore doesn't work)
 
#36 ·
1) No problem

2) The diagram i have should be for seville/sts , you got the plastic cover off that area right ? Should be there ...weird

3)From the sound of what you have found there that should be a ground if it goes to a metal post , that will be just fine to test with .....That one is one of the 3 or 4 grounds in there for other items , 402 is your tailight ground.

4) the dim and off in the rear view is showing you there is a bulb out on that side of the tailights , on deville it only shows what the top 2 bulbs int he fins are up to , on seville i belvive it shows all ....

5) Single Filament works in a way yet the correct bulbs dont? You replaed the bulb socket right ? Sounding alot like a grounding issue , witht he headlamps off it must be finding a way to ground thru the headlamp circuit

6) There i think are two flashers , one of hazzard one for turn ...how does the car act with the hazzard lamps running ?

7) you very welcome , thank you for you patience , these things are hard to troubleshoot over the internet , kinda feel bad we havent found the issue yet ....
 
#37 ·
Yes, socket is replaced, with same results. (Junkyard part...possible it's bad also?)
The hazzards work only w/headlamps off. And only with the 'incorrect' single filament bulb. Also, when left flasher is flashing the dash lights flashes on & off with it.

When the proper double filament is inserted, the brake light's stuck on with NO left turn signal & NO hazzards both sides (even lights off!) But right flasher is fine.

No plastic cover back there. Only carpeting.
The plastic knobs are anchors for the plastic screws that hold the carpeting in place. Everything in the very rear is encased & sealed in metal. Yes, it's strange. How are you supposed to access these areas? There must be a way.
My guess is some of the other grounds you mention are probobly encased in the rear.
(If only I could post a pic for you... but can't)
My daughter took the car so I'll wait to test it to the only ground I found sometime tomorrow.

I guess electrical issues are really a pain in the butt.

I'll post whatever happens.
Thanks again, Stoneage!
 
#40 ·
Damn, seems once i read this thread out of curiousity, I noticed i have the same problem. :eek: I hit the turn signal to go left and noticed it was blinking faster than the right signal. Guess i have to check the connections and sockets per Logan.
 
#44 ·
I have had to change 3 out of the 6 sockets in my 96STS over a five year period.The ground wire on the sockets were the problem every time and I think they just didn't make the wire large enough to handle the heat. My take on the fast flashing has to do with the amount of current needed by all the lights. If you don't have your fog lights on there is enough current to push the volts through the slightly damaged ground wire of the socket in the tail lights. But if you turn on another light the bad ground wire in the socket isn't good enough to handle the diminished voltage and then the light acts like a burnt out bulb.
 
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