Funny (not Ha-Ha!) Turn Signals

[Ed-Mc]

Any idea why the Left side would blink a lot faster than the Right side?

The Right signal blinks at a normal rate and you can see the lights just fine in daytime.

The Left blinks at a frantic rate and the front signal doesn't stay on long enough for good visibility. Both front and back bulbs blink, as does the left side marker.

I even swapped-out the front bulbs, no difference.

I checked the shop manual and there's no troubleshooting for a too-fast signal. I see in the diagram that the blinkers tie off of a common line on the solid-state signal relay, so I don't see how the relay could be bad.

Maybe a wrong or failing bulb at the back? The back one is bright enough even though it's flashing too fast.

Haven't got to the back bulbs yet, I'll pull the lenses tomorrow and check bulb numbers & condition of the socket.

Never seen anything like this, except when a bulb is burnt out.

BTW I put the rig on the road yesterday and she's running like a champ. The A/C is so cold it'll freeze you out! Drives nice n' straight and the engine will run right to redline if need be. Pretty good for 220,000 miles!

No sign of water in the oil, I guess my cyl head core plugs are holding!

Cheers..........ed

[fixkick]

the blinker module is electronic and does by design, change flash rates, to worn the driver. (both ways, dead lamps or overloaded)
in fact the same module runs bothe sides, one or the other, so if its ok on one side, it/s ok both.
so why does it blink too fast, easy answer, that side is drawing too much current.
1: wrong blubs. wrong number on side of lamp....
2: shorted bulbs , yes, the brass base bulbs love to short inside, if twisted to hard or are cheap china lamps with weak glue inside.
3: short wires, to lamps
4: brake wire shorted to blink wire.
but that would make all brake lamps glow, with blinkers on, all flash or be dim doing it.

cool a nice running car at 220k super good.

[Ed-Mc]

AHA! I like problems #1 and #2, hopefully it's something like that and not #3 and #4, I'm not too excited about those problems!!

Thanks, I'll post back when I get it figured out.........ed

[fixkick]

replaced both rear lamps. and cross fingers.. seen many a shorted lamp. or wrong ones.
1157? are front
jap cars use candle power and watts.
not numbers so are tricky to matchup..
lets see of the gm operators guide (tracker) lists them.... as it should. GMs upgrade..

the rear is. 1156
page 298 in your operators guide GM.

http://ge.tt/7mBOwT91/v/0?c

[Ed-Mc]

Thanks for the link!

[Ed-Mc]

Well, I swapped the rear bulbs and the left side still blinks fast! Right side blinks OK with the Left bulb.

I ordered 2 new 1156 bulbs and my daughter will pick them up at work (pretty handy when your daughter works at Wal-Mart!).

Then, we'll see!

Meanwhile, the battery is going flat at low rpm with a big load (A/C and lights), when you rev it up the voltage stays under 13 and then BAM goes up over 14V.

With no electrical load, battery voltage is over 14V. Methinks the voltage regulator is going screwy! New alt is on order.

[fixkick]

these bulbs are the most common made.
first makes sure all bulbs are correct and not LED ungrades. real bulbs.
left front
and left rear
them make sure no trailer hitch wiring hacks, seen anywhere rear, but for sure behind the left rear tail light, there is a trailer connector there... lense pulled gander in to pit of body.
The blanking wrong is due to wrong current flow on the left side.
The emergency flashers, turn them on, do all 4 work the same. same speed sure, but same flash brightness. (look carefully for a weak lamp)
in the worst case all left side wiring for the flash and all connectors need to be checked, (for bad connections). it runs down left side of car this harness.

btw 13.3v to 15v is normal alt outputs , 13.3v is perfect float voltage...
when the alternator dies, it goes to 12.6v and drops till dead.
Is the charge lamp on, key on? it must be, then goes out running? and engine rpm never drops below 800 hot engine coolant?

the regulator senses voltage at the dash, ignition switch if the voltage there is weak, then the alt will go to 14.7v like a shot.(normal for this fail mode)
so if , say you have corrosion under the right front fender fuse box.. bingo.
http://www.fixkick.com/fuse-box1-failure2.jpg
low dash voltage results and the alt. cranks on the juice. (to correct this failure, (huge voltage drop in the wiring,)
even corroded battery terminals.?
this is all normal for bad wiring... Id hate to see you get a new alt for nothing.

---

this is 10 years older but is same operational.
the sense line works just like this... and must be perfect connections end to end there.
top fails are green on the 2 fuses pins
or the big wire on case of alternator, is bad, corroded,
or alternator is not grounded, right,
or starter cable ground loose or wrong, that is , not mounted to the starter mount bolt. (seen one car with that major ground moved, and it would never work right)

[Ed-Mc]

DRL's do work normally. The "charge" lamp is not lit.

Guess I'll do a little more poking around. BTW this rig was towed and there is a trailering wire strung from front to rear, maybe there's something going on with that, Hmmmm......? Could be that one of the pesky wires has rubbed its way to grounding.

More wire checks are in order! I'll poke around the fuse box to make sure there's nothing screwy going on there. All the electrical stuff I've seen so far has been very clean, though.

We are fortunate up here in the Pacific NorthWest that we are not in a Rust Zone. Nothing rots away, the Tracker has no rot in it at all, still nice black paint on the undercarriage, suspension, etc.

Cheers.........ed

[fixkick]

the charge lamp must glow key on. if not its burned out, or alt is bad. (a bad lamp can cause the alternator to not self start, (boot strap) 1/2 the time... a private H3LL that.


after starting the engine, the charge lamp , then goes out.
before and after, both count,,,,
hummmmmm , wiring hacks , i wonder......


what about the hazards, this is one more key fact , to the cause, what it does.

[Ed-Mc]

Charge light is "on" with ign switch turned "on". Start up engine and the charge light goes out, as it's supposed to.

Emerg. flashers flash normally at all corners except Left Front, which flashes dimly.

Here's where things start to get weird:

1) All side marker lights lite-up like they're supposed to with headlights.

2) Right Front turn signal is bright like it's supposed to be, and the Right-Front side marker light doesn't flash.

3) Left Front turn signal light is dim and flashing fast; obviously the problem stems from that corner since the rear light, although it's flashing fast, is as bright as the Right. I have already swapped 1157 bulbs in the front.

4) The Left Front side marker light flashes with the turn signal.

Now, are the front side marker lights supposed to flash or not? 'Cause either the Right one is wrong, or the Left is wrong!

Crazy, eh???

p.s. it looks like they just ran trailer wiring front-to-back, so they could run a set of add-on lights at the rear. Doesn't look like the extra wiring is connected to anything. So much for that idea!