[Smudga]

Hi Folks,

Had a few woes going on for a while with my 02 ES Trep with the turn signals. They would work on and off, go solid. Hazards would do the same etc. Yesterday, they stopped working alltogether so, I'm worried about the rozzers nicking me for not signalling now.

I found a few threads on here about the Multifunction Cluster a while back and looked into it but, I'm a little on the fence as nothing else seems to be happening in that area. I did some more thread-searching this morning and saw a few mentions about relays n stuff too. Now, I've already checked the fuses and they are fine but, I'll be buggered if I can locate the relay for the turn signal/hazards or whichever group it covers. If I do need to spring for an MFC then so be it but, a new relay would be a little easier to swallow.

Cheers as always for any input.

C

 

[Railoffroader2]

The relay is approximately a 2 x 2 inch black square module which is behind the dash just above your brake pedal. It's plugged into a board also containing some dash harness plugs. You'd have to put your driver seat back and contort your body into the foot well and look up.
Taking off the knee bolster under the steering column may make this task easier.

If this is indeed the cause of your trouble, this relay is sold in most auto part stores and online.
There is a Factory Service Manual download link somewhere here on the forums which contains a picture of it.

 

[peva]

Below is a photo that I took of what RoR2 described. I've never had to remove mine, but people say that it is difficult to remove it, but there is a latch you can release with a screwdriver to get it out without much trouble. Before that became well known here, people would just abandon the old flasher in place, plug the connector into the new one, and zip tie it to a wire harness or duct. Either way will work.

I believe that there are certain aftermarket brands and part numbers of supposedly the right type (5 pinners) that don't work correctly in our cars (they blow a fuse when the hazards are used) - perhaps someone who knows the details on that can post that info. Otherwise you can go with the OEM part.

The only black connector-looking thing in the photo is the flasher (for reference, the white thing to the right is the brake switch with it's plunger aimed at a little bracket on the brake pedal arm - pedal is below the bottom of the photo, and you can see the steering column shaft with u-joint further to the right, near top of photo is the air duct, and at very top of photo is the DLC connector):

 

[95intrepid99kid]

My '95 ES had the same problem, we cleaned and tightened the battery cables, and now they work 100% fine. I can give you the whole story if you would like.

 

[peva]

The battery connections were so bad that the turns would not work, yet the car would otherwise start and run? Yes - I would like to hear about that.

AND SMUDGA - what's a "rozzer"? I mean - I assume it's police. I've just never heard that word before.

 

[95intrepid99kid]

I decided that Robin's battery cables were too disgusting to bare, so I convinced my dad to let me clean them, so he went out and got battery cleaner and brushes. He got back, and helped me clean the terminals. I rinsed the excess garbage off, let it dry, then hopped in to reset the clock, radio presets, and Compass Variance, and in exiting the vehicle, I bumped the turn signal lever, and instead of getting the soft "tick-tock-tick-tock" of the flasher relay, I got this loud BUZZ! and believe me, I almost passed out it was so unexpected. I freaked out and raced to tell my dad in a Purple P.A.N.I.C and the came and the car started fine, and all of the lights worked fine, after he shut it down, the flashers died again, eventually, they would not work at all, so I tried the hazards, which got a buzz, (no lights would come on during either buzz.) So we parked the car in her usual degrading spot @ the bottom of the driveway, and then my dad went on the internet to figure out WTH was going on. (I repeatedly suggested putting up a thread on here, yet he said absolutely no.) I forget where we found that cleaning the battery cables would fix it, but it did work, and we haven't had a flasher-related problem since, although the battery terminals need another cleaning, I think we will make sure to perform the procedure again before I am allowed to reprogram everything.

 

[peva]

I'm just going to bluntly say that nothing in your story leads to the conclusion at all that cleaning the battery terminals did anything to fix the turn signals (at least while other things were working fine). Whenever things were bad enough that that would have done it, there would also have been other issues (such as the starter not getting enough power to strat the engine).

BTW - to keep from having to mess with the battery terminals, besides chemically cleaning the posts and cable clamps with water and baking soda, get one of those battery terminal cleaning tools at the parts store and use that on the posts and inside of the terminal to get them down to nothing but shiny metal, then coat all the surfaces, outer and mating, with a light coat of axle grease, then re-assemble. You won't have to touch them again for *years* (unless your battery goes bad or something).

 

[95intrepid99kid]

I believe that the touchy connection is the cause, I also had to reset the radio and OTIS 3-4 times before the problem was fixed, and I won't bother with the axle grease, because the battery has been in the car, literally since the day I was born, (installed 1hr before I was born 13 years ago) so I think that poor battery is about ready to lay down and die.

 

[peva]

Let's just say that if the battery connection was that bad, there would be other worse symptoms. The OP here is not saying anything about other problems - safe to say he does not have a bad battery connection causing his turns to act up.

 

[95intrepid99kid]

I believe we are what you call threadjackers. :hijack:

 

[Avenger]

The centre pin on some of the relays causes the hazards to blow a fuse when they're used. I cut mine off, and the hazards still work when the key is in the on position. Other than that, no big disadvantage to cutting the centre pin off if you buy an aftermarket relay and it blows fuses..

 

[Adpros]

1st gens are if I remember correctly have an accessory wire that runs to the battery terminal. If this corrodes it will affect the turn signals. Same as an RS minivan and I believe some late NS minivans.

The OP seems to have gotten the correct info from the first few posts about the turn signal relay/flasher unit near the brake pedal. What I didn't see was if anyone has priced one of these lately. I had to buy one last year, (OEM) and it was about $45 bucks! These things ain't cheap from the dealer so, I'd be interested to see what aftermarket suppliers are charging.

 

[Smudga]

Thanks for all the responses folks, and the great pic PEVA. I'm gonna get under the dash tomorrow to try and get it sorted.....too bloody hot today at 104 degrees and rising!!

You're right btw PEVA, Rozzers are the police, same slang as the Fuzz it would be. I'm from England originally so, I sometimes slip my little terms in here and there. This one's not a derogatory one by any means though.

Cheers all!

 

[DrDodge]

dont get it from AZ its wrong,, cheep, but wrong, go oe

 

[DrDodge]

so many second gens in the yards go grab one