Turn Signal Flasher Trick

[Malacca]

If you have a bad flasher you don't necessarily have to buy a new one.

 

First, Google removing the flasher for your particular vehicle. Often you have to take a bit of dash trim off, etc.

 

Remove the flasher and get a thin screw driver or two and pop the top off.

 

Once inside you will see the physical relay that makes contact. Borrow wife's fingernail file - or use some fine sandpaper - and run it through the contacts. Most likely it will do the trick and you don't have to pay $$$ for a cheap generic one (that won't last that long anyway). Or big $$ for an AC Delco one.

 

 

My Turn Signal Hell Story:

 

We wanted out of the cold and decided to move to SoCal (kind of on a whim). So I went out and bought a new 6 X 10 cargo trailer. Packed it full to the brim and headed out of the frozen tundra in my 2004 Suburban.

 

Got on the road and did a turn signal check - right turn signal and brake light wasn't working on trailer. Shit - a brand new trailer. I figured trailer wiring was bad. I played with it for a while - freezing my tush off in Iowa somewhere - and it worked again. Wahoooo.

 

Next stop and checked it and it was not working again. I played with the wires and sometimes it would work and sometimes not. Couldn't get any correlation. Anyway, got to our WARM destination. Parked trailer. Forgot about it.

 

A month later turn signal on Suburban stopped working. Googled on how to replace and bought a new flasher.

 

Pulled apart dash and pulled out old flasher. Had an epiphany. Remembered back to fixing contact on washing machine turn dial thingy with a fingernail file.

 

So I pulled apart the flasher and sure enough could see the contacts. Got some fine sandpaper (wife doesn't use finger nail files) and ran it through the relay contacts in flasher. Put it back in and - wallah - it works like new.

 

So don't waste you dough on a new one - especially a cheap generic one as they don't last very long.

 

I have done this trick several times on friends' vehicles. So far only tried GM trucks. YMMV on others.

 

I am new to the forum and this is all I can contribute at this time.

 

Malacca